“I guess I take it a little bit personally. You can’t let it get you down. You have to go out.”

— Donald Trump, quoted by Politico, on the attacks on him from Democrats.

President Obama “delivered a stirring valedictory address at the Democratic convention Wednesday night, hailing Hillary Clinton as his rightful political heir and the party’s best hope to protect democracy from ‘homegrown demagogues’ like the Republican Donald Trump,” the New York Times reports.

“Taking the stage to rapturous roars of ‘We love you’ and ‘Yes we can,’ Mr. Obama acknowledged that Democrats were still divided after a bruising nomination fight and that Mrs. Clinton had made ‘mistakes.'”

“But he vouched passionately for Mrs. Clinton as a trusted and reliable ally not just for him but for all Americans who need a fighter to improve their lives and keep them safe.”

Politico: “Before the speech, Obama’s aides had said that it would be more of a positive testimonial for Hillary Clinton than anything else. But Obama also delivered a passionate indictment of Donald Trump, casting him as a menace whose positions aren’t just on the other side of the political spectrum, but on a different spectrum all together.”

Politico: “It’s become a cliché to say that the more optimistic candidate usually wins presidential elections, but there isn’t much doubt which party stands for optimism these days. Trump has tried to make November a referendum on the state of the country, describing America as a disaster area that only he can clean up. Obama essentially said: Bring it on.”

New York Times: “After a wrenching yearlong nominating battle with searing debates over the influence of Wall Street and the ability of ordinary citizens to be heard over the din of dollars changing hands, the party’s moneyed elite returned to the fore this week, undeterred and mostly unabashed.”

The featured speakers tonight are President Obama, Vice President Biden and Sen. Tim Kaine.

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Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager challenged Donald Trump’s claim that he could be competitive in Democratic strongholds, urging the Republican nominee to stump in traditionally blue states, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Said Robby Mook: “I absolutely encourage Donald Trump to spend time campaigning in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey.”

Ezra Klein: “This isn’t normal behavior from a major American politician. It’s not even particularly normal behavior from Donald Trump. After he picked Mike Pence, empowered campaign chair Paul Manafort, and gave a structured convention speech, there looked to be a chance that Trump was unveiling a new, more sober persona for the general election. But he can’t do it. He can’t suppress his own mania for even a week.”

“It’s weird to keep saying this, but this is not okay. This is not a man with the temperament, the steadiness, the discipline to be president. The issue here isn’t left versus right, or liberal versus conservative, or Democrat versus Republican. It’s crazy versus not crazy. Donald Trump, of late, has been acting pretty crazy. That’s not acceptable in the job he’s running to fill.”

Donald Trump said that he “hoped Russia had hacked Hillary Clinton’s email, essentially encouraging an adversarial foreign power’s cyberspying on a secretary of state’s correspondence,” the New York Times reports.

Said Trump: “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”

Politico: “The discussion of Putin comes amid Democratic accusations that Russia was behind the hacking of the Democratic National Committee’s emails. Trump said that’s a “sideshow” to distract from the contents of the emails.”