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Hillary Clinton Warns of ‘Moment of Reckoning’ in Speech Accepting Nomination Hillary Clinton Warns of ‘Moment of Reckoning’ in Speech Accepting Nomination
(about 1 hour later)
PHILADELPHIA — Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton, who sacrificed personal ambition for her husband’s political career and then rose to be a Democratic senator and secretary of state, became the first woman to accept a major party’s presidential nomination on Thursday night, a prize that generations of American women have dreamed about for one of their own. PHILADELPHIA — Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton, who sacrificed personal ambition for her husband’s political career and then rose to be a globally influential figure, became the first woman to accept a major party’s presidential nomination on Thursday night, a prize that generations of American women have dreamed about for one of their own.
Declaring that the nation was at “a moment of reckoning,” Mrs. Clinton, 68, urged voters to unite against the divisive policy ideas and combative politics of the Republican nominee, Donald J. Trump. Declaring that the nation was at “a moment of reckoning,” Mrs. Clinton, 68, urged voters to reject the divisive policy ideas and combative politics of the Republican nominee, Donald J. Trump. She offered herself as a steady and patriotic American who would stand up for citizens of all races and creeds and unite the country to persevere against Islamic terrorists, economic troubles, and the chaos of gun violence.
“Powerful forces are threatening to pull us apart, bonds of trust and respect are fraying,” Mrs. Clinton said. “And just as with our founders there are no guarantees. It truly is up to us. We have to decide whether we’re going to work together so we can all rise together.” “Powerful forces are threatening to pull us apart, bonds of trust and respect are fraying,” said Mrs. Clinton, who worked on the speech until the early hours of Thursday morning. . “And just as with our founders there are no guarantees. It truly is up to us. We have to decide whether we all will work together so we all can rise together.”
If elected, Mrs. Clinton would become the 45th president of the United States, as well as the first to be married to a former president, Bill Clinton, the nation’s 42nd. She would be the latest in a long line of Yale graduates and accomplished lawyers to lead the country, but she would also be the first mother and grandmother to be commander in chief, decades after women became heads of state elsewhere. Mrs. Clinton radiated confidence, from her pungent delivery and easy laugh to the unusually expressive ways she shifted her tone and delighted in her own best lines. She smoothly acknowledged her own limitations and trust issues as a public figure and forcefully challenged Mr. Trump over his claims that he alone could fix America’s problems.
Mrs. Clinton chose her daughter, Chelsea, to introduce her, and the 36-year-old Ms. Clinton described how her mother grappled with personal and professional choices that defined generations of women. And after 25 years in a sometimes brutal national spotlight, Mrs. Clinton tried to explain who she is and what drives her — from her Methodist faith to her passion for government policy that could mean all the difference for people.
Then Mrs. Clinton, who has given only a few major speeches in her life, was to deliver her biggest yet. She sketched out a positive portrait of America that stood in sharp contrast with the grimmer vision of Mr. Trump, and of many voters who feel deeply unsettled by terrorism at home and abroad and the growing gap between rich and poor. “I sweat the details of policy,” Mrs. Clinton said. “Because it’s not just a detail if it’s your kid — if it’s your family. It’s a big deal. And it should be a big deal to your president.”
“We are cleareyed about what our country is up against, but we are not afraid,” Mrs. Clinton said. “We will rise to the challenge, just as we always have. It was one of several contrasts she drew with Mr. Trump, who has barely explained how he would carry out his policy goals. And she received help from several Republicans and military veterans who took the convention stage earlier in the evening to warn that Mr. Trump was not fit for the presidency and would take the United States to “a dark place of discord and fear,” as a retired general, John Allen, put it. Democrats in the convention hall broke out into a booming, lengthy chant of “U.S.A., U.S.A.!”
Her convention speech comes 47 years after the young Hillary Rodham wound up on the cover of Life magazine when she used her commencement address at Wellesley College to reckon with that era’s civic unrest and clashes between protesters and police officers. “Fear is always with us, but we just don’t have time for it,” she said. “Not now.” But the most powerful guest speaker of the evening was Khizr Khan, a Muslim American whose son joined the Army after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and was killed during service in Iraq. Mr. Khan, rebuking Mr. Trump for frequently demonizing Muslims as threats to the United States, pulled a copy of the Constitution out of his suit jacket.
