Conventions Increased Biden's Favorability - But Not Trump's

 

The charts above are from the website fivethirtyeight.com. While the conventions didn't change the way people are going to vote, it did change the favorability of one candidate -- Joe Biden. He is now viewed more favorably by voters. They can feel better about voting for him. Trump did not get a bump in favorability though. The people that liked him before the convention still like him, but no one else had their mind changed.

Trump Cancels Convention (But Not For Reason He Gave)

Donald Trump has been insistent on having an in-person convention with thousands of adoring Republican fans.

When North Carolina would not guarantee he could do that, he moved the convention to Jacksonville, Florida -- and continued to brag about the size of the crowd he expected.

On Thursday, he suddenly did an about-face, and cancelled the Jacksonville convention. He said his aides and campaign staff were assuring him the convention would be great, but he told them "it's not the right time for that". He went on to say, "There's nothing more important in our country than keeping our people safe".

Do you believe that? To me, it sound like what comes out of the south end of a northbound bull. It just doesn't sound like Trump.

Trump is the supreme narcissist. He has repeatedly shown us in the last three years that he doesn't care about people. The only person he cares about is himself. And even his friends and family can be quickly thrown under the bus when they don't act in what Trump considers to be his best interest.

Some reporters are saying his aides were warning him that the in-person convention would cause bad press, and would be called a "super-spreader" event. That sounds a little closer to the truth. Trump doesn't like bad press.

But I think the reason is even simpler. Trump was afraid that too many people would not show up, and he would be giving his acceptance speech to a sparse crown (like happened in Tulsa -- when he bragged about filling a stadium and only 6,000 showed up).

A lot of GOP officials were already saying they would skip the convention -- out of a fear of the Coronavirus, which is out-of-control in Florida. Trump wanted a huge cheering crowd to start his campaign, and his inflated ego would be bruised if he had to speak to a tiny crowd of mask-wearers.

Now he can give a televised acceptance speech, and lie about the size of the viewing audience.

Chance Of A Brokered (Contested) Convention Is Growing

It has been a long time since the Democratic Party had a "brokered" convention. That's a convention where no candidate arrives with a majority of delegates (assuring them of the nomination). The last time it happened was in 1952. In that year, Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee entered to convention with the most delegates, but the convention chose Adlai Stevenson (who lost the general election to World War II hero Dwight Eisenhower). Stevenson won on the third round of voting.

Even though it has been 68 years since the last brokered Democratic convention, the possibility of one happening in 2020 is growing. The chart above is from respected political prognosticator Nate Silver at fivethirtyeight.com. Last week he had the chance of a brokered convention at 39%. He now has it at 50%.

The chart below shows his prediction for the amount of pledged delegates that each candidate will enter the convention with. To receive the nomination on the first ballot, a candidate must get the votes of 1,991 pledged delegates (out of a total of 3,979 pledged delegates). He predicts that Sanders will enter the convention with the most delegates (1,628), but several hundred short of a majority.

It's still early in the primary process, and anything could still happen. It will be interesting to see how Silver's predictions might change after Super Tuesday. But right now a brokered convention is looking like a real possibility.

Secular Caucus Had Another Overflowing Crowd At The Texas Democratic Party State Convention

The picture above is from an excellent article in The Texas Observer by David R. Brockman. It shows the crowd gathering for the Secular Caucus at the Texas Democratic Party Convention. The crowd grew even larger than this, and by the time it started, there were people lining the walls and standing just outside the door. It was a GREAT turnout -- just like two years ago at the initial Secular Caucus.

Guess how many states have a secular caucus at their state convention (of either party)? The answer is one -- Texas! That makes me very proud of my state and my party. The secular movement is growing in all 50 states, but the Texas Democratic Party has welcomed secular voters (humanists, agnostics, atheists, and others) into their party.

NOTE -- As some of you may have realized, the old guy in the blue shirt down front is me. And sadly, the photo looks just like me.

Some Pictures From The Texas Democratic Convention

The Texas Democratic Convention is over now, but it was a good one. The official delegate count was 7,569. It was wonderful to be surrounded by that many good Democrats.

I thought I'd share a few photos I took (and please forgive my poor photography).

The youth movement for saner gun laws and safer schools dropped by, and the convention attendees loved them.

The entrance to the exhibit hall welcoming us Democrats.

Demonstration outside the convention hall for justice.

The concessions area. Food was pretty good at this convention.

This is me with noted atheist Aron Ra at the secular caucus (which was once again overflowing). It was an honor to meet Mr. Ra.

Fort Worth Police had their mounted patrol protecting the convention.

And here are some of my favorite booths at the convention.

The Democratic Party booth.

The Beto for Texas booth.

The Moms Demand Action booth.

The NARAL booth.

The Medical Marijuana booth.

The Texas Freedom Network booth.

The Planned Parenthood booth.

The Stonewall Democrats booth.

The anti-death penalty (tcadp) booth.

In Fort Worth - And Ready For The Convention To Begin

Well, I made it to Fort Worth and got settled into my room at the hotel. Pretty nice room. The top two pictures were taken from my room window. Note that the Convention Center is just right across the street from my hotel.

I'm getting a bit older, and picked this hotel be cause I was trying to save myself some walking. I'll be doing enough of that the next two days anyway -- just getting around in the huge building.

Seems like a bunch of other Democrats had the same idea, as I've met a lot of them in the hotel. I even ran into Texas progressive leader Jim Hightower and my Facebook friend (and good Democrat) Art Pronin in the lobby. Art told me Sissy Farenthold (former candidate for governor) is also in the hotel.

As you can see from the picture at the left, I was able to get my press pass -- but it wasn't easy this time. Texas has drawn some interest from the national media this year, so the press secretary decided bloggers should not have a press pass this year -- because the press room would be too crowded.

