Tom Wolf Bored the Hell Out of People at the DNC

It can’t be easy to speak at a big political convention, right?

I ask because Governor Tom Wolf was tasked with spending a couple of minutes behind the mic at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday night, knowing full well that the energized crowd of 20,000 people inside the Wells Fargo Center was silently counting down the minutes and hours until they got to see Hillary Clinton make history as the first female presidential nominee in American history.

Wolf is a polite, reserved guy by nature; there’s probably not a Howard Dean scream bone in his body. The convention crowd seemed to sense this right from the get-go, talking over his comments about how he used to run a family-owned company that makes kitchen cabinets.

Gov. Tom Wolf's nickname should be "dry toast."

— Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) July 29, 2016

https://twitter.com/JillBidenVeep/status/758820266520653828

https://twitter.com/adoerfler/status/758824486913179648

OK, tough crowd.

But Wolf’s experience in the business world served as a handy way to question Donald Trump‘s interest in helping average working-class people. Wolf recalled how his company showed it valued its employees by guaranteeing them good wages and benefits, a generous profit-sharing plan, and paid leave for new mothers.

Trump, by comparison, “runs his businesses so that they only help who? You guessed it, Donald Trump,” Wolf said, noting that the Republican presidential nominee refers to pregnant workers as “an inconvenience.” He harkened back to Trump’s six separate bankruptcy filings, arguing that Trump “used the process to enrich himself, while his employees were left out of luck.”

Clinton, Wolf said, would offer tax credits to companies that share their profits with their workers, and would fight for a higher minimum wage, 12 weeks of paid family leave and affordable childcare. “We need a president who believes that our society can only succeed when economic prosperity is broadly shared,” Wolf said.

Wolf was followed by former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, who electrified the crowd with a rousing speech that included a mocking impression of Trump, and quips like: “Donald, you’re so vain. You probably think this speech is about you.”

https://twitter.com/scottbix/status/758823110715973633

Jennifer Granholm's audition for a cabinet position seems to have gone well.

— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) July 29, 2016

Follow @dgambacorta on Twitter.