Her message to the millions of people watching her speech on television Thursday night was similar, as she planned to implore Americans to look past fear and tumult and to choose harmony over hatred. But this time, Mrs. Clinton was to speak to an audience that is deeply distrustful of her. Some 67 percent of all voters and 74 percent of independents said they do not trust Mrs. Clinton, in the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. “Mr. Trump, have you even read the Constitution?” he said. “You have sacrificed nothing.”
Mrs. Clinton’s mission — to rally Democrats behind her and urge Republicans and independents to consider giving her a chance — came after decades of political controversies and partisan attacks. She carries “chains the Clintons have forged in life, like Jacob Marley in ‘A Christmas Carol,’” said Barbara Perry, director of presidential studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. His words seemed to send a collective shiver through the convention hall, leaving some delegates in tears.
In the past, Mrs. Clinton has given speeches intended to change the country’s mind, to varying degrees of success. After the debacle of her health care effort, in 1995 Mrs. Clinton, against the advice of the West Wing, traveled to Beijing and declared, in a powder pink suit, that “women’s rights are human rights.” Few recent political conventions have had a night gusting with so much history and high emotion. If elected, Mrs. Clinton would become the 45th president of the United States, as well as the first to be married to a former president, Bill Clinton, the nation’s 42nd.
In 2008, after she had lost a brutal nominating battle to Barack Obama, Mrs. Clinton, who had shied away from discussions of gender in that race, declared, as her mother and daughter watched, “Although we were not able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you it’s got about 18 million cracks in it.” She would be the latest in a long line of Yale graduates and accomplished lawyers to lead the country, but she would also be the first mother and grandmother to be commander in chief, decades after women became heads of state elsewhere.
Aides suggested that the convention speech would not end up in that pantheon. “Stark, plain-spoken, but heartfelt,” was how Jennifer Palmieri, the campaign’s communications director, described Mrs. Clinton’s “best voice” during an interview on Thursday after working with the speechwriting team until 4 a.m. Democrats roared with passion and pride as a beaming Mrs. Clinton took the stage after her daughter, Chelsea, introduced her as an American who was inspired by her own mother’s impoverished childhood and had faced personal and professional choices that defined generations of women. The two locked eyes and fell into a long embrace as Mrs. Clinton patted her back. A moment later, Mrs. Clinton waved at Mr. Clinton, and he blew her a kiss.
Nomination acceptance speeches are often the most personal that politicians ever make, a goal that Clinton advisers strived to meet by mining the early abandonment and abuse suffered by Mrs. Clinton’s mother, Dorothy Rodham. Her life provides “the context” and “the values that underpin” Mrs. Clinton’s message on Thursday night, said John D. Podesta, her campaign’s chairman. Then Mrs. Clinton, who has given only a few major political speeches in her life, delivered her biggest yet. She offered a positive portrait of America that felt like a different country than the nation in decline that Mr. Trump often describes and that many voters fear has come to pass after years of terrorism at home and abroad and the growing gap between rich and poor.
While a primary goal of the convention had been to improve Mrs. Clinton’s trust and likability, there had also been an acute awareness that she could not make her own remarks too much about herself and her own story, or voters who already dislike her could further recoil. “He’s betting that the perils of today’s world will blind us to its unlimited promise,” Mrs. Clinton said. “He wants us to fear the future and fear each other. Well, a great Democratic President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, came up with the perfect rebuke to Trump more than 80 years ago, during a much more perilous time: ‘The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.’”
“When she actually tells you a story about her life, there’s an overlay of cynicism,” said Neera Tanden, a longtime policy adviser. Mrs. Clinton, facing a three-month general election campaign against an unpredictable Mr. Trump, who has risen in the polls since his convention speech last week, hoped that her remarks here would not only energize her party, but also help her connect with undecided and independent voters who are skeptical of her candidacy.
