Hillary Clinton formally accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination for president Thursday night. Here are a few brief thoughts on her speech:
Which convention was better?
By most accounts, the Democratic convention went better than the Republican convention. No one plagiarized their speech. No one refusing to endorse Clinton was booed off the stage. There was constant dissent from some of Bernie Sanders’ delegates, but Sanders’ fervent support for Clinton made the dissenters look like a fringe movement, not a serious unity problem.
But all that matters is how conventions affect poll numbers. Was the Democratic convention actually more successful, or did the Republican message connect better with voters?
One poll, conducted by The Economist and YouGov, showed Clinton with a 5 percentage point lead over Trump, and that was taken right after the GOP convention, right before the Democratic one. But another poll from the Los Angeles Times and USC, conducted July 21-27, showed Trump ahead by 7 points. It’s going to take a couple weeks before we know if the state of the race is any different than what it was before the conventions.
Robotic rhetoric
Hillary Clinton has spent more than 20 years giving public speeches to large audiences, but she still isn’t a good speaker. Granted, President Obama and Vice President Biden’s speeches from Wednesday are a tough act to follow.
Her delivery is not authentic or gripping. You can tell she’s practiced the speech many times — perhaps too many times. Her jokes never seem well-delivered. With Trump’s speeches, you stay awake to watch, even if you don’t agree with it, because you don’t know what’s coming next. With Clinton, you almost always know what she’s going to talk about and how she’s going to say it.
How she lost Republicans
If Clinton was hoping her speech would help convince some Republicans to join her side, as much of Wednesday night’s program aspired to do, she lost them around the halfway point.
She started off well, making her pitch to Republicans disenchanted with Trump by saying, “He’s taken the Republican Party a long way from ‘Morning in America’ to ‘Midnight in America.'” She added to that case later when she said, “I will be a president for Democrats, Republicans and Independents. For the struggling, the striving and the successful. For those who vote for me and those who don’t. For all Americans.”
But then she started going through the laundry list of her liberal agenda. A constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United (otherwise known as “free speech” to Republicans). She talked about raising taxes on businesses (otherwise known as “job creators” to Republicans). And then she proclaimed “I believe in science” in that condescending way liberals do when they talk about climate change.
It’s exciting stuff for Democrats, but it alienates anyone who dares to disagree.
Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
