PHILADELPHIA _ Hillary Clinton takes the stage Thursday night for the final and most anticipated act of the Democratic National Convention, during which she will try to build on a week of potent testimonials from the party's biggest stars by reintroducing herself to voters as the first female presidential nominee from a major party and crystallizing her vision for the nation.
Clinton's speech bookends a week that started off rocky for the party as restive delegates supporting Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders booed on the convention floor and embarrassing email disclosures forced the resignation of the party chair. But Democrats recovered and looked to finish strong after leaders of varying factions delivered pitch-perfect appeals for unity.
The run-up to the address Thursday night in which Clinton will accept her party's nomination stood in contrast to what unfolded at the GOP convention in the swing state of Ohio, where the host governor declined to show up and the nominee's main rival delivered a back-stabbing speech.
To punctuate the point, the lineup of speakers in Philadelphia on Thursday included Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolfe. Basketball great and civil rights activist Kareem Abdul-Jabbar planned to make an appearance, as did pop star Katy Perry, whose empowerment-themed hits are played at most every public Clinton event. The lineup, though, was notably light on star power, as anticipation built for Clinton, being introduced by her daughter, Chelsea.
The acceptance speech was set for the close of a convention in which one after another, those closest to the former first lady, U.S. senator and secretary of state, as well as some whose lives she fleetingly touched, offered a series of humanizing anecdotes that sought to erase a "cartoon" image that has taken hold _ the word her husband, former President Bill Clinton, used in delivering his personal testimonial.
President Barack Obama weighed in as well, clearly itching to take the campaign fight to Trump. He was unstinting in his praise and made clear that he saw the achievements of his eight years in the White House riding on Clinton being elected in November; his speech amounted to one of the most lavish presidential endorsements in memory.
The speakers also offered a vision for America starkly different from the one laid out by Trump last week in Cleveland. Democrats have embraced a theme of optimism and hope, warning that Trump's prescriptions for the challenge the country faces would divide Americans and turn them against one another. In Philadelphia, he has been called a demagogue and a con man.
Campaign officials said Clinton began thinking about the speech weeks ago, and she revised it even into Thursday. She intended to make the case that she has worked for decades to create opportunities for Americans, bringing down the barriers that preclude them from realizing their potential. Clinton's historic role in breaking the gender barrier, a persistent theme of her campaign and the convention, is likely to be central to her address.
According to campaign officials, the nominee planned to invoke her 1992 book, "It Takes a Village," to bolster the point made by Clinton and her surrogates that the idea has been a guiding principle throughout her life, not a politically expedient talking point. It is a case they built throughout the week, seeking to draw a contrast with Trump, who was depicted as a charlatan who showed no regard for the working class until he needed its votes.
Clinton entered the convention in a strangely precarious position for a candidate who starts the fall campaign as a solid favorite to win the White House.
She is nowhere close to putting the contest away, and not just because there are three presidential debates scheduled and more than 100 days remaining before the Nov. 8 election.
Clinton is mistrusted and deeply disliked by a significant portion of the voting public; indeed, possibly the best thing she has going politically is the fact that repeated polls show Trump to be even more disliked and more deeply distrusted.
The four days of lavish tributes and glossy production were an effort to reintroduce Clinton to the tens of millions of Americans tuning into the convention far from the boisterous hall _ at least to the extent possible for a figure so deeply ingrained in political and popular culture.
Public opinion polls will show in the coming days whether the convention succeeds in that goal. But whether it does will still rely in large part on Clinton herself, who will stand alone on center stage Thursday night, seeking to use her own voice and say in her own words why she more than Trump is qualified to lead the country and where, given the opportunity, she would take America over next four years.
Bill Clinton, a national political newcomer at the time, entered the 1992 Democratic convention as a considerable underdog and benefited from a masterfully executed convention that reversed his political fortunes almost immediately.
By Hillary Clinton's own assessment, she is nowhere near the political performer that her husband is. And she is one of the best-known women in the world, making it vastly more difficult to change perceptions.
But those facts helped diminish expectations for what is, without a doubt, the most important speech of her more than 40 years in political life.
Clinton also has a secondary task. She must unite a party still divided over her primary battle with Sanders.
Hard feelings carried over to the convention, where the mere mention of Clinton's name elicited boos and catcalls on opening night.
The disgruntlement has dwindled as the week wore on, thanks in good part to Sanders' unqualified endorsement and efforts to tamp down dissent by urging backers to follow his example. Polls show that the overwhelming majority of Sanders' primary voters are prepared to do so.
But small pockets of resistance persisted, in occasional shouts rising from the convention floor and scattered anti-Clinton demonstrations around the city.
