Faced with a virtual revolt by his own supporters, Senator Bernie Sanders on Monday led the effort at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia to rally the party behind its nominee-to-be Hillary Clinton in all all-out bid to stave off the prospect of a Donald Trump presidency.
Trump, the highly-divisive Republican nominee, became a unifying factor of sorts for the Democrats with speaker after speaker issuing a call to one and all to make sure that the “unfit” New York billionaire never gets to become the President of the United States.
Amid continuous chants of “Bernie, Bernie” from supporters who were still reluctant to accept Clinton’s candidacy, Sanders said it’s time to move on, declaring: “Based on her ideas and her leadership — Hillary Clinton must become the next President of the United States. The choice is not even close.”
“Hillary Clinton will make an outstanding president and I am proud to stand with her here tonight,” the self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist went on to say in a full-throated endorsement of his former rival with whom he had locked horns for nearly a year.
More than Sanders, it was First lady Michelle Obama who stole the show on the opening night of the convention as she proceeded to rip apart Trump’s candidacy without actually mentioning him by name even once.
“Don’t let anyone tell you that this country isn’t great. This right now is the greatest country on earth,” she said, taking a dig at Trump’s campaign theme: “Make America Great Again.”
Projecting Clinton as the only choice for President this time round, the First lady said: “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. There is only one person I trust with that responsibility, only one person I believe is truly qualified to be president of the United States, and that is Hillary Clinton.”
In a barb aimed at Trump with his reputation as a compulsive tweeter, Obama said she would want “someone who understands that the issues a President faces are not black and white and cannot be boiled down to 140 characters”.
“Because when you have the nuclear codes at your fingertips and the military in your command, you can’t make snap decisions. You can’t have a thin skin or a tendency to lash out. You need to be steady, and measured, and well-informed,” Obama said, essentially questioning Trump’s credentials for the high office. In contrast, she projected Clinton as “a phenomenal woman”.
The one speaker who went hammer and tongs at Trump was Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, a favourite of liberals who was regarded as close to Sanders during the primaries.
“Trump thinks he can win votes by fanning the flames of fear and hatred,” Warren said. “By turning neighbor against neighbor. By persuading you that the real problem in America is your fellow Americans — people who don’t look like you, or don’t talk like you, or don’t worship like you.”
Delegates waved “love Trumps Hate” signs as speaker after speaker targeted the Republican nominee for spewing venom and hatred.