The best part of Hillary Clinton’s acceptance speech was how little she was in it.
Clinton knew before she accepted the Democratic presidential nomination on Thursday that she isn’t especially well liked, and that many voters don’t trust her. She knows we know her well, which leaves her little chance to change our minds.
Dressed in white — male nominees have to speak in somber suits — she presented the 2016 race as a fight between light and dark, with her on the light side and Donald Trump on the fear-mongering dark. She had the spotlight, but shared it as widely as she could. Instead of praising herself, she let speakers including her husband and daughter list her accomplishments.
Earlier in the convention, independents and conservatives like Michael Bloomberg and Adm. John Hutson presented Trump as an unacceptable option. Bloomberg said only Clinton was “sane” and “competent.”
But President Obama did the best job of setting up the 2016 race as a contest between one person working on behalf of many good people, and a lone figure out only for himself. He seized on a few words in Donald Trump’s acceptance speech:
I have joined the political arena so that the powerful can no longer beat up on people who cannot defend themselves. Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it.
Obama’s response:
America is already strong. And I promise you, our strength, our greatness, does not depend on Donald Trump. In fact, it doesn’t depend on any one person … We’re not a fragile people. We’re not a frightful people. Our power doesn’t come from some self-declared savior promising that he alone can restore order as long as we do things his way. We don’t look to be ruled.
Clinton followed up on that criticism:
Really? “I alone can fix it?” Isn’t he forgetting: troops on the front lines. Police officers and firefighters who run toward danger. Doctors and nurses who care for us. Teachers who change lives. Entrepreneurs who see possibilities in every problem. Mothers who lost children to violence and are building a movement to keep other kids safe. He’s forgetting every last one of us. Americans don’t say: “I alone can fix it.” We say: “We’ll fix it together.”
Her campaign motto, “Stronger Together,” makes the same case — this isn’t about her, the slogan says, it’s about us. All of us except Trump, of course, whose statements against Muslims and Mexicans have banished him from a shared place in the light.
It isn’t Us Against Them but Us Against Him, because he believes there is a Them.
“Love trumps hate,” Clinton said, borrowing a phrase from the collective anti-Trump forces on social media. It’s the kind of phrase so ubiquitous that no one can claim credit. It’s shared, the way Clinton suggests everything could be. It takes a village.
Campaigns have to tell very broad stories, and borrow from the oldest stories in the world. At the Republican National Convention, Ben Carson made a flimsy case that Clinton embraced Lucifer, the angel driven from heaven because he wanted his own kingdom.
Clinton reshaped that idea: She suggested one group of people bathed in light, united by love, while another would-be ruler tried from the darkness to divide them. One figure, looking for credit for himself.
She tried her best to fade into the white light, a vague apparition in the service of us.
How Hillary Did: Democratic Convention Speeches Ranked From Worst to Best (Videos)
With the Democratic Convention already half over, TheWrap is ranking the speeches so far. There are too many people taking the podium for us to include them all, so we're only evaluating the most memorable.
Howard Dean
His delivery Tuesday was stilted and felt off, until his conclusion, a callback to the speech that helped bury his 2004 presidential run. It's cool that he can joke about it, but disappointing he didn't have a better closer.
Bernie Sanders
The former presidential candidate got almost three minutes of cheers before he spoke, but delivered a long speech that didn't say much new. And he took 10 minutes to clarify that yes, he's still endorsing Hillary Clinton. His speech was just OK.
Elizabeth Warren
The Massachusetts senator is one of the Democrats' most energetic advocates for economic justice, but she was relatively low-key Monday. Warren may have been thrown off by people in the crowd who booed or heckled her for getting behind Clinton. But she did land some punches against Trump, her occasional Twitter antagonist.
Madeleine Albright
The first female Secretary of State, one of Clinton's predecessors in the job, made a passionate argument that Donald Trump has hurt U.S. national policy just by running for president.
Tim Kaine
He did a good job doing the attack-dog thing vice presidential candidates are supposed to do, and spoke a little Spanish, calling Clinton "lista" -- ready.
The comedian and former Sanders supporter said something no politician has had the guts to say when she accused the Bernie-or-Bust crowd of acting "ridiculous." Whether or not you agree, give her points for saying what she believes. The onetime Sanders surrogate made a strong case for switching over to "pretty kick-ass woman" Hillary Clinton.
Cory Booker
The New Jersey senator got the audience fired up by quoting Maya Angelou: "You may write me down in history / With your bitter, twisted lies / You may trod me in the very dirt / But still, like dust, I'll rise."
Bill Clinton
He's had the same issue with Democratic Convention speeches since his first one in 1988: He goes on too long. But his slow, relaxed style is so much a part of his charm. His encomium to his wife and her great advice was lovely -- we could listen to hours about how they first started dating -- but he could have tightened up his long list of her accomplishments. Key line: "She's the best darn changemaker I've ever met in my entire life."
Joe Biden
He walked out to the theme from "Rocky" -- get it? We're in Philly, and he was born in Pennsylvania? -- and then paid tribute to the Rockys of the world. He said blue-collar people may not be respected in Washington, but celebrated people who get up every morning and "put one foot in front of the other." He also started a new anti-Trump chant: "Not a clue. Not a clue."
Michelle Obama
The first lady set the standard for convention speakers with these words: "I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves. And I watch my daughters, two beautiful, intelligent, black young women, playing with their dogs on the White House lawn. And because of Hillary Clinton, my daughters, and all our sons and daughters, now take for granted that a woman can be president of the United States. So, don't let anyone ever tell you that this country isn't great, that somehow we need to make it great again, because this, right now, is the greatest country on Earth."
Hillary Clinton
She was the first presidential nominee in modern history to dress all in white, but she tried to share the spotlight with everyone she could. President Obama set her up Wednesday by portraying Trump as a man who claimed only he could rule. On Thursday, Clinton praised everyone from 9/11 first responders to Obama to Bernie Sanders. "Love trumps hate," she said, and made the case that as the first female presidential nominee, she isn't just in it for herself: "When any barrier in America falls, it clears the way for everyone. After all, when there are no ceilings, the sky's the limit."
President Barack Obama
We know, he said his wife's speech would be better. And Clinton's did the job. But this was one for history. Rejecting the idea that dark forces are hurting America, he said the values of his ancestors -- hard work, honesty and kindness -- are as strong as they've ever been. He said shortcuts and demagogues will never win, and belittled Trump's proposed border wall. "The American dream is something no wall with ever contain," Obama said.
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Clinton, dressed all in white, gives credit to “people who inspired me”
With the Democratic Convention already half over, TheWrap is ranking the speeches so far. There are too many people taking the podium for us to include them all, so we're only evaluating the most memorable.
