And so the conventions are finished for another four years. In my time covering them I never saw such a contrast. Cleveland, a town of warm, friendly people, is so small they brought in law enforcement from as far away as California and Dallas. Philadelphia reinforced the Secret Service and Homeland Security with Pennsylvania State Troopers. Both places rock, but Philly rocks more because it is the cradle of liberty, home to our Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. How appropriate a history-setting convention would be there not far from the Liberty Bell or Independence Hall, icons of a nation involved in an on-going great experiment of self-governance.
The conventions could not have been more different. If you closed your eyes you might have thought it was the Republicans of the Reagan era meeting just off Interstate 95 in the Wells Fargo Center a stone’s through from the Philadelphia airport. No hesitation to express love of country, support for our military and law enforcement and, as First Lady Michelle Obama noted, “Don’t let anyone ever tell you that this country is not great, that somehow we need to make it great again,” she said. “Because this right now is the greatest country on Earth.”
Philly was about love of country. Cleveland was about love of a man. Philly said we have to work together to achieve our goals. Cleveland shouted only one man could lead us out of darkness. The DNC looked like America — a cross section of the people who live here. The RNC was mostly white and older. In Philly there was an air of celebration and enthusiasm. In Cleveland you got the impression people were walking through the motions but didn’t really believe it. Negativity is a downer.
Philadelphia was America’s convention. It was Donald Trump’s meeting in Cleveland.
John Allen, a four-star general and 37-year Marine who usually doesn’t get involved in politics, laid out a case that Hillary Clinton knows the threats the country faces and is ready to lead the military. He was joined by other veterans. During rehearsals earlier in the day an older man on stage who needed a cane to walk, turned to Gen. Allen on exit and yelled, “Semper Fi.” Allen’s speech was like a locker room talk before the big game. You can see how he earned those four stars.
I don’t remember any lines from Cleveland speeches.
In Philly, former Rep. Gabby Giffords, who was shot in Arizona, took the stage with awkward walk. “Speaking is difficult for me,” she told us. “But come January, I want to say these two words: Madam president!”
Pakistan-born Khizr Khan shot down the proposed Muslims ban in just a few remarks. His son, Capt. Human Khan, 27, died protecting other American soldiers. In words delivered with an accent from his homeland, Khan said if were up to Trump his son would never have been allowed into America. Hillary Clinton, by contrast, he said, “called my son the best of America.” To Trump, “You have sacrificed nothing and no one.” But what brought the arena to its feet was when Khan pulled a copy of the Constitution from his pocket and offered to lend it to Trump. “Look for the words ‘liberty’ and ‘equal protection of law,’”
“Vote for the healer,” Khan said, “not the divider.”
The Rev. William Barber II, son of a preacher, minister of a Goldsboro, N.C. church and president of the North Carolina NAACP said he didn’t come to represent any particular party (The Republicans reject this bid to speak to them.) set a moral tone. “We are being called like our forefathers and foremothers to be the moral defibrillators of our time,” he said. “When we love the Jewish child and the Palestinian child, the Muslim and the Christian and the Hindu and the Buddhist and those who have no faith but they love this nation, We are reviving the heart of our democracy.” So genuine and real. I imagine his church has as many people on any given Sunday as other churches do on Christmas and Easter.
Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, self-made billionaire who ran for mayor as a Republican then became an independent: “Trump has left behind a well-documented record of bankruptcies and thousands of lawsuits and angry shareholders and contractors who feel cheated and disillusioned customers who feel ripped off. Trump says he wants to run the nation like he’s running his business? God help us.”
“Truth be told,” said Bloomberg, “the richest thing about Donald Trump is his hypocrisy.”
There were familiar folks too:
Vice President Joe Biden: “How can there be pleasure in saying, ‘You’re fired’?”
Vice President Nominee Tim Kaine: “Small contractors—companies just like my dad’s—believed him when he said that he’d pay them to build a casino in Atlantic City. They did the work, hung the drywall, poured the concrete. But a year after opening, Trump filed for bankruptcy. He walked away with millions. They got pennies on the dollar. Some of them went out of business. All because they believed Donald Trump.”
Former President Bill Clinton:
Described wife this way: “She’s the best darn change-maker I’ve ever met in my whole life.”
President Barack Obama: “But what we heard in Cleveland last week wasn’t particularly Republican and it sure wasn’t conservative. What we heard was a deeply pessimistic vision of a country where we turn against each other and turn away from the rest of the world. There were no serious solutions to pressing problems, just the fanning of resentment and blame and anger and hate. And that is not the America I know.”
Hillary Clinton:
“And if there are any little girls out there who stayed up late to watch, let me just say I may become the first woman president. But one of you is next.”
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