Washington Free Beacon managing editor Aaron MacLean appeared on Fox News Friday to discuss Hillary Clinton's speech on the final night of the Democratic National Convention and how it did not seem to succeed in reaching undecided voters.
He first addressed her trustworthiness issue that has been plaguing her campaign. He said that she did not confront this issue directly, but rather tried to make herself look more trustworthy than Republican opponent Donald Trump.
"You know, I didn't really see much of an effort to take on the trustworthy issue head-on," he said. "There was a lot of focus on her competence, on how she would be a competent president, and that's, of course, an implicit contrast to Donald Trump. The evidence for that competence, I thought was a little thin on the ground, if you actually listen to it—listen for evidence of specific accomplishments, particularly during her time as Secretary of State, there were some broad gestures, but not a lot of concrete things."
MacLean said that the Clinton campaign sees Trump as a scapegoat in her trustworthiness problems.
"I think the trustworthiness issue for the Clinton campaign is, in their view, sort of solved by Donald Trump rather than have to defend herself directly against charges that arise out of the email scandal, for example," he said. "All she has to do is talk about Trump. The idea is that Trump's untrustworthiness forgives whatever her own shortcomings might be in that department."
In another segment, MacLean added that she is "not a gifted speaker," an observation President Obama has made in the past.
"It just wasn't that fantastic of a speech," he said. "I kept expecting President Obama to sort of appear midway through and say, ‘Here let me finish this one for you, Secretary Clinton. I got it.’ He connected with the crowd in a way on Wednesday night that she just did not on Thursday."
Saying that it is was a fine speech, he discussed the possible relationship between this lack of great public speaking skills, unlike that of Obama, and how it hindered her ability to reach out to the undecided voters of America.
"It wasn't a bad speech. It was fine," he said. "I am not sure how much she reached out to Americans who don't support her, who haven't made up their minds yet."