>> hillary clinton and the democrats had their big moment. how did she do, and who's in the best position as we now head towards election day? let's get the inside story. [ theme music plays ] good morning. i'm tamala edwards. welcome to "inside story." we survived. [ laughter ] the two conventions are over. we have an expanded panel to talk about the democrats this week and the bigger picture, looking at both conventions. let's introduce you to everybody here and say good morning. first up -- terry madonna, our pollster -- everybody's pollster. sharmain matlock-turner, a nonprofit executive. >> good morning. >> and another nonprofit executive -- donna gentile o'donnell. >> good morning, "tam." >> and on this side -- we saw you in cleveland -- we've got val digiorgio, gop state official. >> good morning, tamala. >> brian tierney, a marketing exec. >> how you doing, tamala? >> and attorney christine flowers. >> hey, tam. >> so, hillary clinton -- a big buildup all week to what would happen when she came out.

donald trump -- we saw big themes, trouble at home and abroad. he was somewhat here. she chose to somewhat get in the weeds and say, "it's about the details," a technocrat, essentially, approach. let's listen to some of what she had to say. >> so, it's true -- i sweat the details of policy, whether we're talking about the exact level of lead in the drinking water in flint, michigan... [ cheers and applause ] ...the number of mental-health facilities in iowa, or the cost of your prescription drugs. [ cheering continues ] because it's not just a detail if it's your kid, if it's your family. it's a big deal. and it should be a big deal to your president, too. [ cheers and applause ] >> so, now that we've heard the speech, the question is, did she do what she needed to do with that speech? >> she absolutely did. i mean, one of the things that i thought was so impressive and so important is that she managed to not only demonstrate that she's

presidential in terms of her commitment to lead, but she showed us a side of her humanity last night that i've never seen. i mean, i've known hillary clinton and have followed her career, and i was stunned by the level of humanity that she was able to convey about herself and her circumstances. she did it. >> brian, you're a marketing exec. you tell people how to market themselves. did she do what she needed to do to get those people in the middle, maybe even peel off some republicans? did you hear the things they needed to hear? >> yeah, i think she had a good speech, and i think it was a great week for the democrats. and, frankly, i think the way the convention built throughout it, with michelle obama and the others, the president -- the vice president did a terrific job. i think, in her speech, what she wanted to do was to contrast herself to somebody who's speaking and donald trump -- i mean, partly it's, "how am i different than donald trump?" so by talking about a little bit of the details and talking about that, a little personal story, i think she covered a lot of good bases for herself. >> and -- >> go ahead. >> and so i agree with both donna and brian, and i think that -- much to my dismay -- i

think that this convention actually was a better orchestrated one than the rnc, only because, you look at the reaction from people on the other side -- if you looked in the "twitterverse" and you looked at the response of commentators, conservatives, people from the gop, were actually dismayed at how well this convention presented hillary's platform. they were saying they were taking a page from the old gop. they included so many different layers of what the gop was and repackaged it and presented it on a democratic stage. >> did it make you think of 1984? >> i would posit a different viewpoint altogether. i think it was a disaster for them, for her. i thought it was a schizophrenic convention. on the one hand, hillary's a change maker, an agent of change, which her husband said, but, on another hand, she's tied to a third term of obama. obama made sure he embraced her, and she embraced him. i thought it was a schizophrenic message at best, both in terms of rolling out hillary -- which, by my count, is the fourth time

we're rolling hillary out to the american public -- but also the democratic party's message. on the one hand, america is a bad place -- black youths are being killed indiscriminately on the streets, income inequality is off the charts, women are underpaid, and on and on. but yet, you go into that convention, and america is a great country, a good country, and now she's the change -- >> we'll get into some of the facts and the different views of the two conventions in just -- >> but what was the message of that convention? i don't know there was. >> well, the message was, first of all, they had to make secretary clinton likable. she's not, by nature, likable. they had to make her convincing -- i hate this -- but make her "human." gosh, i hate that expression, but it gets used all the time. and that's why you heard from president clinton, and look what chelsea did, and i think they did a pretty good job of it. but in the end, the guy sitting across from me is right about one thing. you're in the establishment for 30 years, you're part of it, yet she has to become a change agent in a change election, and that's the difficulty that she faces. the last point i would make is that, basically, the theme was