I threw aa fit, reminding her that I had been issued a press pass for the last six conventions. After about two hours, they gave me the press credentials. I think she thought that was easier than dealing with me for the next two days.

The convention starts officially on Friday. I'm ready. I love this stuff!

CPAC Convention Gets Punked

(The top photo is from Raw Story and the other is from Daily Kos.)

The Conservative Political Action Conference (commonly called CPAC) held its annual convention this weekend. It is a gathering of the most radical right-wing nuts that America has to offer, and needless to say, there were a lot of trumpistas in the crowd.

Now these aren't the brightest bulbs on the American political tree, and an anti-Trump activist decided to take advantage of that. He passed out small red, white, and blue flags with Trump's name on them to the conference attendees right before Trump was to address the crowd. And the attendees were thrilled to get the free flags to wave at the convention -- and as the top photo shows, they happily waved them.

But some of the CPAC organizers were a bit smarter than most, and they were aghast to look out and see hundreds of conservatives waving Russian flags. That's right -- Russian flags with Trump's name on them. It was a nightmare scenario for an ultra-right-wing group, and they quickly sent people out into the audience to confiscate the offending flags. But it was too late to keep the pictures out of the media.

They had been PUNKED!

The person who handed out the flags to eager conference-goers was Anti-Trump activist Ryan Clayton. Clayton said:

“Donald Trump is a clear and present danger to the U.S. Constitution and the American people. That’s why Putin picked him for president, because he knows the Trump regime is good for Russian interests, not the American people. Trump is Putin’s puppet, a traitor to the United States, and must be impeached immediately.”

I think he got his point across beautifully.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Speaks Out On Presidential Race

Many people have spoken out about Donald Trump's anti-muslim bias, and his attacks of a Gold Star family who are  muslims. But one of the best responses I've read was written for Time magazine by former NBA star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Photo by Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images for Yahoo News).

Here is what he had to say:

Khizr Khan’s impassioned speech last week at the Democratic National Convention about the heroics of his Muslim-American son didn’t just shame Donald Trump’s crude lack of American values—it reminded us of a quaint concept that we haven’t paid too much attention to lately: sacrifice. Since John F. Kennedy in his 1961 inaugural speech encouraged Americans to “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country,” we haven’t really had much of a national discussion about the role sacrifice plays in maintaining a free society.

Mr. Khan reminded us of that noble ideal when he talked about his son, Army Capt. Humayun S.M. Khan, a Muslim-American who sacrificed his own life in Iraq in 2004 to save other soldiers. Mr. Khan, of Pakistani heritage, had moved to the U.S. in the 1970s for “freedom and opportunity,” the two ideals that Americans feel proudest of providing. Mr. Khan told us that had it been up to Trump, his son never would have been permitted into the country.

“Have you ever been to Arlington cemetery?” he said directly to Trump.“Go look at the graves of brave patriots who died defending the United States of America. You will see all faiths, genders and ethnicities. You have sacrificed nothing and no one.” Mr. Khan’s passion for justice was contagious, but his story of sacrifice was as inspiring as JFK’s call to action. Days after Mr. Khan brandished his pocket edition of the U.S. Constitution, that same edition became the number two bestseller on Amazon (behind the new Harry Potter book), 80,000 copies were downloaded through the American Civil Liberties Union and views of the National Constitution Center’s Interactive Constitution increased by 16 percent. Mr. Khan had made the U.S. Constitution hip again.

The Khan family’s national presence couldn’t have come at a better time for America—and for me personally.

Although I have been politically active for most of my life, especially in civil rights, this year’s Democratic National Convention was my first. I was excited to contribute, but a part of me had been disheartened in the months leading up to the convention. I had begun to feel like America was trapped in a nightmarish Alien sequel, with Donald Trump starring as the toothy creature who feeds on America’s insides until bloated with our vital organs, ultimately destroying the host.

Much of my dystopian despair was the result of watching the Republican National Convention. I observed with shock and embarrassment mobs of people rally behind a man who gazes out at America with eyes, as Yeats put it, “as blank and pitiless as the sun.” My anguish wasn’t a left wing-right wing thing or blind loyalty to a particular party. It was a patriotic thing. I liked to believe that these conventions were about groups coming together to create a platform that reflected us striving to be our best selves—our most humane, most “American” selves. We would discuss how we could go forth in the coming four years applying the principles of the U.S. Constitution by choosing a person to champion those principles. Instead, I was standing by watching in HD clarity while reasoned loyalty was being set ablaze by combustive rhetoric, as if it were a witch being burned at the stake.

So when I arrived at the DNC, I worried that this going to be just another exercise in preaching to the choir. The lines had been drawn, the sides already chosen. However, I met so many enthusiastic and hopeful people who were dedicated to bringing about their vision of a diverse and inclusive American society that I couldn’t help but get caught up in their enthusiasm. No one was talking about who we hate, who we should blame, who we should exclude, who we should punish. They were talking about justice, freedom, and opportunity. All of that was well and good, but I couldn’t shake the knowledge that a whole lot of Americans supported the man who contradicted a whole lot of American values.

But all that apprehension fell away as soon as I heard Khizr Khan speak.

Whatever doubts, depression, or disgust I felt before were washed away by Mr. Khan. I realized that Capt. Khan’s sacrifice—as well as the sacrifices made by so many others to protect our Constitution—demanded that we don’t indulge in lazy melancholy or hipster cynicism, but work twice as hard to make sure those sacrifices are not in vain. The day after Mr. Khan’s speech, Trump responded in the typical non-sequitur fashion: “I think I’ve made a lot of sacrifices… I’ve created thousands and thousands of jobs, tens of thousands of jobs, built great structures. I’ve done, I’ve had tremendous success.”

