Bill Clinton praises wife as "change-maker"

WASHINGTON, July 27 (KUNA) -- Bill Clinton delivered a keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday night, describing his wife Hillary as "the best darn change-maker I ever met in my entire life." "This woman has never been satisfied with the status quo on anything," the former president said on the night his wife became the first female presidential nominee of a major US political party. "She always wants to move the ball forward. That's just who she is." The 42nd US president -- who, along with then-first lady Hillary Clinton, served in the White House from 1993-2001 -- began his speech by discussing his courtship of his wife. He reviewed her lengthy career in public service, including helping children, immigrants and people with disabilities.
He said Republicans had tried to turn his wife into a "cartoon" during their national convention last week in Cleveland.
"What's the difference in what I told you and what they said?" he asked. "One is real, and the other is made up. ... You just have to decide which is which, my fellow Americans." Hillary Clinton may have upstaged her husband when she later appeared at the convention in Philadelphia on a large screen, remote from New York, thanking the delegates for helping her put "the biggest crack in that glass ceiling yet" -- a reference to her historic nomination as a female candidate for the nation's highest office.
Earlier in the evening, a series of mothers who lost their children to gun violence or in police custody appeared on stage and spoke.
"Hillary is one mother who can ensure our movement will succeed," said Sybrina Fulton, mother of Trayvon Martin, who was fatally shot by a neighborhood watch volunteer in Florida.
Chants of "Black Lives Matter!" began in the convention arena as the women, who call themselves "The Mothers of the Movement," made their emotional presentations calling for reforms in the US police and justice systems.
The Clintons have historically drawn some of their largest political support among black voters, and Hillary -- a former secretary of State and former US senator from New York -- consistently polls far ahead of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump among African-Americans.(end) rm.tg