Hillary steps into Philadelphia convention: what she faces

When Hillary Clinton steps onto the stage at Philadelphia's Pennsylvania Convention Center n Monday, the presumptive Democratic candidate, for president of the United States, breaks not only the largest old boys club in the country, but brings with it a mass of emotions, feelings, and expectations, not all of them from well wishers. It has been said that this is the first presidential election where both candidates lead with highly unfavorable stats, with most going to the Republican nominee, Donald Trump.

A recent ABC News/Washington Post poll said that both Clinton and Trump have high unfavorability ratings, especially among white men, with she showing a 43-55 favorable/unfavorable divide. In a characteristic, some might say ironic twist, Clinton, or in the nomenclature of celebrity culture -- Hillary -- has taken her history of success, along with some serious blunders (like the private email server) and gone beyond them to show what she has always had: a dogged determination to create a stronger and more progressive profile to American politics and life, for all Americans.

The issues that confront her are uneviable: dogged and established police brutality against African Americans, an economy that slowly has struggled to regain a sense of balance, despite the addition of 14.8 million jobs added, in the aftermath of the Great Recession. This crisis, created in the U.S. by unregulated, and often draconian financial traders, forces the hand of reformers to hold tight the reins of regulation; also an offshore role for the 21st century, where America has transgressed that of the “greatest generation” and looks at a vastly different world, than post World War II yielded. The nation also faces a domestic society that has undergone dramatic recognition of the civil rights of gay men and women, with the right to marry, and adopt children, as desired, but whose national rights agenda still retains problematic.

As she looks East she may not be able to see Russia, but  if elected, she will face a determined Vladimir Putin who may want to test her mettle. Hovering in the background is the legacy of Afghanistan and Iraq - wars that have drained the country’s coffers, as well as much of the old respect, and where a conundrum remains, along with the Taliban.

Terrorism -- and its redolent bloodbath -- will not take a backseat, and leadership on that issue, before another target  has been spotted will be crucial, for all Americans. The coda to terrorism abroad are domestic ISIS supporters, as well as those with assault rifles determined to carry out a warped agenda of hate and criminality.

All these, and more, face Hillary Clinton as she steps into the glare of Klieg lights in that historic place, the birthplace of the Constitution, the home of luminaries, such as Benjamin Franklin, (and once the nation’s capital) - making  it all the more auspicious for a new look, a different paradigm, for the 21st century, as the November election looms ahead.