A dark vision, a 'shining city,' and the tough task ahead for both Clinton and Trump

After two back-to-back national political conventions stuffed with rhetoric and symbols, few will be tempted to repeat the old line that there isn't "a dime's worth of difference" between the Republicans and the Democrats.

In some presidential elections, that might have rung true - but not in this one.

Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton - and the parties they now lead - expressed such divergent worldviews at their conventions that they may as well be living in different solar systems.

In Cleveland, Trump and the GOP retailed a dark vision of America: a place with a sclerotic economy, rising crime, and corrupt elites, under attack by Islamic terrorists and swarms of illegal immigrants. Trump said he'd fix it all and keep the people safe.

And in Philadelphia, Democrats and Clinton drew Ronald Reagan's "shining city on a hill," a resilient nation that thrives on its racial and ethnic diversity, full of good people who can overcome adversity together.

So those are the battle lines of the election, in essence, but the two candidates share deep flaws. Polls show voters don't like Clinton or Trump; they find the former secretary of state capable but untrustworthy and the businessman strong but unqualified.

"We've never seen anything like this, ever, where you see both candidates so damaged - usually candidates with those types of negatives don't get nominations," said Muhlenberg College pollster Chris Borick.

And both nominees are famous, their images hardened like enamel.

Just ask Erik Golden, 29, a state employee who lives in Harrisburg, a block from the site of a Friday-night Clinton rally he didn't plan to attend. "I don't like either," he said. "Trump's just [a jerk] and I think Hillary will mislead people to get what she wants."

Conventions, though, offer the chance to work on a candidate's vulnerabilities and outline contrasts with an opponent.

That's what the Democrats did in Philadelphia last week: A parade of speakers, including the president, showcased Clinton's history as an advocate for the downtrodden, starting as a young lawyer pushing for disabled children's right to receive public schooling, and investigating school segregation in the 1970s South. She herself talked up her humble origins and the motivation she draws from her Methodist faith.

Trump, at his party's convention in Cleveland the previous week, did not really bother trying to buff up his blunt-spoken image. It's part of the appeal. His acceptance speech was seen as dark by many analysts - but the message cut through.

Which side did better? Democrats drew more TV viewers to their convention on the first three nights, but 29.8 million people watched Clinton's acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday night, Nielsen estimated, while Trump's speech drew 32.3 million.

The GOP convention was more chaotic, with a rebellion by anti-Trump delegates over rules, the plagiarism of Melania Trump's speech, and Ted Cruz refusing to endorse Trump. It also had less star wattage.

Yet Trump received a moderate bump in the polls, and voters had positive reviews of his speech. It is too early to say what gains Clinton might get from her convention. She embarked Friday on a bus tour of Pennsylvania and Ohio, with her husband, former President Bill Clinton, keeping his hand on her shoulder as they left a kickoff rally at Temple University.

Democratic pollster Geoff Garin said a recent CNN poll got his attention. It showed that Trump's favorability rating had jumped post-Cleveland.

"Whatever you say about Donald Trump and the Republican convention, they laid out very clearly and forcefully the question[s] they want to litigate in the election - and that's how you win," Garin said.

Those questions: Who will keep you safe? Who will bring change?

Clinton has the heavier lift. It's hard for any party to hold on to the White House for three consecutive terms, even in good times. And this year the voters are restive.

Democratic strategists hope that Clinton's trust deficit with voters improves, but some argue that she could still win if it doesn't, since Trump has powerful negative ratings of his own. But she must convince voters she empathizes with them - feels their pain, to borrow a term from Bill Clinton's campaigns.

"What you need is a large number of voters saying, 'She will fight for me,' " said Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg. The convention pounded that idea home.

The Clinton campaign "made a decision that what's believable is she's an advocate for people, she's dogged for the vulnerable people who really need help - you can count on her," Greenberg said.

Speakers throughout the Democratic gathering, and Clinton herself, attacked Trump as too unstable to be trusted with the nation's nuclear arsenal and poked holes in the lack of policy details beyond "believe me."

The strategy of contrast did not work for Trump's opponents in the primary season, once they woke up and started taking him seriously. He made blunders that would have knocked out more conventional candidates - calling Mexicans "rapists," even belittling former POW John McCain's war record. Yet Trump just kept rolling.

He enters August tied with Clinton in an average of national polls - at 44.3 percent - according to the website Real Clear Politics, which aggregates opinion surveys. Pollsters were only beginning to gauge whether Clinton, too, received a post-convention bump.

Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.) said the general election will bring greater scrutiny of both candidates.

"I never believe that voters sit down with a legal pad and put a line down the middle and check off issues," Casey said. "They make a deeply personal decision about the person they're going to vote for to be the commander-in-chief."

tfitzgerald@phillynews.com 215-854-2718 @tomfitzgerald www.inquirer.com/bigtent

Staff writers Jonathan Tamari and Grace Toohey contributed to this article.