Jump Start for Clinton

Billionaire Michael Bloomberg and President Obama heat up the convention in Philadelphia – with harsh attacks against The Donald and great praise for Hillary Clinton.

The billionaire takes on his billionaire colleague. And how. “I’m a New Yorker, and New Yorkers know a con when we see one,” he said to cheers from the audience. Michael Bloomberg, ex-mayor of the largest city in the United States, shouts to the delegates of the Democratic Convention, “Trump says he wants to run the nation like he’s run his business. God help us! Truth be told, the richest thing about Donald Trump is his hypocrisy.”

That pulls hundreds of listeners out of their folding seats in the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. That’s what they want to hear from the stage in the front: harsh attacks against The Donald, whom they all consider a fraud and charlatan. And the speakers deliver as ordered. Leading the way is billionaire Bloomberg, afterward President Barack Obama. Bloomberg says first that Trump is a “dangerous demagogue,” and then Obama says there is a means against the populist: Hillary Clinton.

A week ago, Trump’s Republicans demonized the presidential candidate of the Democrats and made her responsible for all of the country’s problems. Now the Democrats are paying back in kind. Vice President Joe Biden said Trump has no plan, “Actually he has no clue period.” Trump, the New York speculator, neither has a clue about the needs of the middle class nor does he have an idea how to come to grips with terrorism. “That’s a bunch of malarkey,” Biden said. There is nothing but jubilation in the hall.

But Trump wouldn’t be Trump if he let himself be impressed by such attacks. To the contrary, he provokes further. Only hours before Obama’s appearance in Philadelphia, he holds a press conference in Florida and calls upon the Russian secret service to hack Clinton’s email. Later he claims not to have meant it that way, once again. The election campaign in the U.S. is becoming crazier and crazier.

During his speech before the Democratic delegates, Obama does not react to Trump’s provocations. He prefers to go against the populist. Donald Trump does not offer any solutions for the problems of the country. “He’s just offering slogans, and he’s offering fear,” Obama says. The jubilation in the hall is now even louder.

It is Obama’s last speech in the setting of his Democrats’ convention. The first black president emphatically makes the case for electing Hillary in November, so that the first woman in history can take over the office. And incidentally, no person in the history of the United States was ever better suited than Clinton, Obama exclaims, looking up to a box in the arena and saying with a mischievous undertone, in fact, better than he himself and better than Bill. In the box sits Bill Clinton, ex-president and the candidate’s husband. He bursts out laughing and applauds enthusiastically.

Obama powerfully goes to town to help his competitor from the 2008 presidential primary battle, because Hillary Clinton, who is to officially accept the nomination of Democratic presidential candidate Thursday, has an image problem. Alongside Trump, she is counted among the most unpopular presidential candidates who ever stood for election. In Obama’s eyes that is a distorted picture. It is, however, a way many Democrats see the picture.

He has achieved a lot, Obama says, and notes that he hunted down bin Laden, got health insurance for millions of Americans, set the economy in motion again and established the legalization of same-sex marriage; but he notes that there is still much to be done. And for that, Hillary Clinton is the right person. “I am even more optimistic about the future of America,” Obama says.

The president’s hymn of praise for the candidate lasts 50 minutes. At the end, Hillary Clinton comes on stage, hugs Obama, and for a moment, the delegates can indulge in the comforting feeling that nothing will go wrong in the election in November. The shouting of “Hillary, Hillary” alternates with shouts of “Yes, We Can,” the battle cry of Obama’s election campaign eight years ago.