Hillary Clinton’s speech on Thursday was a test of the media’s honesty. If you presented the speech itself as a wonderful oration, then you’re clearly reading from the DNC press release. If you’re acknowledging, hedging, that Hillary is no Obama-raising-the-oceans orator, then you’re acknowledging the political reality outside the DNC-staff bubble. On PBS, David Brooks called it "below average." On NBC, Chuck Todd said “Look, ‘stemwinder’ and ‘Hillary Clinton’ are never be in the same sentence. Mario Cuomo liked to say, ‘You campaign in poetry and govern in prose.’ For Hillary Clinton this was all prose tonight.”
CBS stayed inside the bubble on Thursday night, and the laugh line of the night trying to turn Hillary into some kind of Rambo came from CBS anchorman Scott Pelley, who suggested at one point, “she mentioned Trump and stared into the camera with a look so menacing it probably stirred Trump's Secret Service detail.”
CHARLIE ROSE: Yeah. I was moved by how many times she said “strength” and “together.” She talked about strength — she even said we have nothing to fear but fear itself, but it was always together. We can do this together. No one person can do it. We can do it together and then she listed all the things that she believed in to say this is who I am. This is what my life is about, but this is what I believe in and we need you to join us.
SCOTT PELLEY: Bob, you got the sense of a person who’s as tough as Donald Trump. There was one moment when she mentioned Trump and stared into the camera with a look so menacing it probably stirred Trump's Secret Service detail. – Exchange on CBS.
CNN was the runner-up in the over-praise category, followed by more Trump hatred at MSNBC:
GLORIA BORGER: The words that came to my mind were kind of sturdy, steely, Right? And it was not an oratorical masterpiece. It did have its great moments as David points out. But she answered the question of why and she also was most passionate—to David's point again— on going after Donald Trump. Case by case, issues by issue on his temperament, on his world view, on the fact that she is a unifier, on this notion of American exceptionalism. I think here the Democrats got handed the baton after the Republican convention. And what we've seen for the past four days culminating in this speech is that they ran with it. They ran with it.
VAN JONES: If you look at the speech, you actually see the impact positively of every one of these sort of movements of these young people. You see the Black Lives Matter impact, you see the Sanders supporter impact, the Young Dreamers impact, the Fight for 15 impact, the Climate Solutions impact, the LGBT impact, even Occupy Wall Street. All of the things young people have been doing show up in the speech in an authentic way. I think that when this thing boils back down, I think the young people in this country who have been pushing and pushing and pushing have a lot to be proud of tonight. And it shows a level of political genius—and I will say that word, genius—and also heart to embrace those young people like she did tonight. – Exchange on CNN.
“I have to tell you, I think Donald Trump's the best thing that ever happened to the Democratic Party. Because he reminded them of what they believe in, the rights and hopes of immigrants, the freedom of religion in this country, the love of the country itself. The basic gut patriotism which has been on display this week has been, sort of, receded from the Democrats. They don't show it enough. They don't raise it up. I think Trump has brought this out in them. He’s made it a values election. And the Democrats have embraced American values in an exuberant, almost exhibitionist manner that they've never done before.” – MSNBC host Chris Matthews.
And on HBO, Bill Maher gushed a little before getting to some adultery talk. "First, we had lady Ghostbusters, now this? America is on a roll, ladies and gentlemen. But what a moment for Hillary, right? The first female president we're going to have." The "asshound"-favoring Maher just had to suggest the Clinton marriage is real, the love is there, and the adultery doesn't really change that, if were European-style grown-ups without hang-ups:
BILL MAHER: Was anybody surprised that in the first minute of the speech, she referenced the blow job? Not directly. No, she didn't say the word but — come on, we all know what she said. Bill, thanked the delegates, thank my daughter and Bill, We've been through good times and some heart aches too. We all knew — I was shocked that —
SALMAN RUSHDIE: It is good to point to the elephant in the room.
AMY HOLMES: Deflate that issue immediately.
MAHER: I gotta say, I always thought that the Clintons had a real marriage, despite what everybody said. “It's a marriage of convenience. It’s an arranged marriage.” Blah, blah, blah. You know what? Fucking around can live side by side with real love. Bill is a dog and he loves her. Two thoughts in your mind. Europeans can do that. We should be able to, too.” -- Exchange on HBO.
