resident Barack
Obama painted an optimistic picture of America’s future and offered
full-throated support for Hillary Clinton’s bid to defeat Republican
Donald Trump in a speech that electrified the Democratic National
Convention.
He urged
Democrats to enable Clinton to finish the job he started with his
election nearly eight years ago in a rousing speech that capped a night
when party luminaries took to the stage to contrast the party’s new
standard-bearer with Trump, whom they portrayed as a threat to U.S.
values.
“There has never been a man
or woman, not me, not Bill – nobody more qualified than Hillary Clinton
to serve as president of the United States,” Obama said to cheers at
the Philadelphia convention on Wednesday night.
Hillary
Clinton, the wife of former President Bill Clinton, will accept the
party’s White House nomination in a speech to end the convention on
Thursday night. The election is on Nov. 8.
Her
address will be closely watched to see if she can make a convincing
argument for bringing about change while still representing the legacy
of Obama, who is ending his second term with high approval ratings.
“Tonight,
I ask you to do for Hillary Clinton what you did for me. I ask you to
carry her the same way you carried me,” Obama said. When he finished,
she joined him on stage where they hugged, clasped hands and waved to
the crowd.
The two were rivals in
the hard-fought 2008 campaign for the Democratic nomination. After
winning that election to become America’s first black president, Obama
appointed Clinton his secretary of state, a position she held until
2013.
Republicans have painted
Clinton as a Washington insider who would represent a “third term” for
what they view as failed policies under Obama, elected to a second term
in 2012.
Speaking to delegates,
Obama offered an alternative to businessman Trump’s vision of the United
States as being under siege from illegal immigrants, crime and
terrorism and losing influence in the world.
“I
am more optimistic about the future of America than ever before,” Obama
said at the Wells Fargo Center, a basketball and hockey arena.
A
former first lady and U.S. senator, Clinton made history on Tuesday
when she became the first woman to secure the presidential nomination of
a major party. She promises to tackle income inequality, tighten gun
control and rein in Wall Street if she becomes president.
Obama took aim at Trump’s campaign slogan and promise to “Make America Great Again.”
“America
is already great. America is already strong. And I promise you, our
strength, our greatness, does not depend on Donald Trump,” he said.
“Preach!” members of the crowd shouted. “Best president ever,” someone screamed.
Trump
replied to Obama on Twitter, writing: “Our country does not feel ‘great
already’ to the millions of wonderful people living in poverty,
violence and despair.”
Obama
listed what he described as progress during his two terms in office,
such as recovery from an economic recession, the Obamacare healthcare
reform and the 2011 killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
He
said American values, not race, religion or political preference, were
what made the United States great. “That’s why anyone who threatens our
values, whether fascists or communists or jihadists or homegrown
demagogues, will always fail in the end,” Obama said.