So, my first time attending the DNC changed me. But the Khan family and other courageous people have rejuvenated and invigorated me for the fight ahead. Because it’s a fight that must be won. No matter the sacrifice.

Another Poll Shows Clinton With A Post-Convention Bump

This chart shows the results from the latest CBS News Poll -- done between July 29th and 31st of a random national sample of 1,131 registered voters, with a margin of error of 3 points. It is the third poll released since the end of the Democratic convention, and like the others, it shows Clinton got a nice bump in the polls from a great convention. This poll shows a bump of 4 points, giving her a current advantage of 7 points over Trump.

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The latest Gallup Poll asked a different question, trying to gauge what the public thought of the two political conventions. Their study was done of a random national sample of 2,000 adults -- with 1,000 being questioned after each of the conventions. There is a margin of error of 4 points.

The chart below shows the results. Note that the Democratic convention had a larger percentage saying they were more likely to vote for Clinton (45%) than the Republican convention produced for people more likely to vote for Trump (36%) -- a 9 point difference.

The Most Powerful Speech At The Democratic Convention

There were many great speeches given at the Democratic National Convention. President Obama, Michelle Obama, Vice-President Biden, Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren, Michael Bloomberg, and many other politicians gave memorable speeches.

But for me, the most powerful speech of the convention was given by a non-politician, and was also one of the shortest speeches. It was given by a muslim immigrant from Pakistan -- Khizr Khan, who lives in Charlottesville, Virginia, and works as a legal advisor. He and his wife (pictured here in a photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images, and found at romper.com) immigrated to the United States in the 1970's.

Khan's son was a U.S. Army Captain, who lost his life saving his fellow soldiers in Iraq (and was awarded the Bronze Star and a Purple Heart). He was an American hero, and one of many muslims who died protecting this country.

Mr. Khan said:

Tonight, we are honored to stand here as the parents of Capt. Humayun Khan, and as patriotic American Muslims with undivided loyalty to our country.

Like many immigrants, we came to this country empty-handed. We believed in American democracy — that with hard work and the goodness of this country, we could share in and contribute to its blessings.

We were blessed to raise our three sons in a nation where they were free to be themselves and follow their dreams.

Our son, Humayun, had dreams of being a military lawyer. But he put those dreams aside the day he sacrificed his life to save his fellow soldiers.

Hillary Clinton was right when she called my son "the best of America."

If it was up to Donald Trump, he never would have been in America.

Donald Trump consistently smears the character of Muslims. He disrespects other minorities, women, judges, even his own party leadership. He vows to build walls and ban us from this country.

Donald Trump, you are asking Americans to trust you with our future. Let me ask you: Have you even read the U.S. Constitution? I will gladly lend you my copy. In this document, look for the words "liberty" and "equal protection of law."

Have you ever been to Arlington Cemetery? Go look at the graves of the brave patriots who died defending America — you will see all faiths, genders, and ethnicities.

You have sacrificed nothing and no one.

We can't solve our problems by building walls and sowing division.

We are Stronger Together.

And we will keep getting stronger when Hillary Clinton becomes our next President.

(NOTE -- Mr. Khan had no prepared speech. He just spoke from his heart.)

Democrats Show America How To Have A Great Convention

(Photos in this post are from the Democratic Convention Flickr page.)

It looked for a while that the Democratic Convention would get off to a rocky start. That's no surprise. There were two good candidates running for the presidential nomination, and like it or not, democracy is a messy business. But Democrats surprised the media (who were talking only about party divisions) and actually came together during the 4 day convention.

Part of that was due to the respect the convention organizers gave to both Bernie Sanders and his supporters. Unlike at last week's GOP convention, the Democrats gave Bernie Sanders a prime speaking slot on the opening night of the convention, and on the second night, allowed his name to be put into nomination and all of his delegates the right to cast their vote. For his part, Sanders asked the convention to then nominate Hillary Clinton by acclamation -- and he made it clear that she has his full support. It was a lesson in both democracy and unity -- and one that all Democrats can be proud of.

And the American people seemed to appreciate that. On the first two nights of the convention, millions more Americans tuned in to watch than on the first two nights of the GOP convention. And there is no doubt that the same will be true for the last two nights of the convention.

Why is that true? Why did more Americans watch the Democratic Convention? I believe there are several reasons. First, while the big celebrity of the GOP convention was Scott Baio, the Democrats had a long list of celebrities there to help (like Meryl Streep, Sigourney Weaver, Paul Simon. Alicia Keys, Lenny Kravitz, Mary Steenburgen, Eva Longoria, Rosie Perez, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Carole King, Katie Perry, a stage full of Broadway stars, and many more).

And while many of the GOP's political heavy-hitters stayed at home (George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush, Mitt Romney, Rand Paul, John McClain, Marco Rubio, John Kasich), the turnout of Democratic political stars was huge -- with the likes of President Obama, Michelle Obama, Joe Biden, Cory Booker, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Mikulski, John Lewis, Jesse Jackson, Al Franken, Sherrod Brown, Xavier Becerra, and dozens more Democratic officials at all levels all showing up.

But it was more than just celebrity and political star power that made it a great convention. Perhaps the biggest reason was the tone of the convention and its attendees. The GOP convention seemed to be centered only on two things -- attacking Hillary Clinton and scaring the hell out of American voters. This was summed up by a very dark and divisive speech by their nominee -- Donald Trump.

The Democratic convention speakers took some swipes at Trump, but most of their speeches were about what they, and their nominee could do to make a better more hopeful future for all Americans. They countered the GOP's dark vision with a vision of hope, justice, equality, and economic opportunity for all Americans. This vision was then cemented with a great acceptance speech from the presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton.

The Democrats showed Americans what a great political convention looks like. It made me very proud to be a Democrat.

Bloomberg Gives Dems An Independent's View Of Election

(Photo of Michael Bloomberg addressing the Democratic Convention is from deadline.com.)

