Can Hillary Clinton be the 'candidate of sanity' against Donald Trump's promise of chaos?

Hillary Clinton gave a long-winding speech on the last day of Democratic National Convention while acknowledging the efforts and message of her rival-turned-compatriot Bernie Sanders. She promised to be a messenger of change to reach out to #BernorBust brigade while vowing to steer USA in the path led by Obama-Biden in the last 8 years. 

Hillary Clinton has a difficult task in a challenging year for any establishment candidate. In the GOP field, Trump demonised and ultimately decimated many of the establishment's blue-eyed boys like Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio and Scott Walker. He aims to do the same with Hillary now by parroting a rhetoric filled with hate, xenophobia and racial discrimination. Trump wants to tap the darkest insecurities  in the mind of  the average American and expect to leverage it to win the coveted Presidency. The RNC Cleveland infomercial was roughly Trump featuring a story of gloom and doom, of a broken system, of corrupt politicians, of brittle policies which only he can fix. 

Now, the Democrats in Phily tried to project a picture in contrast. Successive speakers generously praised Obama and hoped that  Hillary will continue to do the good job. But the truth is there is huge amount of despondency within the electorate and both Trump in  the Right and Bernie in the Left took full advantage of it. It is probably unfair to hyphenate Trump and Bernie, as the Vermont Senator championed the Progressive cause but both campaigns gave a vent to the have-nots who feel cheated and hard done by the 'system'.

The electorate is yearning for hope - but is Hillary the right person to sell that dream to the American electorate?

Image courtesy PTI

For Hillary Clinton, her strength is largely her weakness. She is well-entrenched in the system, first as The First Lady and later as a senator and Secretary of State in the Obama regime. For many Bernie and Trump fans, she is part of the crooked system which needs to  be fixed. Her unfavourability ratings are only next to Trump, in the history of nominees running for the top office. While Hillary definitely has the advantage of the blacks and the Hispanics being fervently anti-Trump, the working-class white male vote eludes her. Hillary is aware of it and she tried to address it in her message on Thursday. Hillary recalled her humble roots, about how she like many others are an embodiment of the grand American dream. Repeatedly she focussed on collective goals and leadership in stark contrast with Trump's one-upmanship. But Hillary also tried to reach out to the angry crowd, who essentially loathes her. 

Hillary said, "Too many people haven't had a pay raise since the crash. There's too much inequality. Too little social mobility. Too much paralysis in Washington..... I've gone around our country talking to working families. And I've heard from so many of you who  feel like the economy just isn't working. Some of you are frustrated -- even furious. And you know what? You're right. It's not yet working the way it should. Americans are willing to work -- and work hard. But right now, an awful lot of people feel there is less and less respect for the work they do. And less respect for them, period. Democrats are the party of working people. But we haven't done a good enough job showing  that we get what you're going through, and that we're going to do something about it."

In the same speech, Hillary also said, " Now, I don't think President Obama and Vice President Biden get the credit they deserve for saving us from the worst economic crisis of our lifetimes. Our economy is so much stronger than when they took office. Nearly 15 million new private-sector jobs. Twenty million more Americans with health insurance. And an auto industry that just had its best year ever. That's real progress."

For Hillary, the greatest conundrum is that she can't disassociate herself from the past. The Trump campaign will remind her of email-gate, of the faux pas in Benghazi and other 'mistakes' to potentially trip her up. Hillary is trying to emulate Obama by forging a rainbow coalition of people cutting across age, gender, economic status to win the crucial swing states. But what she lacks is the charisma or novelty of Obama. While the liberal media may be celebrating that glass ceiling has cracked, the voters are not that enthused. Hence even in her acceptance speech, Hillary had to resort to Trump bashing.She poked holes in Trump's America First boastful claims. Hillary pointed out Trump's impulsive nature to be a hindrance for the top job saying someone who gets baited by a tweet doesn't deserve to be in-charge of the nuclear codes. 

Former CIA Director Leon Panetta roughly said the same thing, couple of days back at DNC saying, In an unstable world, we cannot afford unstable leadership...We cannot afford an erratic finger on our nuclear weapons". This might well be the eventual calling card for Hillary to trump Donald - that for all her fault she is sane and America needs steady leadership if it wishes to be great again!