National Elections

Fact checking Clinton’s acceptance speech

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Screenshot from 2016-07-29 14:15:45The New York Times says Hillary Clinton delivered an acceptance speech that was remarkably without hard facts, and offered few concrete numbers or assertions to examine. There were, however, a few factual assertions that could be checked — so we did. Fact-Checking Hillary Clinton’s Acceptance Speech.

Similarly, The Washington Post says Hillary Clinton delivered an acceptance speech that was relatively sparse in terms of facts and figures that could be checked. (We don’t fact-check opinions.) Here’s a roundup of some of the most noteworthy claims that were made. Fact-checking Hillary Clinton’s acceptance speech at the 2016 DNC.

Other fact check organizations do not follow the Post‘s policy and subjectively rate opinions. Make of this what you will.

FactCheck.org suggests that Clinton and other Democrats played loose with some facts. FactChecking Clinton’s Big Speech.

Politifact found the few statements it fact checked mostly true (and took a different position than FactCheck.org in some cases, because both are subjective). Fact-checking Hillary Clinton’s acceptance of the Democratic Nomination.

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DNC Convention day four: Clinton offers an optimistic vision of the future ‘Stronger Together’

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I watched all of the speeches of both the RNC and DNC Conventions over the past two weeks.  Many of these speeches occured during the day on cable channels to which not everyone in America has access, nor does everyone have access to the Internet. The networks only cover the prime time speeches (I miss the old days of “gavel to gavel coverage” when the networks did actual news reporting).

There have bee some excellent speeches, largely at the DNC Convention, which many Americans did not see and that did not receive the attention due from our feckless media.

Day four of the DNC Convention is a good example. The Rev. William Barber II from the North Carolina NAACP and the Moral Mondays movement gave a rousing speech that brought the house to its feet. The Rev. William Barber dropped the mic:

Screenshot from 2016-07-29 11:44:20Well America, what the Rev. William Barber II stopped by the Democratic National Convention Thursday night to tell you was just about the most engaging version of everything that every other speaker touched on over the course of the four day event.

What he delivered — eight years after this brand of liberation theology took a beating from uninformed corners of the conservative commentariat — was evidence of a long tradition of liberal, religious patriotism. It was a call to action that, in Barber’s view, serves this cause — an articulation of a liberal and patriotic philosophy with what Barber said was the moral force to shock and resuscitate the heart of the nation.

“We are being called like our forefathers and foremothers to be the moral defibrillators of our time,” Barber said.

The call brought most of the audience in the convention hall to its feet.

Here is a video link, Reverend William Barber – Full Speech Democratic Convention 2016 and a Transcript from Daily Kos.

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DNC Convention day three: the Democratic Party is ‘America’s party’ that believes in America and American values

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Putin-Trump-KissDay three of the DNC Convention began with a batshit crazy press conference from Donald Trump in the morning “focused largely on questions about his possible relationships with Russian business interests, but that ranged much more widely, resulting in enough misrepresentations and falsehoods that we decided to simply post the full transcript and annotate what Trump said.” Donald Trump’s falsehood-laden press conference, annotated; Trump’s Press Conference – FactCheck.org. See also, Donald Trump’s Appeal to Russia Shocks Foreign Policy Experts.

This led to several speech updates before the afternoon session began, and Democrats pounded Trump. In a video played at the Democratic National Convention, dozens of military leaders and experts from both sides of the aisle said Republican candidate Donald Trump was not fit to be commander-in-chief. ‘Commander-in-Chief’: Military leaders denounce Trump in Democratic convention video.

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DNC Convention day two: Democrats make ‘herstory’

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Day two of the DNC Convention began with Bernie Sanders going from state delegation to delegation asking his delegates not to disrupt the convention as they had on day one. Sanders tells California delegates it’s ‘easy to boo’ but harder to stop Trump:

Throughout Monday’s speeches at the convention dozens of Sanders delegates around the arena booed any mention of Hillary Clinton’s name. By the end of the evening, many of those still shouting — including over Sanders’ speech — were in the California seating section.

“We must stay focused on the major concerns of the American people and in the process have the guts to say yes, we are going to transform this country,” he said.

Sanders said that means working to elect Clinton.

Some delegates began to boo and yell over him, but Sanders raised his voice to be heard.

“It is easy to boo, but it’s harder to look your kids in the face who would be living under Donald Trump,” Sanders said. “Trump is the worst candidate for president in the modern history of this country.”

Cartoon_70Sanders’ pleading with his delegates appeared to be effective with the vast majority of his delegates during the roll call of the states in the afternoon, which was well managed by both the Clinton and Sanders camps.

There were some touching moments during the roll call. Bernie Sander’s brother Larry Sanders got emotional while casting vote for his brother and brought many to tears. Bernie Sanders, who was watching from the gallery, was cheered by all delegates.

Arizona delegate Geraldine “Jerry” Emmett, who is 102, born before women gained the right to vote, was given the opportunity to announce Arizona’s votes for Clinton. I have known Jerry for a long time, and I know how much this honor meant to her. “I cried! I never cry,” Emmett said afterward. Born before all women could vote, Prescott woman, 102, reports AZ delegates for Clinton.

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