There have been many wonderful and inspiring speeches from Democrats at the convention in Philadelphia, and I have enjoyed them all. Today, I thought I'd bring you something a little different -- a speech given to the convention by someone who was not a Democrat. It is Independent Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City. While he's not a Democrat, he gave a great speech to us Democrats -- supporting the nominee of our party.

Bloomberg said:

Let me thank all of you for welcoming an outsider here to deliver what will be an unconventional convention speech.

Now, I'm not here as a member of any party, or to endorse any party platform. I am here for one reason, and one reason only: to explain why I believe it is my imperative that we elect Hillary Clinton as the next president of the United States. And to ask you to join with me in supporting her this November.

When the Founding Fathers arrived here in Philadelphia to forge a new nation, they didn't come as Democrats or Republicans, or to nominate a presidential candidate. They came as patriots who feared party politics. I know how they felt. I've been a Democrat, I've been a Republican, and I eventually became an independent because I don't believe either party has a monopoly on good ideas or strong leadership.

When I enter the voting booth each time, I look at the candidate, not the party label. I have supported elected officials from both sides of the aisle. Probably not many people in this room can say that, but I know there are many watching at home who can. And now, they are carefully weighing their choices. I understand their dilemma.

I know what it's like to have neither party fully represent my views or values. Too many Republicans wrongly blame immigrants for our problems, and they stand in the way of action on climate change and gun violence. Meanwhile, many Democrats wrongly blame the private sector for our problems, and they stand in the way of action on education reform and deficit reduction.

There are times when I disagree with Hillary. But whatever our disagreements may be, I've come here to say: We must put them aside for the good of our country. And we must united around the candidate who can defeat a dangerous demagogue.

I believe it's the duty of all American citizens to make our voices heard by voting in this election. And, if you're not yet registered to vote, go online. Do it now. It's just too important to sit this out.

Now, we've heard a lot of talk in this campaign about needing a leader who understands business. I couldn't agree more. I've built a business and I didn't start it with a million-dollar check from my father. Because of my success in the private sector, I had the chance to run America's largest city for 12 years, governing in the wake of its greatest tragedy.

Today, as an independent, an entrepreneur, and a former mayor, I believe we need a president who is a problem solver, not a bomb thrower. Someone who can bring members of Congress together, to get things done. And I know Hillary Clinton can do that because I saw it firsthand.

I was elected mayor two months after 9/11, as a Republican — and I saw how Hillary Clinton worked with Republicans in Washington to ensure that New York got the help it needed to recover and rebuild. Throughout her time in the Senate, we didn't always agree 
— but she always listened. And that's the kind of approach we need in Washington today, and it just has to start in the White House.

Given my background, I've often encouraged business leaders to run for office because many of them share that same pragmatic approach to building consensus, but not all. Most of us who have created a business know that we're only as good as the way our employees, clients, and partners view us. Most of us don't pretend that we're smart enough to make every big decision by ourselves. And most of us who have our names on the door know that we're only as good as our word. But not Donald Trump.

Throughout his career, Trump has left behind a well-documented record of bankruptcies, thousands of lawsuits, 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 run his business. God help us.

I'm a New Yorker, and New Yorkers know a con when we see one! Trump says he'll punish manufacturers that move to Mexico or China, but the clothes he sells are made overseas in low-wage factories. He says he wants to put Americans back to work, but he games the US visa system so he can hire temporary foreign workers at low wages. He says he wants to deport 11 million undocumented people, but he seems to have no problem in hiring them. What'd I miss here?!

Truth be told, the richest thing about Donald Trump is his hypocrisy. He wants you to believe that we can solve our biggest problems by deporting Mexicans and shutting out Muslims. He wants you to believe that erecting trade barriers will bring back good jobs. He's wrong on both counts.

We can only solve our biggest problems if we come together and embrace the freedoms that our Founding Fathers established right here in Philadelphia, which permitted our ancestors to create the great American exceptionalism that all of us now enjoy. Donald Trump doesn't understand that. Hillary Clinton does. And we can only create good jobs if we make smarter investments in infrastructure and do more to support small businesses. Not stiff them. Donald Trump doesn't understand that. Hillary Clinton does.

I understand the appeal of a businessman president. But Trump's business plan is a disaster in the making. He would make it harder for small businesses to compete, do great damage to our economy, threaten the retirement savings of millions of Americans, lead to greater debt and more unemployment, erode our influence in the world, and make our communities less safe.

The bottom line is: Trump is a risky, reckless, and radical choice. And we can't afford to make that choice.

Now, I know Hillary Clinton is not flawless; no candidate is. But she is the right choice — and the responsible choice — in this election. No matter what you may think about her politics or her record, Hillary Clinton understands that this is not reality television; this is reality. She understands the job of president. It involves finding solutions, not pointing fingers, and offering hope, not stoking fear.

Over the course of our country's proud history, we have faced our share of grave challenges, but we have never retreated in fear. Never. Not here in Philadelphia in 1776, not at Gettysburg in 1863, not through two World Wars and a Great Depression, not at Selma or Stonewall, and not after 9/11 — and we must not start now. 

America is the greatest country on Earth — and when people vote with their feet, they come here. The presidency of the United States is the most powerful office in the world, and so I say to my fellow independents: Your vote matters now. Your vote will determine the future of your job, your business, and our future together as a country.

To me, this election is not a choice between a Democrat and a Republican. It's a choice about who is better to lead our country right now: better for our economy, better for our security, better for our freedom, and better for our future.

There is no doubt in my mind that Hillary Clinton is the right choice this November. So tonight, as an independent, I am asking you to join with me — not out of party loyalty but out of love of country. And together, let's elect Hillary Clinton as the next president of the greatest country in the world, the United States of America.

Thank you.

