Prepare for a nail-biter, things are just getting interesting in the US

USA Votes 2016
Barack Obama says Hillary Clinton has nailed the campaign but Donald Trump's support continues to surge
Lawyer, senator, secretary of state, presidential nominee, first lady, wife, mum, grandma.

She's juggled a lot of jobs. She's smashed a lot of glass ceilings.

One to go.

And between Hillary Clinton and the sky? The big businessman from New York, Donald Trump.

President Barack Obama knows Hillary better than most. He reckons she's got it nailed:

"No matter how daunting the odds are, no matter how much people try to knock her down, she never, ever quits," he said.

"That is the Hillary I know. That's the Hillary I've come to admire and that's why I can say with confidence there has never been a man or a woman, not me, not Bill (Clinton), nobody more qualified than Hillary Clinton to serve as president of the United States of America."

Just on that, here's a screenshot from one of our TV stories this week. Note former president of the United States, Bill Clinton's, title:



It was Hillary's week. After a procession of big speakers who eagerly backed her in, the former secretary of state marked history with one of her best speeches:

"Tonight, we've reached a milestone in our nation's march toward a more perfect union: the first time that a major party has nominated a woman for president. Standing here as my mother's daughter, and my daughter's mother, I'm so happy this day has come.

"Happy for grandmothers and little girls and everyone in between. Happy for boys and men, too - because when any barrier falls in America, for anyone, it clears the way for everyone. When there are no ceilings, the sky's the limit."

The Democratic faithful loved it - and they loved the balloons too - including Bill Clinton, running mate Tim Kaine and this guy:



But winning won't be easy.

New polls show Trump's support has bounced since last week's somewhat wild Republican National Convention.

The election may well be a nail-biter.

A nail-biter is something Hillary's running mate Kaine says he's good at dealing with.

The nation got its first real taste of the Virginian Senator, who may well be America's next vice-president, on Wednesday night.

We learnt that he has a Trump impersonation he's more than happy to try - continually rolling out the phrase "believe me" in his speech. He can also apparently play the harmonica and he speaks Spanish.

A lot.

While the internet had some fun with Kaine's folksy speech, the whole idea behind Kaine being on the Clinton team is that he's a nice guy.

The same can't necessarily be said for the top of the ticket.

Hillary is heartily disliked by many.

Part of the political machine for around four decades, she represents much of what Americans have come to hate about the business of politics.

Her humiliations, a la Monica Lewinsky, her mistakes, a la Benghazi and the long-running private server email scandal, have been as public as can be.

Hillary haters think she's a devious, manipulative liar.

The leaked email dump (more on this in a second) showing the Democrats favoured Hillary over Bernie during the primaries supports that negative view.

This week the Democrats battled internal division akin to the anti-Trump delegate revolt the Republicans squashed at their convention.

Here in Philadelphia supporters of Bernie have vocally opposed her nomination.



This exchange between one of Bernie's backers and my colleague Steph March pretty much sums it up.

STEPH MARCH: "How do you feel about Hillary Clinton?"

DARLENE WEBBER, BERNIE SANDERS SUPPORTER: "Oh, no. Oh, I vomited in my mouth a little bit! That's so bad. She's not getting my vote and she's not getting a lot of people's vote."

OK then.

But there's no denying that Hillary is a tenacious individual and it's somehow fitting that she hasn't been handed either the nomination or the presidency on a silver platter.

That's how she rolls.

Ok people, forgive any delirium as we've been madly working around the clock for three weeks straight, but my oh my, could it get any more riveting?

Let's wrap this thing!

RUSSIAN REVOLUTION

So, it goes without saying that I'm a big fan of Matt Damon. Imagine if he burst in to the convention as Jason Bourne exposing a Russian cyber-security breach that exposed party political scheming, shamed a key candidate and could affect the outcome of the election?

I mean, wouldn't that be amazing, but it's way too far fetched right?

Ahem.

Any other year this particular plot line would surely be beyond reality but in 2016, meh, anything can happen.

Here it is in a nutshell:

A few weeks ago "someone" hacked the Democratic National Committee's server.

This week the results of that hack were revealed by WikiLeaks.

A heap of internal emails showed that some senior party officials were anti-Bernie/pro-Hillary and workshopped ways to undermine his campaign.

One particularly concerning suggestion thrown around was to question Senator Sanders' Jewish faith to undermine his religious cred.

Nasty.

There was also a series of emails between the DNC and media organisations implying a level of collusion favouring Hillary and finally a dump of voicemail messages demonstrating, among other things, what donors get back for their cash.

(That would be dinners with the President etc.)

Ultimately, the Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz fell on her sword and took the blame for the collusion.

What a difference a week makes after Wasserman Schultz sent out this cheeky tweet to the RNC chair Reince Priebus last week:



So, to make matters even more interesting the FBI has indicated that Russia may well have been behind the hack.

The Clinton campaign then added that because Trump has shown some sympathy for developing a relationship with Vladimir Putin and changing NATO rules in a way that may favour Russia, they had hacked and then released the emails to help get Trump elected.

Wikileaks responded like this.


The Trump camp's response: "absurd".

But then Trump added this, in relation to Hillary's other scandal over emails deleted and mismanaged when she was secretary of state:

"I will tell you this Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing, I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press."

He was being sarcastic apparently, but lots of people took that seriously as a threat to national security.