to make trump -- i'll be honest -- dangerous. "he's too dangerous to be commander in chief." that was a primary goal, to raise so many questions about trump's ability to lead, make him commander in chief, look at how he acts, and i think that was a huge message out of the convention, as well. >> we keep hearing -- speaking of change agents -- that this election is about people who say, "i don't like any of the above. i'm just gonna blow it all up." oftentimes, white, working-class voters. do you think the democrats did what they needed to do to reach them? >> well, i think, first and foremost, the democrats reached out to their base. i mean, i was there last night, and i thought they did a really nice job of leading up to the speech -- the film that they did on her life, helping people to sort of understand where she came from. i think the story about her mother and her mother's life and how that really influenced how she is and how tough she is and can really take on tough situations, i thought it was done very, very well. so i think, absolutely, they worked well for their base, and

i think they have an opportunity to get independents and some republican women. >> how did we do for philly? we saw booker from new jersey, we saw biden from delaware -- casey, we saw ramsey, we saw nutter. we saw a number of philly and surrounding people up there. and some people think that booker was a breakout for the democrats. did we do well in this convention? >> booker was terrific. he gave a fantastic speech. i thought it was breathtaking in terms of its energy and sort of the messaging of it. the mayor -- the mayor did a wonderful job of introducing the world to philadelphia in a different kind of way, and i think it really captured something important about our city. >> one thing about the booker speech -- it played a lot better in the hall than it did on television, so that's an interesting kind of a contrast. the other thing i'd say about the republican convention that i find troubling as somebody who has been involved in a lot of these over the years is the lack of organization. the melania trump speech -- that's bad staff work. the fact that they brought in a guy named bill greener, who i've known for 30-some years -- he's

a trusted hand. he came in late. that's why that was disorganized. so i worry about what it means for the next couple of months for the trump campaign if i was... >> and, you know, to brian's point, what they did -- for example, you know, with the debbie wasserman schultz debacle at the very beginning of the dnc, you'd think, "okay, this is gonna be in shambles." and yet they recovered extremely well. you know, i do want to say one thing, though, about the passion of cory booker and some of the other speakers. i felt -- although booker is -- i actually like him a great deal. i had a sore throat listening to him. i felt like i was being shouted at, and i kept thinking, "you know, tomorrow, people are gonna be talking about the passion, the mlk sort of, like, vigor of this young man." and i kept thinking they called rudy giuliani -- you know, he was on caffeine. i mean, he had the same passion. he's an older man, obviously, and didn't have the same

message, but it's like reichenbach. the perspective is different. >> the bigger message here was the democratic party is building not on this election but a decade and two decades away. diversity and inclusion were the two big themes, to pick up on what my colleague said. i don't know that they've reached out to the white, working-class voters. there wasn't a lot of message there that i think resonated with them. but certainly, when you look at millennials, when you look at the rise in the number of hispanics especially in key battleground states, you could see where the democratic party is heading in the next decade. >> let's talk a little bit about overall themes. i want to do this. let's run a little bit of some of what you heard this week from various speakers. [ cheers and applause ] >> for four years, i had a front-row seat to her intelligence, her judgment, and her discipline. >> how can there be pleasure in saying, "you're fired"? he's trying to tell us he cares

about the middle class? give me a break! that's a bunch of malarkey! >> there is no doubt in my mind that hillary clinton is the right choice this november. together, let's elect a sane, competent person... >> she's a woman driven by compassion, by faith, by a fierce sense of justice, and a heart full of love. >> these are some of the notes that i wrote down as i was listening to various speeches -- "dark versus light, decline versus ascent, go back versus the future, debbie downer versus pollyanna." >> mm-hmm. >> which one worked? >> mars versus venus. >> very much so. >> and hope versus fear. i mean, in the end, i think that the real message here is about, you know, do we think that, working together, we're gonna be able to make a difference and deal with the problems, the issues that we have. or do we need to divide us in

order to do it? and i think that, ultimately, the message was a very hopeful one. >> but, christine, you wrote a column about this saying, "that all sounds great, but, for a lot of people on the street, that's not how it feels." >> yeah, reality versus fantasy sometimes. we were talking about, for example -- i read a story on the front page of the new york times, and they had pictures of some of the 247 people who had been murdered by islamic jihad in the first two weeks of march. and while i was happy to see last night that the democrats did address -- they had general allen, i believe it was, get up there and address the issue of terror -- that was almost at the end. it was tacked on at the end. and i know that republicans were criticized for the darth vader darkness of their convention, but at least they were being pragmatic and saying, "we live in a dangerous world." and i do think that the man in the street didn't like pollyanna and lollipops and flowers. >> i want to follow up on this. because of this, i dug into figures. if you look at the numbers,