Obama Passes The Baton In A Great Convention Speech

(Photo of Obama and Clinton is from nbcnews.com.)

I was already feeling pretty good about how the Democratic National Convention was going, but Wednesday night put it on a new and higher level -- and it made a comparison with last week's GOP convention very stark. And it was due to a great speech delivered by President Obama.

The president once again proved that he is one of the great speech writers and deliverers of our time. And Hillary Clinton couldn't have been given a better kick-off to her campaign. Obama delivered a hopeful vision of America and its future, and enumerated the reasons why only Hillary Clinton can lead us to that future. In effect, he passed the presidential baton to Hillary Clinton.

Then, immediately after the speech (which had the convention on its feet and cheering) Hillary Clinton made a surprise appearance to hug the president and walk arm-in-arm with him. It was a powerful visual to top off the president's powerful speech.

Now the only thing left is for Hillary to accept the nomination tomorrow night in what is hopefully another good speech. I see no reason why Democrats shouldn't now leave Philadelphia feeling that had a very good convention. And I believe Hillary Clinton should get a very good bump in the polls because of this successful convention.

Michelle Is Most Popular Of All Dem. Convention Speakers

I thought these two polls were interesting. They show the pre-convention popularity of the six major Democratic convention speakers. Note that Michelle Obama is the most popular with the general public, with a favorability rating of 58% in both polls. I'm sure she didn't hurt that rating at all with the great speech she gave on Monday night.

The Gallup Poll was done between July 13th and 17th of a random national sample of 1,023 adults, with a margin of error of 4 points.

The YouGov Poll was done on July 23rd and 24th of a random national sample of 1,300 adults, with a margin of error of 4.2 points.

Hillary Clinton's Story (As Told By Her Husband Bill)

(Photos of Hillary Clinton, above and below, are from abcnews.go.com.)

On Tuesday night, Bill Clinton gave a great speech to the Democratic National Convention. The subject of his speech was his wife (and 2016 nominee for president by the Democratic Party -- Hillary Clinton. Here is what he had to say:

In the spring of 1971 I met a girl.

The first time I saw her we were, appropriately enough, in a class on political and civil rights. She had thick blond hair, big glasses, wore no makeup, and she had a sense of strength and self- possession that I found magnetic. After the class I followed her out, intending to introduce myself. I got close enough to touch her back, but I couldn’t do it. Somehow I knew this would not be just another tap on the shoulder, that I might be starting something I couldn’t stop.

And I saw her several more times in the next few days, but I still didn’t speak to her. Then one night I was in the law library talking to a classmate who wanted me to join the Yale Law Journal. He said it would guarantee me a job in a big firm or a clerkship with a federal judge. I really wasn’t interested, I just wanted to go home to Arkansas.

Then I saw the girl again, standing at the opposite end of that long room. Finally she was staring back at me, so I watched her. She closed her book, put it down and started walking toward me. She walked the whole length of the library, came up to me and said, look, if you’re going to keep staring at me…

…and now I’m staring back, we at least ought to know each other’s name. I’m Hillary Rodham, who are you?

I was so impressed and surprised that, whether you believe it or not, momentarily I was speechless.

Finally, I sort of blurted out my name and we exchanged a few words and then she went away.

Well, I didn’t join the Law Review, but I did leave that library with a whole new goal in mind.

A couple of days later, I saw her again. I remember, she was wearing a long, white, flowery skirt. And I went up to her and she said she was going to register for classes for the next term. And I said I’d go, too. And we stood in line and talked — you had to do that to register back then — and I thought I was doing pretty well until we got to the front of the line and the registrar looked up and said, Bill, what are you doing here, you registered morning?

I turned red and she laughed that big laugh of hers. And I thought, well, heck, since my cover’s been blown I just went ahead and asked her to take a walk down to the art museum.

We’ve been walking and talking and laughing together ever since.

And we’ve done it in good times and bad, through joy and heartbreak. We cried together this morning on the news that our good friend and a lot of your good friend, Mark Weiner, passed away early this morning.

We’ve built up a lifetime of memories. After the first month and that first walk, I actually drove her home to Park Ridge, Illinois…

…to meet her family and see the town where she grew up, a perfect example of post World War II middle-class America, street after street of nice houses, great schools, good parks, a big public swimming pool, and almost all white.

I really liked her family. Her crusty, conservative father, her rambunctious brothers, all extolling the virtues of rooting for the Bears and the Cuba.

And for the people from Illinois here, they even told me what “waiting for next year” meant.

It could be next year, guys.

Now, her mother was different. She was more liberal than the boys. And she had a childhood that made mine look like a piece of cake. She was easy to underestimate with her soft manner and she reminded me all over again of the truth of that old saying you should never judge a book by its covers. Knowing her was one of the greatest gifts Hillary ever gave me.

I learned that Hillary got her introduction to social justice through her Methodist youth minister, Don Jones. He took her downtown to Chicago to hear Dr. Martin Luther King speak and he remained her friend for the rest of his life. This will be the only campaign of hers he ever missed.

When she got to college, her support for civil rights, her opposition to the Vietnam War compelled her to change party, to become a Democrat.

And then between college and law school on a total lark she went alone to Alaska and spent some time sliming fish.

More to the point, by the time I met her she had already been involved in the law school’s legal services project and she had been influenced by Marian Wright Edelman.

She took a summer internship interviewing workers in migrant camps for Senator Walter Mondale’s subcommittee.

She had also begun working in the Yale New Haven Hospital to develop procedures to handle suspected child abuse cases. She got so involved in children’s issues that she actually took an extra year in law school working at the child studies center to learn what more could be done to improve the lives and the futures of poor children.

So she was already determined to figure out how to make things better.

