It was, in its choreography and its tone, a symbolic passing of the torch. Against the spectacular backdrop of an illuminated Independence Hall, where the founding fathers signed the United States into existence, and a crowd of 33,000 people standing in the chill of the Philadelphia night, this was to be the night that Barack Obama handed over to Hillary Clinton one last time.
The crowds had begun to form early in the day for the final Clinton super-rally of the campaign – a star-studded evening with sets from Jon Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen followed by the appearance of Clinton's most important advocates together for the first time on the campaign trail: Chelsea, Bill, Michelle and President Obama himself.
Springsteen had joined Obama on stage in Cleveland at one of his final rallies in 2008 – an emotional and joyous night that seemed to encapsulate the giddy optimism then surging through that campaign. In Philadelphia on the eve of the 2016 election, the mood was more muted – partly as a result of the vast open-air venue, but also because, for Democrats across the United States, joy at the thought of Clinton winning is tinged with anxiety and fear at the prospect of her losing. "We're scared to death of the alternative, we really are," said Colleen Loughlin, a lifelong Democrat who travelled from Atlantic City with her husband Dennis. "She needs to win."
For Michelle Obama, speaking here was "perhaps the last and most important thing I can do for our country as first lady." She implored the audience: "We need to do everything we can to get [HILLARY]elected president of the United States."
‘Right side of history’
In his own brief remarks between songs, Springsteen contrasted Clinton’s idealism and vision with that of “a man whose vision is limited to little beyond himself.” He appealed to the crowd: “Let’s all do our part so that we can look back on 2016 and say, we stood with Hillary Clinton on the right side of history.”
Philadelphia was chosen not just for its elegant symbolism. The city is in Pennsylvania, a vital swing state where Donald Trump has been campaigning hard in the hope of cutting into Clinton's lead in the polls. This was Clinton's fifth rally in the state in three days – a sign of the seriousness with which her campaign views the Trump offensive in a state with a large white working-class population.
Chiara Sauter, a Philadephia-based barista, came along because she felt she couldn't miss "history in the making", but she was taking nothing for granted. "She better win. It doesn't make sense if she doesn't," Sauter said. "My fear is that people don't go out to vote – people who have been so turned off by everything that has been happening in this campaign." And if Clinton were to lose? "I'm moving to Canada, " she responded.
The rally was a coming together of the past, present and – all going to plan – future of the Democratic Party. As such, it focussed as much on achievements already logged as ambitions yet to be fulfilled, placing Hillary Clinton in a continuum that ran from her husband's presidency through Obama's eight years in the White House.
Obama told the audience that under the last two Republican presidents, job growth was "basically flat" and deficits went up. Under "our two Democratic presidencies," he said with Bill Clinton as his shoulder, jobs went up by more than 30 million, deficits went down and millions more Americans gained health insurance. "So, yes, with Democrats in charge, America is stronger," he said. But his own accomplishments would be for nothing unless Hillary could build on them, he added.
On what he acknowledged would be one of his last public speeches as president, Obama struck a valedictory note. He conceded that he hadn’t counted on the obstruction of Republicans in his first year in office, didn’t anticipate “the way social media would magnify our differences and muddy up facts.”
In 2008, he said, nobody knew how deep the the Great Recession would cut or how it would make so many people anxious about their futures. “But despite all that… I still believe in hope. I’m still as optimistic as ever about our future,” he said.
Closing pitch
In her closing pitch to American voters, Clinton has struck an optimistic note, seeking to contrast her own upbeat and inclusive vision of the country’s future with the dystopian worldview of Donald Trump. “Our core values have been tested in this election,” she told the crowd in Philadelphia. “The real question for us is what kind of country we want to be and what kind of future we want to build for our children.”
Facing the biggest crowd of her campaign, on the eve of the biggest day of her life, Clinton framed the election as an epochal choice. “Tomorrow we face the test of our time,” she said. “Every issue you care about is at stake.”
When Clinton and Obama appeared on stage together, they embraced and waved to the crowds before Obama returned to the podium and a little awkwardly pulled out a step for Clinton to stand on. The microphone picked him up telling her that when she became president it would be there permanently.
With that, Obama gave the crowd one final salute before moving briskly offstage. Clinton stepped up, smiled broadly and paused to take in the acclaim.
