Most who watched former President Bill Clinton deliver a glowing speech praising his wife Hillary on the 2nd night of the Democratic Convention likely learned more about her achievements, dedication and compassion than they had in 25 years of national press coverage. Craven media’s click-bait driven behavior toward Hillary Clinton has been shameful, but try as they might through years of repeating and legitimizing every nonsensical Republican conspiracy theory against her, Secretary Clinton just made history as the first woman to be voted Presidential nominee of a major Party. Husband Bill took the stage to deliver a detailed, affecting tribute to her so that no one, anywhere, can ever against ask, ‘but what has she accomplished?’ The answer is… plenty.
As Joan Walsh put it in her Slate article, Bill Clinton’s love song finally gave Hillary the credit she deserves:
“He dove into the elaborate biography of a woman who spent most of her professional life trying to troubleshoot crazy crap at Yale–New Haven Hospital, at the Children’s Defense Fund in D.C., for children denied equal access to education in Alabama, for voters in Texas and juveniles incarcerated in South Carolina, and for kids trying to access schools in Massachusetts. And then more and more and more. No credit. In a strange way it was a woman’s story, told the way a woman would tell it: long on detail, short on ego. Sure Bill Clinton name-checked half the states in the convention hall. But that was largely because Hillary Clinton upped and traveled to those states long before young women hopped from state to state to effect social and legal change.
…”Hillary is the “best darn change-maker I have ever met in my entire life.” Clinton said.
Clinton also noted that she never stops moving the ball forward, “Because that is “just who she is.”
Why don’t most people understand Hillary’s accomplishments and tireless work to make others lives better? As Clinton made clear, Republicans want you to believe the two-dimensional caricature. Democrats just nominated the real Hillary:
“The real one has done more change-making before she was 30 than most do in a lifetime in office. The other is a cartoon.”
As First Lady Michelle Obama put it in her powerful, moving and heartfelt speech Monday night, Hillary never gives up, never backs down from a fight. One would be hard pressed to answer who made the better case for Hillary — her husband, who, year by year, detailed her efforts, or Michelle Obama, who may have grown closer to or more appreciative of former First Lady Hillary now that she herself has endured the glare, pressure and attacks that go with 7-1/2 years in the White House.
Mrs. Obama and Bill Clinton stand above the rest in giving excellent addresses on behalf of Hillary Clinton, but everyone who has worked with her and spoke of her at the Convention is performing a valuable service for the American people: they are bypassing 25 years of corporate media garbage to share the work and worth of this very real human being, woman, wife, mother, grandmother, advocate and change maker.
I, for one, have been ferklempt for two days.
Mrs. Obama’s words have stayed with me:
“And make no mistake about it, this November when we go to the polls that is what we’re deciding, not Democrat or Republican, not left or right. No, in this election and every election is about who will have the power to shape our children for the next four or eight years of their lives.
And I am here tonight because in this election there is only one person who I trust with that responsibility, only one person who I believe is truly qualified to be president of the United States, and that is our friend Hillary Clinton.
That’s right.
See, I trust Hillary to lead this country because I’ve seen her lifelong devotion to our nation’s children, not just her own daughter, who she has raised to perfection…
…but every child who needs a champion, kids who take the long way to school to avoid the gangs, kids who wonder how they’ll ever afford college, kids whose parents don’t speak a word of English, but dream of a better life, kids who look to us to determine who and what they can be.
You see, Hillary has spent decades doing the relentless, thankless work to actually make a difference in their lives…
…advocating for kids with disabilities as a young lawyer, fighting for children’s health care as first lady, and for quality child care in the Senate.
And when she didn’t win the nomination eight years ago, she didn’t get angry or disillusioned.
Hillary did not pack up and go home, because as a true public servant Hillary knows that this is so much bigger than her own desires and disappointments.
So she proudly stepped up to serve our country once again as secretary of state, traveling the globe to keep our kids safe.
And look, there were plenty of moments when Hillary could have decided that this work was too hard, that the price of public service was too high, that she was tired of being picked apart for how she looks or how she talks or even how she laughs. But here’s the thing. What I admire most about Hillary is that she never buckles under pressure. She never takes the easy way out. And Hillary Clinton has never quit on anything in her life
And when I think about the kind of president that I want for my girls and all our children, that’s what I want.
I want someone with the proven strength to persevere, someone who knows this job and takes it seriously, someone who understands that the issues a president faces are not black and white and cannot be boiled down to 140 characters.
…
Hillary Clinton … has the guts and the grace to keep coming back and putting those cracks in that highest and hardest glass ceiling until she finally breaks through, lifting all of us along with her.
That is the story of this country, the story that has brought me to this stage tonight, the story of generations of people who felt the lash of bondage, the shame of servitude, the sting of segregation, but who kept on striving and hoping and doing what needed to be done so that today 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.”
Hillary Clinton is the right choice this November. I can only hope those who have been brainwashed to see a caricature all these years will step back from tropes and propaganda to take a fresh look.
1 Comment
Anita is 100% right when she asks those against or on the fence about Hillary to look past the propaganda,the untruths for a second look.
I am so hopeful for a Hillary Clinton presidency. Of course part of that excitement is the thought of electing our first woman to the highest office in the land. She will do a fantastic job for the country, and I pity anyone who follows in her footsteps, because I believe with all my heart and soul that Hillary will raise the bar so high with her effective leadership, it’s gonna be tough to follow her.