Hillary opened my eyes to a whole new world of public service by private citizens. In the summer of 1972, she went to Dothan, Alabama to visit one of those segregated academies that then enrolled over half-a-million white kids in the South. The only way the economics worked is if they claimed federal tax exemptions to which they were not legally entitled. She got sent to prove they weren’t.

So she sauntered into one of these academies all by herself, pretending to be a housewife that had just moved to town and needed to find a school for her son. And they exchanged pleasantries and finally she said, look, let’s just get to the bottom line here, if I enroll my son in this school will he be in a segregated school, yes or know? And the guy said absolutely. She had him!

I’ve seen it a thousand times since. And she went back and her encounter was part of a report that gave Marian Marian Wright Edelman the ammunition she needed to keep working to force the Nixon administration to take those tax exemptions away and give our kids access to an equal education.

Then she went down to south Texas where she met…

…she met one of the nicest fellows I ever met, the wonderful union leader Franklin Garcia, and he helped her register Mexican- American voters. I think some of them are still around to vote for her in 2016.

Then in our last year in law school, Hillary kept up this work. She went to South Carolina to see why so many young…

…she went to South Carolina to see why so many young African- American boys, I mean, young teenagers, were being jailed for years with adults in men’s prisons. And she filed a report on that, which led to some changes, too. Always making things better.

Now, meanwhile, let’s get back to business. I was trying to convince her to marry me.

I first proposed to her on a trip to Great Britain, the first time she had been overseas. And we were on the shoreline of this wonderful little lake, Lake Ennerdale. I asked her to marry me and she said I can’t do it.

So in 1974 I went home to teach in the law school and Hillary moved to Massachusetts…

…to keep working on children’s issues. This time trying to figure out why so many kids counted in the Census weren’t enrolled in school. She found one of them sitting alone on her porch in a wheelchair. Once more, she filed a report about these kids, and that helped influence ultimately the Congress to adopt the proposition that children with disabilities, physical or otherwise, should have equal access to public education.

You saw the results of that last night when Anastasia Somoza talked.

She never made fun of people with disabilities; she tried to empower them based on their abilities.

Meanwhile, I was still trying to get her to marry me.

So the second time I tried a different tack. I said I really want you to marry me, but you shouldn’t do it.

And she smiled and looked at me, like, what is this boy up to? She said that is not a very good sales pitch. I said I know, but it’s true. And I meant it, it was true.

I said I know most of the young Democrats our age who want to go into politics, they mean well and they speak well, but none of them is as good as you are at actually doing things to make positive changes in people’s lives. 

So I suggested she go home to Illinois or move to New York and look for a chance to run for office. She just laughed and said, are you out of you mind, nobody would ever vote for me.

So I finally got her to visit me in Arkansas.

And when she did, the people at the law school were so impressed they offered a teaching position. And she decided to take a huge chance. She moved to a strange place, more rural, more culturally conservative than anyplace she had ever been, where she knew good and well people would wonder what in the world she was like and whether they could or should accept her.

Didn’t take them long to find out what she was like. She loved her teaching and she got frustrated when one of her students said, well, what do you expect, I’m just from Arkansas. She said, don’t tell me that, you’re as smart as anybody, you’ve just got to believe in yourself and work hard and set high goals. She believed that anybody could make it.

She also started the first legal aid clinic in northwest Arkansas, providing legal aid services to poor people who couldn’t pay for them. And one day I was driving her to the airport to fly back to Chicago when we passed this little brick house that had a for sale sign on it. And she said, boy, that’s a pretty house. It had 1,100 square feet, an attic, fan and no air conditioner in hot Arkansas, and a screened-in porch.

Hillary commented on what a uniquely designed and beautiful house it was. So I took a big chance. I bought the house. My mortgage was $175 a month.

When she came back, I picked up her up and I said, you remember that house you liked? She said yeah. I said, while you were gone I bought it, you have to marry me now.

The third time was the charm.

We were married in that little house on October the 11th, 1975. I married my best friend. I was still in awe after more than four years of being around her at how smart and strong and loving and caring she was. And I really hoped that her choosing me and rejecting my advice to pursue her own career was a decision she would never regret.

A little over a year later we moved to Little Rock when I became attorney general and she joined the oldest law firm west of the Mississippi. Soon after, she started a group called the Arkansas Advocates for Families and Children.

It’s a group, as you can hear, is still active today.

In 1979, just after I became governor, I asked Hillary to chair a rural health committee to help expand health care to isolated farm and mountain areas. They recommended to do that partly by deploying trained nurse practitioners in places with no doctors to provide primary care they were trained to provide. It was a big deal then, highly controversial and very important.

And I got the feeling that what she did for the rest of her life she was doing there. She just went out and figured out what needed to be done and what made the most sense and what would help the most people. And then if it was controversial she’d just try to persuade people it was the right thing to do.

It wasn’t the only big thing that happened that spring my first year as governor. We found out we were going to be parents.

And time passed. On February 27th, 1980, 15 minutes after I got home from the National Governors Conference in Washington, Hillary’s water broke and off we went to the hospital. Chelsea was born just before midnight.

And it was the greatest moment of my life. The miracle of a new beginning. The hole it filled for me because my own father died before I was born, and the absolute conviction that my daughter had the best mother in the whole world.

For the next 17 years, through nursing school, Montessori, kindergarten, through T-ball, softball, soccer, volleyball and her passion for ballet, through sleepovers, summer camps, family vacations and Chelsea’s own very ambitious excursions, from Halloween parties in the neighborhood, to a Viennese waltz gala in the White House, Hillary first and foremost was a mother.

She became, as she often said, our family’s designated worrier, born with an extra responsibility gene. The truth is we rarely disagreed on parenting, although she did believe that I had gone a little over the top when I took a couple of days off with Chelsea to watch all six “Police Academy” movies back-to-back.

