Hillary's (too?) cautious convention message

James Hohmann takes a look at the carefully balanced messaging that the Democratic candidate used at last week's Democratic National Convention, Hillary Clinton tries to be all things to all people at Democratic convention Washington Post 07/29/2016. On the one hand:

A few hundred Sanders delegates wore neon T-shirts as a kind of silent protest, though some did not stay silent. They glowed in the dark whenever the house lights went down. “I want you to know, I’ve heard you,” Clinton assured them. “Your cause is our cause. Our country needs your ideas, energy and passion.”

Notably, she embraced ideas that her surrogates dismissed as infeasible and unrealistic when it was the Vermont senator who was advocating for them. “Bernie Sanders and I will work together to make college tuition-free for the middle class and debt-free for all,” she declared.

Clinton said she’s against “unfair” trade deals but did not elaborate.

She said she will raise the minimum wage but did not give a number. The left wants $15 an hour nationally, which gives heartburn to employers who’d foot the bill and economists who fear it would increase unemployment.

Clinton also said she wants to “expand Social Security,” make the rich pay “their fair share” of taxes, pass a constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision and prevent Wall Street from “ever being allowed to wreck Main Street again.”

On the other:

After briefly sounding like she is some kind of political revolutionary, she began to explain that progress actually happens “step-by-step, year-by-year.”

Telling the story of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, she lauded compromise as a virtue.

Even though she understands the gridlock in Washington as well as any other living person — having lived in the White House for two terms and served in the Senate for eight years — she spoke as if she could break through it with some ease.

“I’ve worked across party lines to pass laws and treaties and to launch new programs that help millions of people,” she said. “And if you give me the chance, that’s what I’ll do as president. … I will be a president for all.”

Further commentary like the following also touches on the seemingly contradictory signals that HRC's campaign is sending.

Shields and Brooks on which convention was more successful, Clinton’s failure to emotionally connect PBS Newshour 07/29/2016:

Hillary Clinton Democratic National Convention Speech. TYT Analysis The Young Turks 07/29/2016

Traces Of Bernie Found In Hillary's DNC Speech The Young Turks 07/29/2016: