In an impassioned editorial, the New York Times celebrated the watershed moment. “Hillary Clinton’s life, in many respects, traces the arc of progress for women in American society. Her mother, Dorothy Rodham, was born in 1919, a year before the 19th Amendment gave women the vote. Mrs Clinton’s nomination — bringing women, barred first by law and then by custom, to the pinnacle of American politics — is to be celebrated as inspiration for young Americans, and as hope for women in nations and cultures that deny them the most basic opportunities,” the newspaper said.
However, it also drew attention to aspects of her presidential campaign which it felt couldn’t be glossed over. “Is she the nominee because she has more relevant experience than just about any candidate for the presidency, or because she is the wife of a former president? Sceptical voters have scrutinised her age, voice, tone, even clothing as qualifiers for the White House ... Mrs Clinton’s rise has not been smooth or particularly graceful. Some of her positions seem born more of political expediency than conviction. She can be secretive and defensive.
“Her failure to hold an open news conference for months shows a reluctance to submit to legitimate questions. Her challenge now is to persuade voters to judge her on her merits and ideas, rather than her gender or her husband’s record,” the paper said.
The USA Today, in a dramatic departure, printed what its editorial board said was the newspaper’s expectations from Hillary, delivered in the format of the convention speech: “I am fully aware that many of you have concerns about me. You question my judgement, my honesty. Some of you just plain don’t like me ... I am not a natural politician like my husband or our fabulous current President, Barack Obama ... Too many times in my career, in public life, I have been arrogant, failed to learn from hard experience and surrounded myself with people who catered to my worst instincts instead of helping me be the kind of public servant that I aspire to be and that Americans deserve.”
In Canada, the Toronto Star contrasted the campaign speeches of Hillary and her Republican rival and said: “Donald Trump’s fear-mongering GOP-convention-closing rant in Cleveland conveyed a mostly inaccurate image of an America besieged by illegal immigration, violent crime and economic panic. In Philadelphia, at their own convention, the Democrats, too, warned of an imminent threat ... But unlike the Republicans, the Democrats did not stop with fear. They also attempted, and in many ways succeeded, to offer a positive vision of a better nation ...”
The Guardian, meanwhile, noted that for better or for worse, history will be made when the United States votes this November. “Should Hillary Clinton win, her victory would demonstrate how unthinkable ideas can become first conceivable and then a matter of fact. So too, unfortunately, would the triumph of her opponent. A Donald Trump presidency might well demonstrate how quickly a society can unravel.”
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