THE 2016 PARTY CONVENTIONS COME TO AN END AFTER A LONG TWO WEEKS

Clinton is joined by her running mate Tim Kaine on stage
as the balloons drop on the Democratic convention,
photo courtesy of NBCPhiladelphia.com

The Democratic National Convention came to a close last night as Hillary Clinton made history when she became the first woman presidential nominee for a major political party in the United States.

The week began with multiple variables working against the Democratic Party; the first being the heat wave that hit Philadelphia which many feared would cause tension and hostility among protesters and police to increase, especially after the riots during the 2000 RNC in Philadelphia. Additionally, Team Hillary and the Democrats were still confronting the aggressive campaign the Republicans had employed against Hillary and the Democrats last week including the sound bite: "Lock her [Hillary] up!"

Aside from outside forces, the Democratic Party had to deal with the DWS email scandal that pissed a lot of Sander's supporters off and gave Republicans more ammunition to shoot off about the lack of trustworthiness in the Democratic Party.

Despite of all of these obstacles Team Hillary and the Democratic Party pulled off a very positive convention for the image of the party and Clinton herself. Ron Elving of NPR observed that, "In fact, much of the program on stage this week in Philly was clearly meant to appeal to disaffected Republicans left feeling a chill last week in Cleveland. A basic element of this appeal was the robust embrace of traditional patriotism, its rhetoric and symbols."

Examples of this tactic were evident with speakers like retired Marine Gen. John Allen, longtime Republican operative Rick Galen tweeting that the Democrat's convention looked more like his traditional party than anything he saw in Cleveland last week, longtime GOP strategist Stuart Stevens tweeting that the Democrat's convention looked more like the 2004 RNC (the last time the Republicans won the presidency) than the RNC held in Cleveland last week, in addition to many other Republicans that shared similar sentiments.

Despite the success of the DNC, Politico reported that according to Nielsen data the final night of the DNC drew in 28 million viewers, while the final night of the RNC last week received 30 million viewers - people seem to feel the need to watch Donald Trump live.

However it was not only the speech itself that journalists were paying attention to last night: the New York Times reported the significance of the clothing choices that Hillary made last night. As Vanessa Friedman puts it, "In her white suit, with her white crew neck underneath, Mrs. Clinton looked extremely unflappable: perfectly tailored and in control. Not a hair out of place (but some hair nicely waived). The kind of person who could carry the nuclear codes with aplomb."

This quote truly does sum up the aesthetic statement that Clinton intended on making - the white suit representing the official color of the National Women's Party and the suffragist movement amplified her message of a strong woman leader. Fun fact: Clinton is not the first female candidate running for a high-position office to utilize the 'white suit statement'; Geraldine Ferraro sported a similar outfit during the 1984 Democratic convention when she accepted her nomination for vice president.

The Washington Post published an article analyzing the winners and losers of the last night of the convention. Winners included Khizer Khan, the father of an Army captain who was killed in Iraq in 2004, Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton (although I'm not sure I agree, I did not feel the sincerity in her statements humanizing her mother), and Emanuel Cleaver, the passionate Missouri congressman that preached Mrs. Clinton "wouldn't stay throwed!"

Overall I think the Democrats leaving Philadelphia today will be very happy with the way the convention turned out: Hillary finished the convention with a strong moment, Bernie supporters did not cause a major problem, and there were very few mistakes made throughout the week that would have taken focus away from the convention itself.

References
Cillizza, Chris. (2016) Winners and losers from the final night of the Democratic convention. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/07/28/winners-and-losers-from-the-final-night-of-the-democratic-convention/.
Elving, Ron. (2016) Hillary Clinton and the DNC: a crisis not merely survived, but transcended. National Public Radio. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/2016/07/29/487889370/clinton-makes-history-clearing-multiple-hurdles-at-philly-convention.
Friedman, Vanessa. (2016) Hillary Clinton makes history, and wears it, too. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/30/fashion/hillary-clinton-democratic-national-convention.html.
Weprin, Alex. (2016) TV ratings: 28 million watch final night of DNC. Politico. Retrieved from http://www.politico.com/blogs/on-media/2016/07/tv-ratings-dnc-hillary-clinton-226441.