trump talked about a 17% spike in crime in the cities, but the national trend line is down. if you take a look at immigration, there was a spike in 2014. the trend line, though, is down. if you take a look at manufacturing jobs, when george w. bush left office there were 12½ million -- 12.3 million over obama. the facts don't seem to follow up on a negative picture, but, often, you'll hear republicans saying it's about a feeling. which one wins? is it the facts or the feelings? >> it's gonna be both. i think, first of all, it's an important point that donald trump never lets the facts get in the way of a good story, the story he wants to tell. that's number one. the second thing is he is ginning up a lot of fear and anxiety, and people have legitimate reasons to be fearful and anxious, but that is not the basis for a president to get elected -- nor to govern. >> i keep hearing republicans say, "how do you feel? people don't feel good." >> median income is down both in terms of the last 8 years and over the last 12. manufacturing jobs have left this country since nafta --

tens of millions of manufacturing jobs. people are feeling it in their wallets. they feel insecure in terms of what folks that are coming over the border. the democratic party now wants a world without borders, apparently, even though, just a few years ago, hillary clinton was in favor of building a fence. so people are insecure out there both economically and in the feeling of isis on the rampage -- a priest murdered on the altar this week and nary a mention of it in the democratic -- so these are real issues, and donald trump spoke to those, and who's gonna be able to make this country feel safe, who's gonna put it back on the right track is where this election -- >> so, i agree with that, and there is a sense of the country's in the wrong direction, but if you want to see a much more effective speech, youtube ronald reagan's 1980 detroit speech. i was in the room. i later went into the reagan administration. i was there. it was a tough -- he talked about where we were going the wrong way, but you left with a sense of hope and optimism. you really left feeling good that this man would lead you. so i do think you have to touch the base of being reality -- people saying that we're on the wrong direction, things aren't

where they should be, but then have you leave feeling like, "but they can get better." 'cause i think that's fundamentally the optimism of the american spirit. >> and ronald reagan have the advantage of two terms as a governor. >> presidential campaigns, the successful ones have always been about a sense of optimism in the future, whether you're talking about fdr or john f. kennedy or ronald reagan. that's the american way. and in that sense, i think the democrats did catch that more than the republicans, but here's the problem. i mean, and this is ironic. if you now ask people about their condition, to go to val's point, everything he said is right. eight years of the obama administration, and many people still feel -- 70% now -- the country's moving in the wrong direction, but president obama's job performance is 50%-plus. it's not uncommon towards the end of an administration. >> let's talk really quickly about donald trump because he was not quiet. that man loves to tweet. [ laughter ] and he also got himself in a bit of a pickle talking about hillary's e-mails, which were the dnc e-mails that were released by wikileaks, saying,

"russia, go find hillary's e-mails," and a big back-and-forth around that. is this a problem for him in this week? >> did he get himself in a pickle? because on tuesday -- i guess it was tuesday or wednesday -- instead of talking about the democratic convention, we were talking about e-mails again. >> no, we were talking about him and does a leader say that. >> well, i don't know, but the point is we were talking about e-mails. >> no, we were talking about him making another outrageous statement that absolutely made no sense whatsoever. >> you had paul ryan, you had his own vp candidate say, "no, we're not going there." we were talking about that. did he get in the way of what he wanted to do this week? >> i think he took the democrats off message for at least that evening. >> i'll tell you what, i've never voted for a democrat for president in my life, and i've voted since 1976. i ran "penn students for ford," reagan admin-- all that -- ran "catholics for bush" in 2000. i got to tell you, i keep trying to get there with trump, but on the putin thing -- when he talked about nato, for me, it was like, "you can't call into question nato." you're inviting real problems for our country -- real problems

for our country. if putin thinks that you won't defend poland, we're risking something that's cata-- so i feel like, for a lot of my republican friends, it's like, when you talk about hillary clinton, "i can't stand the lies, the e-mails, the 'is is,' 'i did not have a sexual rela--'" all that kind of stuff. but i do feel like, fundamentally, i know how bad it could get. and with trump -- not on the domestic things and all that stuff -- you know, you get worried about something like nato could really cause a fundamental change that, 50 years from now, we'd still be feeling. >> here's the question. >> and it upsets me. >> and it better be quick 'cause we got to go to break. >> would a john kasich have easily won the general election? >> yes. >> we'll keep talking in the break, but we got to take a break. >> four or five other people. >> this special edition of "inside story" is brought to you by temple university -- explore temple's impact -- temple.edu/impact... and buick -- your philadelphia super network buick dealer. [ theme music plays ]

