US is at a ‘moment of reckoning’: Hillary Clinton
PHILADELPHIA: Confronting a “moment of reckoning,” Hillary Clinton on Friday portrayed herself as a unifier for divided times and a tested, steady hand to lead in a volatile world.
“We are clear-eyed about what our country is up against,” she said accepting the Democratic presidential nomination. “But we are not afraid. We will rise to the challenge, just as we always have.” Clinton was introduced by her daughter, Chelsea, who spoke warmly of her mother as a woman “driven by compassion, by faith, by kindness, a fierce sense of justice, and a heart full of love.”
The first woman to lead a major US political party toward the White House, Clinton was greeted by a crowd of cheering delegates eager to see history made in the November election.
Clinton’s four-day convention began with efforts to shore up liberals who backed Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary and it ended with an outstretched hand to Republicans and independents unnerved by GOP nominee Donald Trump. A parade of military leaders, law enforcement officials and Republicans took the stage ahead of Clinton to endorse her in the general election contest with Trump.
Clinton vows to be president for ‘all Americans’
Becoming the first woman to win the nomination of a major political party, Clinton promised to be a president for “all Americans,” whether they voted for her or not.
Making a bold play for the political center ground in an election year that has seen the hard right and the hard left become louder and more shrill, Clinton vowed to “be a president for Democrats, Republicans, and Independents.”
“For the struggling, the striving and the successful. For those who vote for me and those who don’t. For all Americans.”
Much of Clinton’s address to Democrats gathered in Philadelphia for their party’s convention was focused on perhaps her biggest weakness come November — a tough public image forged over decades of withering political trench warfare.
“Some people just don’t know what to make of me,” she said with a frankness that is unusual in American politics.
“The truth is, through all of these years of public service, the service part has always come easier to me than the public part.”
But addressing her image of putting policy above politics, Clinton was unrepentant.
“It’s true,” she said. “I sweat the details,” be it the amount of lead permissible in drinking water or the cost of prescription drugs.
“It’s not just a detail if it’s your kid, if it’s your family,” she said.
“Great speech. She’s tested. She’s ready. She never quits. That’s why Hillary should be our next @POTUS. (She’ll get the Twitter handle, too)”.
Trump wants ‘us to fear the future’
Hillary Clinton accused Donald Trump of painting a misleadingly dark picture of
American society.
“He wants to divide us from the rest of the world and from each other,” Clinton told the Democratic convention, mocking Trump’s claim that he alone can “fix” the country.
“He’s taken the Republican Party a long way from ‘Morning in America’ to midnight in America. He wants us to fear the future and fear each other.”
“It’s morning in America” was an optimistic line from a famous political ad aired by Ronald Reagan.
Clinton asked whether Trump would stay true to the phrase on the country’s seal — “E Pluribus Unum,” or out of many, we are one.
And her take? “We heard Donald Trump’s answer last week at his convention. He wants to divide us — from the rest of the world, and from each other.”
She said President Franklin Roosevelt’s famous words are the perfect rebuke: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
“We will not ban a religion — we will work with all Americans and our allies to fight and defeat terrorism. We will not build a wall—instead, we will build an economy where everyone who wants a good job can get one,” Hillary said.
Trump is ahead of Clinton in pollsTrump, a 70-year-old New York businessman who has never held political office, is running just ahead of Clinton in a RealClearPolitics average of recent national opinion polls. They both garner high “unpopularity” ratings.
Trump, a former reality TV star, has portrayed the country as being under siege from illegal immigrants, crime and terrorism and as losing influence in the world. He has proposed a temporary ban on Muslims entering the country and a wall along the border with Mexico to keep illegal immigrants out.
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