The Russians have now weighed in saying "it is so absurd it borders on total stupidity. The Americans need to get to the bottom of what these emails are themselves and find out what it's all about".

Like I said, where's Jason Bourne when you need him?

TRUMP TRAIN

Speaking of Trump, while Democrats were gathered in Philadelphia, the Trump train was making its way through Pennsylvania and Virginia, holding "YUGE" rallies with supporters in those states.

However, no rally was bigger than this one in Roanoke, Virginia, where the crowds went on seemingly forever in searing heat (it was so hot down south that Trump suggested that he may not pay for his hotel because the air-conditioning didn't work).



VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Meanwhile, Trump's former rival Ted Cruz has found himself more disliked than ever after he refused to endorse The Donald last week.

Subsequently, Cruz has received an absolute hiding in opinion polls and his speech also got the Bad Lip Reading treatment. Not to be missed.



METAPHOR OF THE WEEK

Describing the temperature of disenfranchised Bernie supporters during the week has been a common theme but Norman Solomon, a Sanders delegate from California, had this fairly nutritious take: "They are accustomed to really healthy granola and they get into the convention and they hear puffy white bread. It's a shock to their system."

Right. Good.

BEST DRESSED

The delegates did their darndest again this week to stand out from the crowd.

Stephanie March caught up with some of the most colourful characters here in Pennsylvania.



WEEKEND AT BERNIE'S

Bernie had quite the week. He almost lost complete control of the people's revolution he started when disgruntled delegates planned to rebel both on the floor and outside the convention.

Bernie has united with the Clinton campaign to defeat Trump but was booed by supporters when he tried to get them to follow suit.

His campaign team then sent out a text to delegates urging them to get behind his former rival Hillary.

There were tears, protests and flags burned but Hillary got there in the end and Bernie gave a rousing speech to the Democratic faithful.

Luckily, he recovered his notes. It could have been the speech that never was.

SPEECHES OF THE WEEK

Bernie gave a belter but with a procession of big name speakers, the DNC was always going to have a tough list to top.

Mr Obama is arguably the best speechmaker in the free world so we'll leave him out but these are the best of the rest.

3rd Place: Mothers of Gun Violence

The Democratic Party has made a concerted effort to differentiate itself from the GOP on gun regulations.

A procession of victims and their families took to the stage throughout the week giving harrowing accounts of lost loved ones.

Christine Leinonen, whose son died in the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, gave a heart-wrenching speech about Christopher, who was a big Hillary supporter.

Having been in Orlando we shed a few tears as we watched this brave lady speak so soon after such tragedy. #OrlandoStrong

2nd Place: Michelle Obama

In a killer speech on opening night, the First Lady gave a pitch-perfect vision of the American dream and quelled anxieties about disunity within the Democratic Party.

She stayed above the fray, refusing to take a cheap shot at Melania Trump who appropriated large portions of her speech from 2008, and knocked it out of the park.

She had the audience in tears too, especially when she spoke of watching her daughters play on the lawn of the White House, which was built by slaves.

1st Place: Joe Biden

Few people in this world can pull off a speech that uses the word "malarkey" and not raise a single eyebrow.

Vice-President Joe Biden is that guy.

On Wednesday night, "Uncle Joe" gave the speech that many thought he'd give one day as the commander-in-chief.

Instead, it may well be his swan song in public office. Super impressive.

BUSINESSMAN TO BUSINESSMAN

Michael Bloomberg - billionaire businessman, philanthropist and well known Republican-leaning Independent from New York - took to the stage Wednesday night and delivered a scathing attack on fellow New Yorker and businessman Trump.

"Through his career Donald Trump has left behind a well-documented record of bankruptcies and thousands of lawsuits and angry stockholders and contractors who feel cheated and disillusioned customers who feel they've been ripped off," he said.

"Trump says he wants to run the nation like he's running his business. God help us. I'm a New Yorker and I know a con when I see one."

There's no doubt that the Democrats want to attract moderate Republicans who can't bring themselves to vote for Donald Trump.

Bloomberg is part of that strategy.

DEMOCRACY DONKEYS

A symbol that has represented the Democratic party since 1828, the donkey, was grazing all over downtown Philadelphia this week.

The donkey was originally associated with a candidate who was dubbed a jackass and subsequently appropriated the donkey as a mascot.

It was later that cartoonist Thomas Nast linked the donkey with the Democrats and the elephant with the Republicans.

Cameraman Brad Fulton captured some of the donkeys painted to reflect each of the 50 states of America. We've still got about 40 to find.

T-SHIRTS AND TATTOOS

There were two prominent methods for expression of political sentiment in Philadelphia this week.

The New York Times found 100 different T-shirts on the street, the Gothamist spotted a bunch of Bernie tattoos and this guy, well, he's got Hillary ink on his calf.

THAT'S A WRAP

So, we're almost done with conventions for 2016 and we're feeling pretty lucky to have been in the eye of the storm in this supremely fascinating, unpredictable year.

From Melania Trump to Michelle Obama, from Donald Trump to Barack Obama, from protests to flag burning and finally Hillary Clinton, the first woman from a major party to be a presidential nominee, we've had a front row seat.

And guess what? The presidential campaign is just beginning. We have nominees!

For now, from Philly via Cleveland, until next week, that's a wrap.

Zoe

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