Bill Clinton’s tribute to Hillary

Perhaps they missed it, what with all the booing of every voice of reason they encountered Monday in Philadelphia, including that of Sanders, but as the Democratic National Convention opened, polls were showing Trump and Clinton in a dead heat.

Sanders took the floor in a bid to unify the party, drawing deafening cheers and a chorus of “ayes” when he called for Clinton to be “selected as the nominee of the Democratic Party for president of the United States”. Seeking to explain the vastly different perceptions of his wife, Clinton said simply, “One is real, the other is made up”. She meant that she is picked on more, but the rest of us understood it that she can get away with just about anything.

Bill Clinton appears at Democratic National Convention to make the case for his wife’s presidency bid.

If she wins in November, the Clintons would also be the first married couple to each serve as president.

“How does this square up with the things that you heard at the Republican convention?”

More than a few commentators noted that, while these salutes were formulaic in a sense, all included human anecdotes – concrete and specific examples of just how Clinton had helped and how she had maintained consistent contact over the years.

After Vermont delivered its delegate count Tuesday on the second day of the Democratic National Convention, Sanders, the Independent senator from the state and sitting among the delegation, was recognized. Instead, they participated in protests earlier in the evening and walked out of the convention. While Sanders did not show up, their support for him has gone unwavered.

At least three people clambered over perimeter fences and were arrested. But Tuesday night’s roll call vote sealed her nomination without trouble inside the hall and Sanders himself stepped up in the name of unity to ask that her nomination be approved by acclamation.

Two delegates held up a red banner emblazoned “History” in white letters as Clinton’s face showed up on the screen. She added, “The idea that I’m going to be here when the first woman president is nominated is overwhelming”.

One of the most interesting aspects of the speech was when President Clinton discussed Hillary’s political orientation.

“Hillary will make us stronger together”, he concluded. He told how she gave legal aid services to poor people and went undercover to expose a segregationist school in Alabama in the 1970s.

“Your only option is to create a cartoon, a cartoon alternative”.

Democrats are hoping that Obama is uniquely positioned to persuade wary voters that Clinton is right for the job and to vouch for the trustworthiness of a nominee most voters say they still don’t trust. He congratulated the Democratic delegates on choosing “the real one”, and rejecting the cartoon caricature.

She came under relentless attack at the Republican convention in Cleveland, as speakers assailed her over the email controversy and her record as secretary of state and painted her as out of touch with ordinary Americans. Delegates weighed in with repeated chants of “Lock her up”.

“I’m here for my son, Trayvon Martin, who’s in heaven”, said Sybrina Fulton, the mother of the unarmed 17-year old Florida teen who was shot and killed by George Zimmerman. His speech will combine an affirmation of Clinton’s judgment and fortitude with a rebuke of the scare tactics he accuses Trump of deploying.

“In the spring of 1971 I met a girl”, he began, describing her as a fellow law student who caught his eye in part because of her “big blonde hair and big glasses”, noting that she wore “no makeup”.