US Democratic Convention: Sanders revolution refuses to die

Sanders supporters were already dismayed that Clinton passed over liberal favorites like U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren of MA to select the more moderate U.S. Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia as her vice presidential running mate.

Democrats attempted to present a contrast to the Republican convention with Night One in Philadelphia.

IL delegates for Bernie Sanders said Tuesday that speeches by prominent Chicagoans at the Democratic National Convention have helped the party unite behind presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

Supporters of Bernie Sanders chanted his name and booed mentions of Hillary Clinton.

“No one can do a better job talking about the things that Hillary has done, the fights she’s taken on”, Hillary’s campaign manager, Robby Mook, told the newspaper on Tuesday.

“In this election, I’m with her”, Obama said.

But slowly, steadily, the speakers seemed to chip away at the outrage, a slog that culminated with Sanders declaring the battles he won to shape the party’s platform before giving a full-throated endorsement of Clinton at the end of the night.

In a show-stealing speech on Monday night, Michelle Obama linked that coming landmark nomination to her own husband’s role as the first black USA president, saying that: “Because of Hillary Clinton, mydaughters and all our sons and daughters now take for granted that a woman can be president of the United States”. At a meeting before the convention began, he was jeered by his own delegates when he urged them to back Clinton and focus on defeating Trump, a man he called a “bully and a demagogue”.

MI delegate Charles Niswander, 28, said he and other Sanders delegates would never line up behind Clinton.

“This is what democracy looks like”, he said.

Trump has encouraged Sanders supporters to join his political revolution. She also noted that the newly leaked Democratic National Committee emails have added to frustration for those who felt the party hierarchy impeded the Vermont senator.

“None of them want her, the people who voted for Bernie”, Niswander said.

The 69-year-old Democratic icon and two-term president remains a powerful force on the national stage, although he is more gaunt and his energy is no longer boundless as it appeared four years ago.