Hillary Clinton faced a formidable task Thursday night. Not only did the Democratic presidential nominee have the pressure of giving the biggest speech of her political life, but she knew her delivery would be compared to the soaring rhetoric of more accomplished public speakers who came before her at this week’s Democratic National Convention — Barack Obama, the incumbent she is trying to replace; Joe Biden, the vice president who opted not to run against her; and her own husband and former president, Bill Clinton.
Although most of the commentators said her 55-minute acceptance speech did not match the oratory of many of her predecessors to the podium, it didn’t really have to.
What Hillary Clinton needed to deliver was a speech that connected with Americans beyond her female and Democratic base; that countered the widespread perception of her as an aloof, calculating and dishonest politician; that displayed the toughness to handle the nation’s foreign policy challenges, including the scourge of terrorism; and that, foremost, contrasted her experience and temperament to that of her demagogic Republican rival, Donald Trump.
She passed on all counts.
Of course, those who don’t like and don’t trust Clinton won’t have their opinions changed by Thursday’s speech. And some of her proposed policies, including those she was forced to adopt as a result of Bernie Sanders’ stiff challenge from the Democratic left, are impractical or unaffordable. For example, her pitch to provide middle-class families free tuition at in-state colleges and universities sounds nice, but it would become a hugely expensive entitlement that would fuel even faster rises in college tuition.
But the general picture she presented — of a competent, smart and dedicated public servant, of someone who connects with the difficulties faced by everyday Americans — could be persuasive to those stuck in the quandary of not being thrilled by either major party nominee.
Unlike the grim, egotistical and divisive picture that Trump presented at last week’s Republican Convention, Clinton’s message was both realistic and upbeat, was more about “us” than about “me,” and reinforced precisely why one of the greatest anxieties in America today is the prospect of giving Trump — an impulsive, mean-spirited and ruthless businessman — the power to decide the fate of this planet.
“A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man we can trust with nuclear weapons,” Clinton said in one of her best lines of the night.
Clinton has her own trust problems, but she can be trusted not to act in a way that would imperil the world.