it's a pretty simple question:

is pat toomey's agenda your agenda? toomey voted seven times to defund planned parenthood. he even tried to shut down the federal government in order to eliminate funding for planned parenthood. and toomey's against a woman's right to choose and supports overturning roe v. wade which would allow states to criminalize abortion. pat toomey: he's focused on his own agenda, not us. majority forward is responsible for the content of this advertising. fios is not cable. we're wired differently. so we wired the wagner's house with 100 meg internet. which means that in the time it takes mr. wagner to pour a 20 oz. cup of coffee, tommy can download 30 songs, and jan can upload 120 photos. 12 seconds. that's the power of fiber optics. and right now you can get 100 meg internet with equal upload and dowloads speeds, tv and phone for just $69.99 per month online. cable can't offer internet speeds this fast at a price this good. only fios can.

[ theme music plays ] >> welcome back to our special edition taking a look at the dnc convention and a little bit of the rnc. terry, let's talk about a poll out from suffolk university up in new york saying that they've got hillary up by eight over trump in pennsylvania. what do you make of the poll? >> and katie mcginty in the senate race up. i mean, i'm not a big fan of doing polls during the week of a convention when there's lots of folks watching and not watching. and the other aspect about this -- they actually

interviewed more people in northeastern pa than they did in southeastern pennsylvania. i kind of think there are more people down here than up in northeast. but we don't want to look at -- you really want to look at polls by the middle of august. >> okay. >> 'cause that's when they'll settle down, the dust will settle, and we'll get a real sense about moving forward. >> speaking of settling down, the sanders' supporters were an issue all week, no matter what he said. how much of an issue is this for her as she leaves and tries to unify? >> i think it was obvious that she wants to bring them in. i think every speaker last night who came on the stage said, you know, "bernie sanders, you've done a great job. your supporters -- we really want you there." even though there were still a few hecklers in the hall last night, she continued to talk and reach out to them, and so i think she's gonna continue to do that. the polls, as terry knows, they're saying that 90% of his supporters are gonna vote for her. so i think there a few people on the fringes, but i think she'll get their vote. >> and, you know, tam, what sharmain said is right. about 90% will vote for her

anyway because of the alternative. so i think that she needs to have her eye on the independent voters, and she moved very far to the -- or farther to the left than she's ever been. she needs to ratchet it back if she wants to attract the independent voters, i think, even those who aren't "social conservatives." >> well -- >> we wanted -- >> i'm so sorry. there's two independents that i think are important to mention -- michael bloomberg, who spoke, and george will, who left the republican party, signed up as an independent. >> very quickly -- >> i do want to say -- >> well, if you guys want to get your big takeaway, we better start now. so everybody gets a moment to say their big takeaway from this week. terry, we'll start with you. >> i think both conventions performed reasonably well. we thought the republican convention was not very good, and what happens? trump gets a four-point bounce to show you how much we know. i think they both were reasonably effective in galvanizing their supporters. one final point -- i don't think secretary clinton can move anywhere to the middle and not

risk losing the very liberal support that she worked so hard to court. >> well, my takeaway was that this really was a presentation of what the diversity of america looks like. when i watched the number of african-american elected officials from the south who gave some of the earlier speeches and i talked to people from virginia and georgia and florida during the week, they really believe that their states are gonna be there for hillary clinton, primarily because of minorities and women. >> donna. >> i agree with everything sharmain just said. i do think that hillary will triumph. i think this convention was a triumph from start to finish, beginning with the first lady, following with president clinton's essentially reciting her résumé to remind people all of the things that she's done, and then our current president just reminding everyone what she has done. and then, last night, her humility and her humanity played itself out in a very important way. >> christine. >> you know, tam, my 7-year-old