When Chelsea was 9 months old, I was defeated for reelection in the Reagan landslide. And I became overnight, I think, the youngest former governor in the history of the country. We only had two-year terms back then.

Hillary was great. Immediately she said, OK, what are we going to do? Here’s what we’re going to do, we’re going to get a house, you’re going to get a job, we’re going to enjoy being Chelsea’s parents. And if you really want to run again, you’ve got to go out and talk to people and figure out why you lost, tell people you got the message and show them you’ve still got good ideas.

I followed her advice. Within two days we had a house, I soon had a job. We had two fabulous years with Chelsea. And in 1982, I became the first governor in the history of our state to be elected, defeated and elected again.

I think my experience is it’s a pretty good thing to follow her advice. The rest of the decade sort of flew by as our lives settled into a rhythm of family and work and friends.

In 1983, Hillary chaired a committee to recommend new education standards for us as a part of and in response to a court order to equalize school funding and a report by a national expert that said our woefully underfunded schools were the worst in America.

Typical Hillary, she held listening tours in all 75 counties with our committee. She came up with really ambitious recommendations. For example, that we be the first state in America to require elementary counselors in every school because so many kids were having trouble at home and they needed it.

So I called the legislature into session hoping to pass the standards, pass a pay raise for teachers and raise the sales tax to pay for it all. I knew it would be hard to pass, but it got easier after Hillary testified before the education committee and the chairman, a plainspoken farmer, said looks to me like we elected the wrong Clinton.

Well, by the time I ran for president nine years later, the same expert who said that we had the worst schools in America said that our state was one of the two most improved states in America. And that’s because of those standards that Hillary developed.

 Now, two years later, Hillary told me about a preschool program developed in Israel called HIPPY, Home Instruction Program for Preschool Youngsters. The idea was to teach low-income parents, even those that couldn’t read, to be their children’s first teachers.

She said she thought it would work in Arkansas. I said that’s great, what are we going to do about it? She said, oh, I already did it. I called the woman who started the program in Israel, she’ll be here in about 10 days and help us get started.

Next thing you know I’m being dragged around to all these little preschool graduations. Now, keep in mind, this was before any state even had universal kindergarten and I’m being dragged to preschool graduations watching these poor parents with tears in their eyes because they never thought they’d be able to help their kids learn.

Now, 20 years of research has shown how well this program works to improve readiness for school and academic achievement. There are a lot of young adults in America who have no idea Hillary had anything to do with it who are enjoying better lives because they were in that program.

She did all this while being a full-time worker, a mother and enjoying our life. Why? Well, she’s insatiably curious, she’s a natural leader, she’s a good organizer, and she’s the best darn change-maker I ever met in my entire life.

Look, this is a really important point. This is a really important point for you to take out of this convention. If you believe in making change from the bottom up, if you believe the measure of change is how many people’s lives are better, you know it’s hard and some people think it’s boring. Speeches like this are fun.

Actually doing the work is hard. So people say, well, we need to change. She’s been around a long time, she sure has, and she’s sure been worth every single year she’s put into making people’s lives better.

I can tell you this. If you were sitting where I’m sitting and you heard what I have heard at every dinner conversation, every lunch conversation, on every lone walk, you would say this woman has never been satisfied with the status quo in anything. She always wants to move the ball forward. That is just who she is.

When I became president with a commitment to reform health care, Hillary was a natural to head the health care task force. You all know we failed because we couldn’t break a Senate filibuster. Hillary immediately went to work on solving the problems the bill sought to address one by one. The most important goal was to get more children with health insurance.

In 1997, Congress passed the Children’s Health Insurance Program, still an important part of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act. It insures more than 8 million kids. There are a lot of other things in that bill that she got done piece by piece, pushing that rock up the hill.

In 1997, she also teamed with the House Minority Leader Tom DeLay, who maybe disliked me more than any of Newt Gingrich’s crowd. They worked on a bill together to increase adoptions of children under foster care. She wanted to do it because she knew that Tom DeLay, for all of our differences, was an adoptive parent and she honored him for doing that.

Now, the bill they worked on, which passed with an overwhelming bipartisan majority, led to a big increase in the adoption of children out of foster care, including non-infant kids and special-needs kids. It made life better because she’s a change-maker, that’s what she does.

Now, when you’re doing all this, real life doesn’t stop. 1997 was the year Chelsea finished high school and went to college. We were happy for her, but sad for us to see her go. I’ll never forget moving her into her dorm room at Stanford. It would have been a great little reality flick. There I was in a trance just staring out the window trying not to cry, and there was Hillary on her hands and knees desperately looking for one more drawer to put that liner paper in.

Finally, Chelsea took charge and told us ever so gently that it was time for us to go. So we closed a big chapter in the most important work of our lives. As you’ll see Thursday night when Chelsea speaks, Hillary’s done a pretty fine job of being a mother.

And as you saw last night, beyond a shadow of a doubt so has Michelle Obama.

Now, fast forward. In 1999, Congressman Charlie Rangel and other New York Democrats urged Hillary…

…urged Hillary to run for the seat of retiring Senator Pat Moynihan. We had always intended to go to New York after I left office and commute to Arkansas, but this had never occurred to either one of us. Hillary had never run for office before, but she decided to give it a try.

She began her campaign the way she always does new things, by listening and and learning. And after a tough battle, New York elected her to the seat once held by another outsider, Robert Kennedy.

And she didn’t let him down. Her early years were dominated by 9/11, by working to fund the recovery, then monitoring the health and providing compensation to victims and first and second responders. She and Senator Schumer were tireless and so were our House members.

And she didn’t let him down. Her early years were dominated by 9/11, by working to fund the recovery, then monitoring the health and providing compensation to victims and first and second responders. She and Senator Schumer were tireless and so were our House members.

