Hill & Liz: A Dream Team on the Stump
More trouble lies ahead for Donald Trump. Racist remarks about the Hispanic judge in the Trump U case and a sanitized teleprompter speech have locked him in a defensive crouch. Trump’s ideas appear even more insignificant and backwards. In sharp contrast, the first woman to secure a major party nomination, Hillary Clinton delivered a profound victory speech paying tribute to the generations who “struggled and sacrificed” to make it happen.
Now the presumptive nominees will make the crucial selection of a vice-presidential running mate.
A traditional task of the VP is to be an attack dog on the stump. There is no person better suited to fill that role for Clinton than Elizabeth Warren. Warren’s endorsement of Clinton should seal the deal for her selection.
Any reservations about a two-woman ticket being too much for America to handle can be put aside. This country would benefit enormously from “two serious-minded, pant-suited women in their 60’s.” The election has been all about going big. So why stop now? It’s time to double down on an all-female ticket. Hill and Liz would be a dream team on the stump. In speeches this past week, both women fiercely detailed the dangers of a Trump presidency. It was a one-two punch. Hitting on the issues Americans care most about — national and economic security.
In San Diego, Clinton declared Donald Trump should never have the nuclear codes because his ideas are “dangerously incoherent” and “he is temperamentally unfit to hold an office that requires knowledge, stability, and immense responsibility.” Across the country at the Massachusetts Democratic Convention Warren laid out how a Trump presidency would be a disaster for “nurses, teachers, and dockworkers” describing him as: “A small, insecure money grubber” who “will kiss the fannies of Wall Street bankers.”
There’s no political downside. The Sanders’ supporters who care about college affordability and accountability for billionaire bankers would have an effective ally in Warren. Democratic party officials are already figuring out ways to quickly reclaim her seat in the U.S. Senate. Concern about the lack of balance in a ticket with two Northeasterners can be allayed. Tennessee Senator Al Gore didn’t bring geographic diversity to Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton.
Warren would be the Robin to Clinton’s Batman — an unstoppable dynamic duo. Both are whip smart, proven risk takers, and fighters who can go the distance.
Warren’s populist rhetoric complements Clinton’s policy depth. Clinton can problem solve on jobs and higher education while Warren skillfully penetrates Trump’s thin skin with Tweet assaults. Both women are top-notch debaters. And, most importantly they share the belief that Trump must never be president.
The GOP’ers who’ve been holding their breath for Trump to “do presidential” are gasping. Trump is using air time to defend himself in the lawsuit against Trump U rather than presenting himself as the Republican party’s standard bearer. Warren summarized Trump U as “one, big fraudulent scheme” run by a team of salespeople who “pushed prospective students to max out credit cards… and to look for people with problems because they make good targets.”
In the national policy speech, Clinton found her footing as she hammered Trump on his fear mongering saying America is not a country that cowers behind walls. Rather, America is exceptional and in Lincoln’s words we’re still: “The last, best hope of earth.” Laying out profound disagreements on foreign policy, Clinton called the election a choice between a vision of an America that is angry, afraid, and weak and one that is based on the knowledge that America is hopeful, generous, and confident.
Clinton an expert in global diplomacy is ready to command a world stage. Warren, the daughter of a maintenance man, knows the pain of working families down to her toes.
The dream team America needs this summer isn’t on a basketball court in Brazil. Hopefully, it will appear on stage at the Democratic Convention in Philadelphia.
Speech and debate coach Chris Jahnke is the author of THE WELL-SPOKEN WOMAN.
