Joe Biden will accept the Democratic presidential nomination on Thursday evening, a long-sought victory that comes more than 30 years after he first ran for president, and as America faces a moment of extraordinary national turmoil.
Biden, 77, denied the chance to accept the nomination before a roaring crowd by the coronavirus pandemic, will deliver his remarks from a silent ballroom near his home in Wilmington, Delaware, on the last night of the virtual Democratic national convention.
With less than three months left before the election, Biden remains in a strong position, consistently leading Donald Trump in national and battleground state polls, though his lead has narrowed a little in recent weeks.
Democrats are largely exhilarated by his running mate, Kamala Harris, who on Wednesday night accepted her place in American history as the first Black woman and first Asian American to be nominated to a national presidential ticket.
The nomination caps a decades-long quest for Biden, who has sought the presidency intermittently since 1987. In his first run, as a young senator, Biden ran as a generational change candidate but his campaign ended ignobly amid a plagiarism scandal and a sense that he lacked a policy core.
Twenty years later, he ran again, on a platform that emphasized his long record and experience. But he faded in the primary race, outshined by the history-making candidacies of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
In his own telling, Obama told Biden that when he offered him the role of vice-president, he hoped the job would be the “capstone” of his political career, to which Biden replied: “And not the tombstone.”
Biden again considered running in 2016. But after the death of his eldest son, Beau, he formally ruled out the possibility, in a decision many believed extinguished once and for all his dream of occupying the Oval Office.
However, driven by Trump’s equivocation on the white nationalist violence that erupted in Charlottesville, Biden entered the 2020 race with the imperative to “restore the soul of our nation”.
The speakers at the convention on Wednesday, which included several of his former primary rivals, were a reflection of how uncertain Biden’s path to the nomination was. He faced the most diverse field of candidates that had even run, and that better embodied a young, diverse and increasingly progressive Democratic party. But after faltering early stumbles, he staged a comeback with the help of Black voters in South Carolina.
“Every American must now decide: can America be a place where faith is about healing and not exclusion?” Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who ran against Biden in the primary, is expected to say on Thursday night.
“Can we become a country that lives up to the truth that Black lives matter? Will we handle questions of science and medicine by turning to scientists and doctors? What will we do to make America into a land where no one who works full time can live in poverty.”
Biden’s children, Hunter Biden and Ashley Biden, are expected to introduce their father. While Ashley has been a presence on the campaign, hosting events for Biden, Hunter has largely remained behind the scenes since Republicans turned his past work for a Ukrainian gas company while his father was vice-president into a political liability.
Trump was ultimately impeached by the House over his efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate the Bidens. Despite ongoing efforts by Trump allies to show otherwise, there is no evidence of corruption by either Biden.
Earlier in the week, prominent Republicans including former governor John Kasich testified to his character and consensus-minded approach to governing while progressive leaders such as Senator Elizabeth Warren raised the possibility that Biden had the opportunity to be a transformational figure who would usher in sweeping economic and social change.
Yet sharply produced videos and soaring speeches glossed over the internal divisions that simmer below the show of party’s unity against the Trump presidency.
Many progressives are uncomfortable with Biden’s pragmatism, his ties to Wall Street and his verbal miscues, particularly on issues of race.
His age, and his own insinuations that he might only serve one term, if elected, have intensified the focus on Harris, who many view as the future of the party that is increasingly diverse, female and pluralistic. Though Democrats widely embraced her as the vice-presidential nominee, some progressives remain skeptical of her prosecutorial record.
Andrew Yang, a tech entrepreneur who centered his 2020 presidential campaign around the issue of universal basic income, is expected to ask voters to “give them the chance.”
“They understand the problems we face,” he will say. “They are parents and patriots who want the best for our country.”
source https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/20/joe-biden-dnc-2020-nomination-democrat-accepts
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