So she tried to make sure people on the battlefield had proper equipment. She tried to expand and did expand health care coverage to Reservists and members of the National Guard. She got longer family leave, working with Senator Dodd, for people caring for wounded service members.

And she worked for more extensive care for people with traumatic brain injury. She also served on a special Pentagon commission to propose changes necessary to meet our new security challenges. Newt Gingrich was on that commission, he told me what a good job she had done.

I say that because nobody who has seriously dealt with the men and women in today’s military believes they are a disaster. They are a national treasure of all races, all religions, all walks of life.

Now, meanwhile, she compiled a really solid record, totally progressive on economic and social issues. She voted for and against some proposed trade deals. She became the de facto economic development officer for the area of New York outside the ambit of New York City.

She worked for farmers, for winemakers, for small businesses and manufacturers, for upstate cities in rural areas who needed more ideas and more new investment to create good jobs, something we have to do again in small-town and rural America, in neighborhoods that have been left behind in our cities and Indian country and, yes, in coal country.

When she lost a hard-fought contest to President Obama in 2008, she worked for his election hard. But she hesitated to say yes when he asked her to join his Cabinet because she so loved being a senator from New York.

So like me, in a different context, he had to keep asking.

But as we all saw and heard from Madeleine Albright, it was worth the effort and worth the wait.

As secretary of state, she worked hard to get strong sanctions against Iran’s nuclear program. And in what The Wall Street Journal no less called a half-court shot at the buzzer, she got Russia and China to support them. Her team negotiated the New START Treaty with Russia to reduce nuclear weapons and reestablish inspections. And she got enough Republican support to get two-thirds of the Senate, the vote necessary to ratify the treaty.

She flew all night long from Cambodia to the Middle East to get a cease-fire that would avoid a full-out shooting war between Hamas and Israel in Gaza to protect the peace of the region.

She backed President Obama’s decision to go after Osama bin Laden.

She launched a team, this is really important today, she launched a team to fight back against terrorists online and built a new global counterterrorism effort.

We’ve got to win this battle in the mind field.

She put climate change at the center of our foreign policy.

She negotiated the first agreement ever — ever — where China and India officially committed to reduce their emissions. And as she had been doing since she went to Beijing in 1995 and said women’s rights are human rights and human rights are women’s rights…

…she worked to empower women and girls around the world and to make the same exact declaration on behalf of the LGBT community in America and around the world.

And nobody ever talks about this much, nobody ever talks about this much, but it’s important to me. She tripled the number of people with AIDS in poor countries whose lives are being saved with your tax dollars, most of them in Africa, going from 1.7 million lives to 5.1 million lives and it didn’t cost you any more money. She just bought available FDA-approved generic drugs, something we need to do for the American people more.

Now, you don’t know any of these people. You don’t know any of those 3.4 million people, but I’ll guarantee you they know you. They know you because they see you as thinking their lives matter. They know you and that’s one reason the approval of the United States was 20 points higher when she left the secretary of state’s office than when she took it.

Now, how does this square? How did this square with the things that you heard at the Republican convention? What’s the difference in what I told you and what they said? How do you square it? You can’t. One is real, the other is made up.

You just have to decide. You just have to decide which is which, my fellow Americans.

The real one had done more positive change-making before she was 30 than many public officials do in a lifetime in office.

The real one, if you saw her friend Betsy Ebeling vote for Illinois today…

…has friends from childhood through Arkansas, where she has not lived in more than 20 years, who have gone all across America at their own expense to fight for the person they know.

The real one has earned the loyalty, the respect and the fervent support of people who have worked with her in every stage of her life, including leaders around the world who know her to be able, straightforward and completely trustworthy.

The real one calls you when you’re sick, when your kid’s in trouble or when there’s a death in the family.

The real one repeatedly drew praise from prominent Republicans when she was a senator and secretary of state.

So what’s up with it? Well, if you win elections on the theory that government is always bad and will mess up a two-car parade…

…a real change-maker represents a real threat.

So your only option is to create a cartoon, a cartoon alternative, then run against the cartoon. Cartoons are two- dimensional, they’re easy to absorb. Life in the real world is complicated and real change is hard. And a lot of people even think it’s boring.

Good for you, because earlier today you nominated the real one.

When I was president, I worked hard to give you more peace and shared prosperity, to give you an America where nobody is invisible or counted out.

But for this time, Hillary is uniquely qualified to seize the opportunities and reduce the risks we face. And she is still the best darn change-maker I have ever known.

You could drop her into any trouble spot, pick one, come back in a month and somehow, some way she will have made it better. That is just who she is.

There are clear, achievable, affordable responses to our challenges. But we won’t get to them if America makes the wrong choice in this election. That’s why you should elect her. And you should elect her because she’ll never quit when the going gets tough. She’ll never quit on you.

She sent me in this primary to West Virginia where she knew we were going to lose, to look those coal miners in the eye and say I’m down here because Hillary sent me to tell you that if you really think you can get the economy back you had 50 years ago, have at it, vote for whoever you want to. But if she wins, she is coming back for you to take you along on the ride to America’s future.

And so I say to you, if you love this country, you’re working hard, you’re paying taxes and you’re obeying the law and you’d like to become a citizen, you should choose immigration reform over somebody that wants to send you back.

If you’re a Muslim and you love America and freedom and you hate terror, stay here and help us win and make a future together. We want you.

If you’re a young African American disillusioned and afraid, we saw in Dallas how great our police officers can be, help us build a future where nobody is afraid to walk outside, including the people that wear blue to protect our future.

Hillary will make us stronger together. You know it because she’s spent a lifetime doing it. I hope you will do it. I hope you will elect her. Those of us who have more yesterdays than tomorrows tend to care more about our children and grandchildren. The reason you should elect her is that in the greatest country on earth we have always been about tomorrow. You children and grandchildren will bless you forever if you do.

God bless you. Thank you.