Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton delivers remarks via video on the second night of the 2016 Democratic National Convention on July 26, 2016, in Philadelphia. (Photo by Paul Morigi/WireImage)
Historic nomination –> Carrie Dann for NBC: “Hillary Clinton is now officially the Democratic presidential nominee, making history as the first woman ever to secure the backing of a major American political party. Clinton was formally nominated on the second evening of the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday, more than nine years after launching her first presidential bid. It was largely an evening of unity after an opening night marked by resistance from die-hard supporters of Democratic runner-up, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.”
The dissent: Tim Murphy writes at Mother Jones that despite Sanders’ call for unanimity in support of Clinton, “Dozens of Bernie Sanders delegates and supporters walked out of the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday night after the party nominated Hillary Clinton for president by acclamation. The delegates streamed out of the Wells Fargo Arena chanting, ‘We are the 99 percent!’ and some moved their protest to the media center across the street before police officers said the tent had reached its capacity. But the protesting delegates comprised a small fraction of the Sanders supporters in the arena, and they diverged both on the reasons for the walkout and how long it might last.”
But: Eric Alterman writes for our site that there is less disunity within the Democratic Party than the media narrative would suggest: “After all, going into the convention, polls showed that 90 percent of Sanders supporters were already on board with Clinton.”
And, also at our site, John Light notes that a segment of Sanders supporters are coalescing around a progressive left agenda with the hope of keeping the movement Bernie inspired going far beyond Election Day.
Auditioning for first first gentleman –> Bill Clinton still “has it,” according to Jill Abramson, former editor of The New York Times. She writes at The Guardian that his speech last night was “written in the style of classic, Southern literature, told by a 69-year-old man whose hands shook and voice quavered. All that made the narrative, about a woman who has fascinated and inspired her husband for 45 years, more riveting…
“The former president’s address drove home the point that his wife is someone who gets things done, who makes a difference. ‘She is still the best darn change-maker I have ever known,’ he testified, giving vivid examples such as establishing the first legal aid clinic in northwest Arkansas and expanding health care to isolated areas of the state. He called her ‘the best mother in the world’ too. Marking the moments in her personal life that shaped her, he portrayed a warmer Hillary.”
But: Though The Atlantic’s Peter Beinart liked Bill Clinton’s speech, he objected to one uncomfortable sentence near the end. “Clinton said something dreadful: ‘If you’re a Muslim and you love America and freedom and you hate terror, stay here and help us win and make a future together, we want you.’ The problem is in the assumption. American Muslims should be viewed exactly the same way other Americans are. If they commit crimes, then they should be prosecuted, just like other Americans. But they should not have to prove that they ‘love America and freedom’ and ‘hate terror’ to ‘stay here.’ Their value as Americans is inherent, not instrumental. Their role as Americans is not to ‘help us win’ the ‘war on terror.’ Whether Clinton meant to or not, he lapsed into Trumpism: the implication that Muslims are a class apart, deserving of special scrutiny and surveillance, guilty of terrorist sympathies until proven innocent.”
Looking forward and looking back –> At Fusion, Collier Meyerson examines the diversity within the Democratic and Republican conventions: “Essentially, we’re being given two distinct version of America: last week we saw its past, and this week we’re seeing its future. The numbers don’t lie either. Hillary Clinton’s campaign told Fusion that 2,887 of this year’s 4,766 DNC delegates are women. Black men and women account for 1,182 delegates (compared to 18 at the RNC) while 292 are Asian-American, 747 are Latinos and 633 are LGBTQ-identified people.”
Is Clinton’s TPP opposition any more than skin-deep? –> Politico: “Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, longtime best friend to the Clintons, said Tuesday that he believes Hillary Clinton will support the TPP trade deal if elected president, with some tweaks… Pressed on whether Clinton would turn around and support the trade deal she opposed during the heat of the primary fight against Bernie Sanders, McAuliffe said: ‘Yes. Listen, she was in support of it. There were specific things in it she wants fixed.'”
John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign manager, rushed to perform damage control after McAuliffe’s remarks. The Hill: “… Podesta publicly disagreed with the governor, tweeting that he had Clinton all wrong when it came to one of the hot-button issues of the presidential campaign. ‘Love Gov. McAuliffe, but he got this one flat wrong. Hillary opposes TPP BEFORE and AFTER the election. Period. Full stop,’ Podesta tweeted on Tuesday.”
The day the music died –> Philip Bump at The Washington Post: “Within hours of their performance at a Donald Trump rally in Pensacola, Fla., last January, the U.S.A. Freedom Kids were a sensation. You remember the video: Three preteen girls in star-spangled outfits crisply working through simple choreography as they lip-synced an upbeat update to ‘Over There.’… Now, though, the relationship is different. Jeff Popick, father of the smallest Freedom Kid and author of ‘Freedom’s Call’ (the song performed at the Trump rally), told The Washington Post by phone on Monday that he planned to file a lawsuit against the campaign for violating its agreement with the group.” Sad.
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