CHICAGO \u2014 In 2016 Hillary Clinton addressed the Democratic National Convention as the barrier-busting standard-bearer \u2014 the presidential nominee who many supporters felt was on track to shatter what she has called \u201cthat highest, hardest glass ceiling.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Monday night, Clinton will return to the convention stage in a different role \u2014 the candidate who lost to Donald Trump eight years ago and is now emblematic of a unrealized goal suddenly resurrected with the nomination of Vice President Kamala Harris. It\u2019s a bittersweet moment for many Democrats, who are eager to \u201cfinish the job,\u201d as some of them put it this week.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about the unfinished business of electing a woman president,\u201d said former Clinton adviser Mini Timmaraju, who leads a national abortion rights group. She said Clinton alums grew emotional at a reception the other night in Chicago and noted that some are playing leading roles in the effort to get Harris elected president. <\/p>\n
Along with Clinton, the first night of the convention will feature President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden in the spotlight. Clinton\u2019s speech will cap decades of appearances at Democratic conventions, where she has worn many hats \u2014 speaking as first lady when Bill Clinton was president in 1996, as a rising candidate herself in 2000, as a vanquished presidential contender in 2008, as the nominee in 2016 and as a party elder in 2020.<\/p>\n
Now she is playing a supporting role for another woman going up against Trump. She and her husband endorsed Harris almost immediately after Biden dropped out of the 2024 race. Harris\u2019s sudden ascent to the top of the Democratic ticket has intensified some parallels to 2016, even as Harris puts less emphasis on her gender than Clinton did.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s got a lot of wisdom that can be imparted,\u201d Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) said of Clinton, \u201cand I\u2019m sure she\u2019s excited to see another woman nominated.\u201d Dingell said she is also happy to see a woman become the presidential nominee but added: \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to the day that we stop looking at someone\u2019s gender.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clinton\u2019s 2016 loss to Trump was a stinging blow for many Democrats, who looked at some pre-election polls with confidence and felt she was poised for victory. Since then, she has occupied a complicated place in the party \u2014 a respected figure but one associated with a painful moment that set off plenty of debate about Democrats\u2019 strategy and direction, as well as the influence of sexism in politics. Some Democrats viewed Clinton as a political albatross and worked to distance themselves from her in subsequent elections.<\/p>\n
She remains a polarizing figure and a villain for Republicans. As doubts mounted this summer about Biden\u2019s ability to lead the ticket, Trump advisers gleefully promoted the long-shot idea that Clinton could take his place.<\/p>\n
Clinton has been a fixture of Democratic conventions since the 1990s. A video clip of her clapping along enthusiastically to the \u201cMacarena\u201d at the 1996 convention \u2014 when she was first lady \u2014 continues to amuse the internet and resurfaced on social media ahead of her latest convention appearance.<\/p>\n
In multiple speeches, she has nodded to the trailblazing nature of her political career. In 2008 \u2014 as the vanquished primary rival unifying behind Barack Obama \u2014 she noted, \u201cMy mother was born before women could vote,\u201d and said, \u201cMy daughter got to vote for her mother for president.\u201d In 2016, she declared, \u201cWe just put the biggest crack in that glass ceiling yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a memoir after Trump\u2019s victory in 2016, Clinton acknowledged making mistakes but also blamed factors beyond her control, said she felt she was \u201cshivved\u201d and suggested she could not explain many voters\u2019 distaste for her.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy am I seen as such a divisive figure and, say, Joe Biden and John Kerry aren\u2019t?\u201d she wrote. \u201cThey\u2019ve cast votes of all kinds, including some they regret, just like me? What makes me such a lightning rod for fury? I\u2019m really asking. I\u2019m at a loss.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump launched deeply personal attacks against Clinton, at times zeroing in on her gender and accusing her of playing the \u201cwoman\u2019s card\u201d in her career; the GOP nominee has taken a similar tone with Harris, mocking her name, laugh and intelligence and calling her weak.<\/p>\n
In 2020, Clinton reemerged to speak at the Democratic convention as Biden challenged Trump. She focused on promoting Biden\u2019s and then-vice-presidential pick Harris\u2019s records over Trump\u2019s and said little about her gutting loss four years earlier.<\/p>\n
She briefly flicked at Harris\u2019s historic role as the first Black and Indian American woman on a major-party presidential ticket. <\/p>\n
\u201cTonight I am thinking of the girls and boys who see themselves in America\u2019s future because of Kamala Harris \u2014 a Black woman, the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, and our nominee for vice president,\u201d Clinton said. \u201cThis is our country\u2019s story: breaking down barriers and expanding the circle of possibility.\u201d<\/p>\n
Timmaraju, president of Reproductive Freedom for All and former national women\u2019s vote director for Clinton\u2019s campaign, argued that Clinton helped awaken a \u201csleeping giant of American women\u2019s political power\u201d that has been on stark display since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.<\/p>\n
She said her 79-year-old mother was so enthusiastic about Clinton that she cast a write-in vote for her in the 2008 general election. Now she is eager to hear from Clinton. For some women in her mother\u2019s generation who weren\u2019t sure they would ever see a woman president, Timmaraju said, Clinton is a reminder of \u201cthe unfinished business of their life.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
CHICAGO \u2014 In 2016 Hillary Clinton addressed the Democratic National Convention as the barrier-busting standard-bearer \u2014 the presidential nominee who many supporters felt was on track to shatter what she has called \u201cthat highest, hardest glass ceiling.\u201d On Monday night, Clinton will return to the convention stage in a different role \u2014 the candidate who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8153,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}