US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS:Democrats turn first day of convention from discord to unity

With apologies and pleas, Democrats did everything possible to turn the first day of their convention from discord to unity – to emerge looking ahead to a party unified for victory in November. 

Late in the evening when Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders emerged, loud applause kept the insurgent candidate from even speaking for several minutes.  Delegates who had booed the prospect of a Hillary Clinton presidency earlier in the day seemed to accept Sanders’ plea to support her against Donald Trump in the November election.  They chanted his name and mouthed along with familiar slogans from his campaign rallies even in what seemed to be the last moment of the 74-year-old’s unlikely candidacy.  

“Any objective observer will conclude that, based on her ideas and her leadership, Hillary Clinton must become the next president of the United States. The choice is not even close,” Sanders told the crowd.

On the floor of the convention, there were cheers, but when Sanders spoke to a group of his own supporters earlier, he encountered jeers and boos as he urged that they join Clinton. 

VOA