Instead, the campaign largely left Mrs. Clinton’s biographical story to her daughter and to a five-minute video produced by the TV writer Shonda Rhimes. She nodded toward the political work she still had to do. Praising her rival for the Democratic nomination, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, she told his mostly liberal supporters — some of whom booed or staged a “silent protest” in the hall, declining to applaud her speech — “I want you to know, I’ve heard you. Your cause is our cause.”
The origin story portrayed in the film largely centered on Mrs. Clinton’s mother, who was born into poverty and neglect on the day the Congress approved the right of women to vote, and went on to raise the woman who could become the first president. And she acknowledged that many voters still do not relate to her after her eight years as first lady, eight as a senator, and four as secretary of state.
About six weeks ago, Mrs. Clinton started sketching down rough notes about what she wanted to say on the eve she accepts her party’s nomination. A month ago, discussions with her top policy adviser, Jake Sullivan, and the speechwriters Dan Schwerin and Megan Rooney, began to shape the speech, with advice from a variety of friends and former speechwriters. “The truth is, through all these years of public service, the ‘service’ part has always come easier to me than the ‘public’ part,” Mrs. Clinton said. “I get it that some people just don’t know what to make of me,” she added before sharing memories of her humble roots and life lessons from church and her mother — particularly, “no one gets through life alone.”
After Mr. Trump accepted the nomination in Cleveland, she told aides she wanted to deliver a speech that would be a “reckoning of which path are we going to go down,” Ms. Palmieri said. Her strategy was to go hard at Mr. Trump, repeatedly drawing contrasts between her positions — which are in the mainstream of Democratic politics — and Mr. Trump’s unorthodox views for a Republican, such as placing tariffs on other nations’ goods and possibly withdrawing from treaties and trade deals.
Reciting a litany of unusual and unlikely ideas that Mr. Trump laid out at the Republican convention, Mrs. Clinton drew huge laugh when she said, “He spoke for 70-odd minutes — and I do mean odd.”
Mrs. Clinton, the rare first lady who, like her idol Eleanor Roosevelt, used the job to influence policy and who went on to be a powerful figure, began her own quest for the White House nearly a decade ago with her first run for the nomination against Barack Obama.
Back then she presented herself as a steely and even hawkish Democrat who held some views — opposing gay marriage, supporting free trade, and championing the rights of gun owners — that she has shifted since her defeat. This time around, she fashioned herself as “a progressive who likes to get things done” — the sort of line-straddling language that makes some liberals dubious of her values and some independents skeptical about her authenticity.
Her convention speech comes 47 years after the young Hillary Rodham wound up in Life magazine when she used her commencement address at Wellesley College to reckon with that era’s civic unrest and clashes between protesters and police officers.
Her message to the millions of people watching her speech on television Thursday night was similar, as she implored Americans to look past fear and tumult and to choose harmony over hatred. But this time, Mrs. Clinton was to speak to an audience that is deeply distrustful of her. Some 67 percent of all voters and 74 percent of independents said they do not trust Mrs. Clinton, in the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.
About six weeks ago, Mrs. Clinton started sketching down rough notes about what she wanted to say on the eve she accepts her party’s nomination. A month ago, discussions with her top policy adviser, Jake Sullivan, and the speechwriters Dan Schwerin and Megan Rooney, began to shape the speech, with advice from a variety of friends and former speechwriters. Mrs. Clinton also sought advice from Mr. Obama’s much-admired former director of speechwriting Jon Favreau.
The speech often electrified the assembled Democrats with its crowd-pleasing lines about Mr. Trump like, “Imagine him in the Oval Office facing a real crisis: A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man we can trust with nuclear weapons.” And the delegates reveled at the end as confetti rained down on Mrs. Clinton and she playfully swatted at the spill of balloons.
For her, though, the greatest exhilaration flowed from the sense that history had been made and that the lives of future generations would be changed forever.
“Standing here as my mother’s daughter, and my daughter’s mother, I’m so happy this day has come,” Mrs. Clinton said. “Happy for grandmothers and little girls and everyone in between. Happy for boys and men, too — because when any barrier falls in America, for anyone, it clears the way for everyone. When there are no ceilings, the sky’s the limit.
“So let’s keep going,” she said, “until every one of the 161 million women and girls across America has the opportunity she deserves.”