Joe Biden Wanted For Arson After Burning Barn At DNC
Joe Biden Wanted For Arson After Burning Barn At DNC
Oh, that's just an expression? What a relief!
Joe Biden’s speech at the Democratic National Convention Monday night started late, well after primetime, as if the diehard convention-watchers would have worried too much about that. (Sorry East Coast.) Maybe we’re just not cynical enough, but we aren’t buying the Terminally Online notion that the speech was deliberately pushed back to somehow prevent viewers from being reminded that Biden is no longer the party’s nominee. That one’s pretty much out of the bag, we hear.
Besides, the fact that this was Biden’s big pass-the-torch moment was why everyone there —including Biden — started crying as soon as he came onstage. Biden dabbed at his eyes with a tissue, Tim Walz looked like he was on the verge of bawling, and the crowd kept applauding so loudly that Biden had to try several times to actually start. And then he made the case for his own legacy and for his successor, Kamala Harris. That was especially clear every time he’d mention a policy achievement and the crowd chanted “Thank you Joe!” — he’d remind them, to cheers, “… thank you Kamala, too!” But people are conditioned to three-beat chanting, so nobody really chanted all seven syllables of “Thank you Joe and Kamala.” Dave Brubeck could have pulled it off, we bet, but is not currently available.
Hey, here’s the video of Joe’s valedictory convention speech.
Biden’s speech was grateful, reflective, fiery, everything you’d want in what amounts to a farewell address, a few months early (all his speeches are going to sound a bit like farewells now). He gave Harris a wholehearted endorsement at every chance, noting that the achievements of his administration were a team effort. He reviewed all the things his administration has managed to do, most of it in just the first two years when Democrats held a tiny congressional majority: Infrastructure, jobs, rebuilding the economy after COVID, and passing the most significant climate legislation in history. He noted that he was the first president to ever walk a picket line, reminding me I need to order one of those “TRUMP IS A SCAB” shirts the UAW folks — including union President Shawn Fain — wore at the convention.
Throughout, Biden reminded the audience of the contrast between his and Harris’s administration and the dysfunction and chaos of Donald Trump, calling out Trump for his talk of America as a “failing nation,” his trashing of our allies, and his sucking up to dictators.
He says we’re “losing.” He’s the loser. He’s dead wrong. Many of you are very successful people who travel the world. Name me a country in the world that doesn’t think we’re the leading nation in the world.
If we had to guess, we’d go with China. But besides that! A little later, Biden added, “I never thought I’d stand before a crowd of Democrats and refer to a president as a liar so many times. No, I’m not trying to be funny. It’s sad.”
As we say: Good speech.
Biden also addressed the elephant — or donkey? — in the room directly, saying that he hadn’t been putsched or even shoved out of the campaign, explaining to any Maureen Dowds in the audience,
It’s been the honor of my lifetime to serve as your President. I love the job, but I love my country more. I love my country more.
And all this talk about how I’m angry with all those people who said I should step down — that’s not true. I love my country more, and we need to preserve our democracy.
This, of course, will only lead the Dowds out there to explain that of course he had to say it, but we don’t buy that either. When Biden pledged to become Harris’s “best volunteer” in the campaign, it was with the emotional tone of guy who knows he’s leaving the job in good hands — if we do the work to get her elected.
[Time speech transcript / Newsweek]
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I will love Joe, his killer smile, his blue blue eyes, and his honorable and decent, forever.
Biden undoubtedly has complicated feelings about stepping aside. And Biden fans can feel disappointed too. I’m a big fan of his, and I strongly feel he did the right thing stepping aside. Doubts about his age and ability to handle the stress and demands of the job were there even before the debate. His wobbly performance was a tipping point, clearly, and the threat of Trump 2.0 was far too serious to risk it. Nobody pushed him out, because as the incumbent potus, he could have refused to step aside and I believe he’d have rallied guarded support at the DNC. But the voices of people close to him, or that carried any weight, did influence his decision I’m sure. The renewed energy and enthusiasm for Harris and Walz is a strong indication that he was right.
Unfortunately, Joe Biden came to be tied to Donald Trump, first for dispatching him from the White House, and then for having to endure The Big Lie and the shameful campaign by Republicans to find dirt on he and his family to prove that Biden is impeachable just like Trump. America is ready to turn the page. For the second time, Biden is a big reason that Trump will not return to power.