Vice President Joe Biden reprised his many roles – Middle Class Joe, Obama Defender Joe, America First Joe – in a fiery takedown of Donald Trump and full-throated support of Hillary Clinton at the Democratic National Convention.
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On Wednesday night, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine accepted the party’s nomination as Clinton’s vice presidential running mate and in a speech described billionaire Trump as “a one-man wrecking crew” who can not be trusted in the Oval Office.
Obama’s keynote speech could be the final chance of his presidency to address a crowd of millions of people before a prime-time television audience.
All attacked Trump, who generated controversy earlier in the day by encouraging Russian Federation to find and make public emails deleted by Clinton – an extraordinary suggestion that a foreign power meddle in USA elections. “We don’t look to be ruled”.
Obama then placed his presidential legacy in Clinton’s hands, saying no man or woman had ever been as prepared to be president.
“That’s what Hillary Clinton understands”, Mr. Obama said. “The threats are too great, the times are too uncertain, to elect Donald Trump president of the United States. It will change their lives”. But Obama said that while Clinton “has put out very specific plans and programs and is telling you exactly what she’s going to do”, Trump has not. “And Michelle – I don’t know where you are, but you are incredible”. Let me talk about something that I’m deadly serious about.
Biden said: “We cannot elect a man who belittles our closest allies while embracing dictators like Vladimir Putin”. It’s not just who she is, it’s her life story.
It’s hard to think of a more flawless opener for Obama’s speech than Sharon Belkofer, the self-described “little old lady” from OH, who got up and did something no one did for Donald Trump at last week’s RNC: She testified to Obama’s character based on personal experience. It betrays our values. “We must unite around the candidate who can defeat a unsafe demagogue”, he said, in his speech.
He vouched for his former secretary of state’s national security credentials, praising her as someone who keeps her cool in a crisis and “never, ever quits”. There are pockets of America that never recovered from factory closures; men who took pride in hard work and providing for their families who now feel forgotten; parents who wonder whether their kids will have the same opportunities we had. “We Democrats have always had plenty of differences with the Republican Party, and there’s nothing wrong with that; it’s precisely this contest of ideas that pushes our country forward”.
“If you agree that there’s too much inequality in our economy, and too much money in our politics, we all need to be as vocal and as organized and as persistent as Bernie Sanders’ supporters have been”, Obama said. We simply cannot let that happen as Americans. The 21st century is going to be the American century because lead not only by our power but by the power of our example. That is the history of the journey of America.
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Giffords calls Hillary Clinton – the Democratic nominee for president – “tough” and “courageous”, and Giffords says Clinton, as president, will “stand up to the gun lobby”.
