When Hill accepts history ...
Acceptance speeches are important but often sound the same. Can Hillary Clinton make hers somehow sound new?
I don't need to tell you what to expect Thursday night when history-making Hillary Clinton accepts her party's nod for president.
You know you'll hear the same themes, even phrases, of her long campaign; and likely a little women's history since she's the first major-party female nominee.
So maybe a reference to Seneca Falls, N.Y., site in 1848 of the first women's rights convention.
Maybe a mention that her mother was born on the same day, June 4, 1919, that, she says, "Congress was passing the 19th Amendment" giving women the right to vote.
(The Senate passed the measure that day. It was ratified in August 1920.)
Probably some props to Philadelphia as birthplace of the nation, with a connector to the here and now and starting "the next chapter" in our great American story.
Certainly you'll hear the word together many times, as in we're stronger "together," can achieve (fill in the blank) "together" when we all work "together."
There'll be stuff about how Democrats are the party of inclusion and Republicans are the party of exclusion.
You might hear a call to build bridges not walls, create jobs not jingoism.
And then a litany: equal pay for equal work, hiking the minimum wage, protecting the LGBTQ community and a woman's right to choose, keeping America safe at home and strong abroad (possibly even defeating ISIS), huuuge investments in infrastructure and manufacturing and something, anything, about recent protests/violence involving police killings and police being killed.
I doubt you'll hear reference to race relations growing worse under the first black president (so say 60 percent of likely voters in a Rasmussen Reports poll last week) unless it's accompanied by impassioned pleas for national change and healing.
Speaking of which, change and healing is a common thread in Democratic acceptance speeches.
Barack Obama, 2008: "It's time for us to change America."
Bill Clinton, 1992: "It's time to change America" and "It is time to heal America."
Jimmy Carter, 1976: "It is time to heal America."
Whew. Seems either America's got an incurable illness or those in charge have been prescribing the wrong medicine.
But let's move on.
Bernie issues will make the cut for the sake of party unity: Fight income inequality, make education available/affordable for all, improve health care, reduce college debt, and make sure (I'm out on a limb here betting on an exact quote) "Wall Street can never wreck Main Street again."
Also, government reforms to reduce the influence of, take your pick, "power brokers," "special interests," and/or "lobbyists"; stemming gun violence and hogtieing (she did live in Arkansas) the NRA without revoking the Second Amendment.
And, of course, reversing - with a constitutional amendment or new Supreme Court justices - the 2010 Citizens United ruling that polluted politics by allowing billionaires to buy elections.
Just pay no attention to the Pulitzer Prize-winning Center for Public Integrity's report in April that "Clinton's massive campaign machine is built of the very stuff - Super PACs, secret cash, unlimited contributions - she says she'll attack upon winning the White House."
But I'm sure it'll be a great speech. I'm sure it'll give her a bump in the polls.
Just as I was sure Donald Trump would get a bump for saying he'd build a wall, bring change, end crime and violence, and defeat Islamic radicals.
I'm just not sure promises from candidates a majority of voters don't like or trust in a nation $19 trillion in debt can really result in the change and healing we all keep hearing is on the way.
Blog: ph.ly/BaerGrowls
Columns: ph.ly/JohnBaer