Former President Bill Clinton’s speech offered an intimate tribute to Mrs. Clinton, describing for a rapt audience their courtship and early marriage — and their upward climb together in politics.  His most telling praise, however, was about Mrs. Clinton’s grit as a reformer. With Donald J. Trump casting the 2016 election as a choice between drastic change and an unhappy status quo, the former president insisted that Mrs. Clinton, rather than her opponent, is best prepared to wrest change from an unwilling system.  Mr. Clinton asked voters to cast aside the “cartoon” version of Mrs. Clinton promoted by Republicans, and urged them to think optimistically about the future. “Life in the real world is complicated, and real change is hard,” he said. Of his wife, Mr. Clinton said, “She is the best darn change-maker I have ever known.”  Democrats have long aimed to beat Mr. Trump by discrediting his promises of change. But Mr. Clinton’s speech confirmed that Democrats know they must do more than that, and that they must compete hard for the votes of people who want Washington overhauled from top to bottom.  Mr. Trump was rarely mentioned on Tuesday night; the night’s headliner, Mr. Clinton, did not mention him at all. But the most prominent speakers who went after Mr. Trump attacked him on a notable theme: his friendly stance toward President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.  Gov. Terry McAuliffe of Virginia warned against “giving the nuclear codes to a man who praises Vladimir Putin and Saddam Hussein.” Madeleine Albright, a former secretary of state, rebuked Mr. Trump for praising those two leaders and Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea. And she alluded to the release of hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee to suggest outright that Russia is boosting Mr. Trump.  “Putin is eager to see Trump win,” Ms. Albright said, “and that should worry every American.”  Mr. Trump has dismissed suggestions that Mr. Putin is trying to help him, but he has also not shied away from praising the Russian strongman. Democrats signaled that they intend to tie him closely to Mr. Putin in the fall campaign.  Republicans had a simple message last week on policing, led by Mr. Trump’s blunt calls for stronger “law and order.” Democrats had to deliver a more nuanced set of views — voicing the party’s mounting concerns about racial bias in policing, while paying tribute to law enforcement amid a rash of police killings.  That textured message came through in a series of speeches by lower-profile figures: black mothers who lost children to gun violence and in run-ins with the police, and a former New York City police detective who helped handle the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. And Eric H. Holder Jr., a former United States attorney general, called both for defending the police and for attacking inequities in the justice system.  “The majority of police officers are good people doing a good job,” said Lucia McBath, the mother of a black teenager in Florida who was shot and killed by a driver after an argument over loud music. “And we’re also going to keep using our voices and our votes to support leaders like Hillary Clinton, who will help us protect one another so that this club of heartbroken mothers stops growing.”  The worst of the Bernie Sanders-bloc tantrums may be over. After the roll-call vote that anointed Mrs. Clinton the Democratic nominee, dozens of Sanders supporters stormed out and encamped in one of the media tents, holding forth to throngs of reporters about their anger at the party and its presidential candidate.  But inside the hall, the loud disruptions of Monday evening had faded. When Mr. Clinton mentioned the trade deals of the 1990s, which Mr. Sanders has blasted, there was no jeering from the crowd. Mrs. Clinton will still have to shore up her support on the left, but the Democratic nightmare scenario — a convention plunged into chaos and recriminations — appears to have been averted.  For a party with an image of relative youth and dynamism, the Democrats showcased a very familiar set of faces. At times, the speaking lineup could have come out of a Democratic convention in 1996 or 2000: Ms. Albright; Mr. McAuliffe, a longtime Clinton ally; Donna Brazile, the acting party chairwoman who managed Al Gore’s 2000 campaign; and, most of all, Mr. Clinton himself.  There were newer stars who spoke on Monday — like Senators Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker — and others set to speak later in the week. But the convention’s second night highlighted the durability of a party establishment that has managed Democratic politics, on and off, for a quarter-century, holding onto power even during the anti-establishment 2016 campaign.  The lineup was striking, in part, because of the absence of similar leaders last week at the Republican National Convention, as the Bush family and its political network mostly sit out the 2016 race.
Hillary Clinton became the first female standard-bearer of a major party, and a lineup of Democrats, including former President Bill Clinton, offered revealing testimonials to her.