A grateful party watches Biden pass the torch
President gave successor an elegant handoff. Not every VP gets one like this
David Jacobsen arrived wearing Joe Biden-style aviator sunglasses Monday at the start of the Democratic convention, in honour of the candidate he'd expected to nominate this week.
Peter Hancon, for his part, had won a delegate spot from Texas with a personal rallying cry at a state selection selection meeting earlier this year.
"My slogan … was 'Octogenarian for Joe,'" said Hancon, who notes he's 81, just like Biden.
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These are fans of the outgoing U.S. president. They were his delegates. Yet, like the vast majority of delegates assembled in Chicago, they're quickly turning the page to the Kamala Harris era.
Jacobsen said he was devastated by Biden's poor debate performance against Donald Trump in June; he insists the president could still have won re-election, but said it's undeniable that the change in the ticket has had a salutary effect on the party.
"The enthusiasm!" said the delegate from northern Florida, a retired public-health educator, referring to a burst in fundraising, polls, and grassroots activity
"People are energized. Particularly young people."
Hancon said he's feeling good at this convention – this is 56 years after he was at the last convention, also in Chicago, where a sitting president abandoned the nomination.
That time, in 1968, Hancon was with the National Guard, protecting the site, but he said his sympathies lay with the anti-Vietnam war protesters.
That ill-fated convention has now differed in an important respect from Chicago in 2024. Joe Biden has given the speech that Lyndon Johnson didn't.
Biden, in this respect, is no LBJ
Johnson never attended that convention, where antiwar elements of his party might very well have booed him; he toyed with speech drafts but shelved them.
Johnson also stuck it to his vice-president and successor, Hubert Humphrey. He stiff-armed Humphrey's plans to map out a different Vietnam strategy, and even expressed indifference about whether his VP might beat Richard Nixon.
Kamala Harris, meanwhile, got the speech Humphrey never did.
Biden arrived on stage late as other speakers ran well over their allotted time, and took the podium just before 11:30 p.m. ET, to a four-minute ovation and chants of, "We love Joe," and "Thank you, Joe."
That expression of gratitude could easily be interpreted in two ways: As thanks for Biden's career? Or for his decision to end it? His retirement came after weeks of relentless pressure from party officials, convinced he was leading them to electoral slaughter.
The president then delivered an address that could easily have been scripted by the Harris campaign itself.
Biden ticked through his own legacy items, and connected Harris to the most politically popular ones: he noted, for instance, that she cast a tie-breaking vote in the Senate that led to lower prices on certain drugs.
He then concluded with what could have been a Harris 2024 campaign speech.
Biden adopted some of her campaign rhetoric: "Put a [former] prosecutor into office. Instead of a convicted felon," he said, referring to Donald Trump.
He ticked through her campaign promises – lowering costs for housing, medicine, and groceries, and restoring abortion rights.
There were discordant notes. Some Middle East war protesters turned their backs on Biden, and unfurled a banner demanding an arms embargo on Israel which was yanked away.
He sought to create political space for Harris on the Middle East. Some delegates close to Harris insist she would adjust some of his Gaza policies, a demand on the left.
Mentioning the protesters on the streets outside, Biden said they had a point: That too many civilians, Palestinian and Israeli, have died since Oct. 7. He touted his efforts at a ceasefire to end the killing.
And he lauded his vice-president at length.
Party platform? It still mentions Biden
"Selecting Kamala was … the best decision I made in my whole career," Biden said, lauding her integrity, and adding that they'd become friends.
He promised to help her campaign if possible: "I'll be the best volunteer." He alluded, only subtly, to the awkward circumstances of his departure.
"It's been an honour of a lifetime to serve as your president. I love this job," Biden said.
"But I love our country more."
Harris made a surprise early appearance at the convention, taking the stage twice, first to roaring applause as she saluted Biden, then again to hug him after his speech.
Day 1 of the gathering carried abundant evidence of the frenzied events of recent weeks.
And it wasn't just the unusual occurrence of a sitting president being relegated to the first day's speaking list, rather than the headline spot three days later.
The party platform hasn't even been updated to reflect the change atop the ticket. The version released Monday refers repeatedly to Joe Biden's plans for a second term.
The logistical hiccups didn't end there. Monday's program began in a somnolent setting, with vast swathes of empty seats in the host Chicago arena, as attendees were stuck outside in long lines, in part because of security concerns from rowdy protests nearby.
Crowd erupts for Harris
But the energy in the room steadily grew. The seats gradually filled in, and the crowd erupted when Harris made her first appearance on stage.
The arena continued to hum, through speeches by lawmakers Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Raphael Warnock, and past nominee Hillary Clinton.
"There's a lot of energy in this room," Clinton said.
She saluted Biden, for his dignity, and for his track record, which includes bills to build infrastructure, develop green energy, and spur domestic manufacturing.
"Now," she said, "we are writing a new chapter in America's story."
As Clinton might attest to herself, the party moves on.
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