In his speech at the Democratic National Convention last night, vice presidential nominee [score]Tim Kaine[/score] went for an icy swim against the current. Kaine took on an argument that would be difficult for the world’s most gifted logician to make: that Hillary Clinton is trustworthy.
Trust is far and away Clinton’s greatest vulnerability. A CNN poll conducted last week found that a whopping 68% of Americans say they do not trust her. A CBS poll conducted during the same period found that 67% view the Democratic presidential nominee as dishonest.
The reasons for these attitudes have been diagnosed by numerous sites on both sides of the ideological spectrum. The Huffington Post posited in February that Clinton’s problem is that she is a politician first and a statesman … well — never. The Atlantic acknowledges that Clinton has has a lengthy “history of deflections, deception, and untruths.” As with the HuffPo piece, this one was published back in February, when the possibility of a [score]Bernie Sanders[/score] nomination was still a lurid temptation for many on the hard Left.
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
I can’t say whether the DNC speakers drew straws to see who would be saddled with the thankless chore of trying to convince 200 million Americans that they were wrong about Hillary when it comes to trust or whether Kaine is just a glutton for punishment. Whichever the case, he attempted last night to scale Everest.
“I want to tell you why I trust Hillary Clinton,” he began.
Remember Karla, the little girl we heard from on Monday who was worried that her parents would be deported? Karla said she trusts Hillary to keep them together. And remember the Mothers of the Movement last night? They said they trust Hillary to keep other mothers’ sons and daughters safe.
The notion that some people blindly put their faith in a woman who habitually lies, cheats, and probably steals is hardly a compelling reason for the rest of America to reconsider its view.
But one particular boast that Kaine made last night seemed especially ill-advised to me as a parent. “I trust Hillary Clinton with our son’s life,” he said, speaking of his son, Nat, who is a Marine serving abroad. Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods — the two former Navy SEALs who were killed in the terrorist raid on Benghazi on Sept. 11, 2012 — trusted their lives to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Maybe Kaine should have a word with their grieving parents before doubling down on his foolish dare.
