By Laura Meckler And Siobhan Hughes, Wall Street Journal
Hillary Clinton accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination for president Thursday, casting herself as a leader whose steadiness and unifying approach stand in sharp contrast with her opponent.
Her speech to a raucous convention crowd repeatedly slammed Republican nominee Donald Trump as unfit and someone who “loses his cool at the slightest provocation.” She referenced his own words from last week’s Republican convention.
“Don’t believe anyone who says ‘I alone can fix it,’ ” she said. “Americans don’t say: ‘I alone can fix it.’ We say: ‘We’ll fix it together.’ ”
But she also recognized that many Americans don’t like her much, either, and suspect she’s out for herself. Her speech—and the entire week’s convention—aimed to improve her image with stories about her family and her early work for children. She said her interest in the details of policy matter to the people they affect. “I get it that some people just don’t know what to make of me,” she said.
Mrs. Clinton spoke for 57 minutes, 18 minutes fewer than Mr. Trump’s speech in Cleveland last week.
Mrs. Clinton leaves the Democratic National Convention with a largely unified party, set for an election that will test whether she can lead them to a third term in the White House. Her chief challenges include convincing Americans dissatisfied with the slow and uneven economic recovery and fearful of a spate of new terrorism attacks that staying the course is better than betting on the unpredictable agenda of Mr. Trump.
To win over skeptics, Mrs. Clinton outlined a plan to boost jobs, particularly for workers whose incomes have stagnated since the 2007 recession. Her immediate priorities, she said, would including a large increase in infrastructure spending, an immigration overhaul, new gun restrictions, paid family leave and significant new subsidies to make public college tuition-free for most families.
She said she would fund her plans with tax increases on Wall Street, corporations and the “super rich.”
“Some of you are frustrated, even furious. And you know what? You’re right,’’ Mrs. Clinton said of Americans facing economic challenges.
Democrats argued all week that the New York billionaire was temperamentally unfit for the job. Taking note of turbulence and terrorism across the globe, Mrs. Clinton cast herself as the person prepared to be commander in chief.
“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,” the former secretary of state said. Given the turbulence and terrorism across the globe, she said Americans are “looking for steady leadership.”
Read more at http://www.wsj.com/articles/hillary-clinton-to-emphasize-experience-steadiness-in-speech-to-democratic-convention-1469747452