nephew loves dinosaurs, and i'm beginning to feel like a dinosaur as a social conservative. neither the rnc nor the dnc spoke to me, made me feel comfortable about issues that are close to my heart, including abortion, including traditional marriage. so my takeaway is that, no matter what happens, i'm still going to have a problem with whoever's elected. >> brian. >> i think both conventions did certain things. probably the democratic convention, as it relates to the outside world, was more successful in terms of being on message throughout the whole thing. the other part i'll add to it is i think the city of philadelphia won big time whether you're a republican or democrat. it's very proud to see around the world, these german television people, these folks from different countries, all saying how great the city was. >> and our police officers, they were amazing. big "up" to commissioner ross and all of our great philadelphia police officers. val. >> yeah, having been in cleveland, we came out unified out of that convention. there was some question as to whether we would. i think the democrats did the same thing this week. i think now the rest of the campaign is it's hillary clinton as the agent of change, or is

she the agent of the obama administration in a third term versus donald trump addressing the frustrations of the american people that are very real and out there. and we're gonna see which of those two messages resonates. >> and everybody had wondered two things. donors -- will we get the donor list? does it matter? the e-mail scandal out of the dnc -- does it have legs? quickly, any thoughts on that? >> the donor list i think is a manufactured issue. those lists don't come out. you're gonna find the kinds of corporations that support a lot of civics things got involved, and it's kind of -- >> i don't think it's a big deal either. i mean, both conventions are the same. i think the real question is, "do we want to get back to some kind of public financing?" because the reason that you have these big donor lists is because you no longer have any public financing. >> are the e-mails gonna be ugly for the democrats as we get into august? those wikileaks e-mails. >> i think the bigger question about the e-mails is the issue of donald trump calling on the russians to engage in a kind of espionage, which is unprecedented. that's a big deal. >> well, we'll see if that's the

story. all right, let's take a short break and come back for your inside stories. celebrate something really special this summer at blinds to go's annual storewide sale going on now. buy one, get one at half price. hundreds of styles and colors. every item through the store. buy one get one at half price. that's something to celebrate! blinds to go. blinds for life. donald trump: i could stand in the middle of 5th avenue i'm hillary clinton and i approve this message. and shoot somebody and i wouldn't lose any voters, okay? and you can tell them to go f--- themselves! you know, you could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever... you gotta see this guy. ahh, i don't know what i said, ahh.

"i don't remember." he's going like "i don't remember!"

>> this special edition of "inside story" is brought to you by temple university. explore temple's impact. temple.edu/impact. and buick, your philadelphia super network buick dealer. >> welcome back to "inside story." time for our insiders to give us their inside story. terry. >> well, next week, franklin & marshall college, 6abc. we'll get a poll. we're gonna take a look at pennsylvania voters. did you watch the conventions? did it affect your vote? and not the least, a lot of issues. >> we'll see where it stands. val. >> well, one thing that was happening at the republican convention in the pennsylvania delegation was talk about who's gonna be the next governor, and people think governor wolf is weak. and there were some folks there, like congressman mike kelly and senator scott wagner and our own former lieutenant governor jim cawley, all folks being talked about running for republican for governor.

>> all right. sharmain. >> donna brazile, reverend leah daughtry, julie coker, and tiffany numinous. these were women behind the scenes making that democratic convention really, really one. congratulations, ladies. >> brian. >> walking down the street, ran into former governor and mayor ed rendell. and it struck me as i was walking away, working in the city, none of this seemed possible 25 years ago. and his leadership and what he did put the whole city -- and then the rnc and the pope and everything comes after that. >> all right. donna. >> the other unsung heroes are the pennsylvania building trades and the people who put that extraordinary convention together literally piece by piece. they had a war room set up, which nobody knew about, in the basement of local 98. >> all right. and christine, last word. >> tam, this is the year of the woman. women are supposed to bring some levity and some balance to the ticket. somebody forgot to tell katie mcginty that the civility, it goes both ways. she ended up calling pat toomey a word that i would spank my 7-year-old nephew for, so we need a little bit of perspective

on that. >> all right, well, you guys have been great. to wrap everything up, thank you all for being here. thank you for joining us. that's "inside story" for this week, and we will see you back here next sunday. ♪ >> i'm gray hall, coming up next on "action news," torrential rains make for a rough night in parts of the area. rain and thunderstorms could pop up again today. meteorologist chris sowers has latest from accuweather. >> several people involved in one car accident become victims of a another in east falls. and presidential concerned donald trump comes under fire for verbally attacking a forearm

of a u.s. soldier who died in rack. >> thank so much for joining

us, it is sunday, july 31. nydia han is off today i'm gray hall. here's some of the stories we're following on "action news," heavy rain brings flash floods and down trees to