People forget how divided our Country was under ObamaBiden. The anger and hatred were unbelievable. They shouldn’t be lecturing to us. I’m here, as your President, because of them! Tweet by Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump 45th President of the United States of America Washington, DCI nstagram.com/ saying what most of us have been thinking.
President @realDonaldTrump just signed his ABSENTEE BALLOT! This is very different than universal mail-in ballots, which would be a total disaster for our country. REQUEST YOUR ABSENTEE BALLOT! VISIT: http://vote.donaldjtrump.com Team Trump (Text TRUMP to 88022) @TeamTrump The official Twitter account for the Trump Campaign. Together, we will KEEP AMERICA GREAT!
Our president has failed in his most basic duty to this nation. He failed to protect us. He failed to protect America. And that is unforgivable. @JoeBiden Senator, Vice President, 2020 candidate for President of the United States, husband to @DrBiden, proud father & grandfather. Loves ice cream, aviators & @Amtrak
Donald Trump is not responsible for COVID-19 — but he does bear full responsibility for the failed national response. We’ve got to hold him accountable this November. @JoeBiden Senator, Vice President, 2020 candidate for President of the United States, husband to @DrBiden, proud father & grandfather. Loves ice cream, aviators & @Amtrak
I think that the Socially Distanced Democratic Convention was terrific but I’m not sure that I’m the right demographic to make an impartial judgement. Sure, I’ve got my beefs, starting with the abysmally poor representation of the Progressive wing of the party – Ilhan Omar got zero time as did Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Presley, and Cory Bush (Lauren Underwood got about five seconds) – but, by Thursday night, I was convinced that Biden is the best choice for right now. My opinion may not mean much, however. Rasmussen Daily Presidential Polls showed Trumps approval rating going from 47% to 51% over the term of the Convention. But take that with a grain of salt because the Poll was sponsored by Liberty Nation who does have a dog in the fight.
I thought the Convention had the intimacy of a Zoom call and I mean that sincerely and in the best possible way. Like a Zoom call, we watched the participants with less background distraction than normal; it pretty much compelled us to pay attention. I especially liked the rollcall from everybody’s home state rather than standing-up in a crowded, noisy, auditorium. I’ve been to one California State Convention and one National Convention and, except for the headline speakers, nobody is paying much attention to what is going on at the podium. This was different, all we had was what was going on at the podium. Ricky Kirshner, who apparently been working on every Democratic National Convention since Clinton ran in 1992, did a great job adjusting to a very bad situation.
This Convention seemed especially coherent building from an unsteady start on Monday to to a crescendo on Thursday. Along the way, there were some very memorable lines and speeches and some very forgettable ones. On Monday, Senator Amy Klobuchar was forgettable as was Bernie except for my favorite line, “Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Trump played golf.” but Michelle Obama gave a super speech stressing that Trump is flat out incompetent.
On Tuesday, Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez was given one minute and I thought she made the most of it. President Clinton was excellent; I had forgotten how good an explainer he is. I thought poor President Jimmy Carter was misused. He is 95 and feeble so he probably should have just said, : “Hi, vote for Biden.” Speaking of saying “Vote for Biden”, the Democrats are really afraid of voter suppression and everybody said some variation of “Please vote, voting is critical. We must vote. Vote!” My favorite speaker of the day was Dr. Jill Biden and her obvious love for Joe went a long way towards convincing me that he is a very decent man.
Wednesday was Women’s Day and I thought Senator Kamala Harris was very good, but this would have been a great time to showcase The Squad. I missed them, not because they are Progressive voices – I had given up on that by Tuesday’s Keynote Speech(s) – but because they are such good communicators. They are voices that would have helped the Party communicate with and involve the – supposedly -elusive young voter. The day ended on a highnote, however, with President Barack Obama giving the speech I had expected him to make at Representative Lewis’s funeral. My favorite quote was, “For close to four years now, he’s shown no interest in putting in the work; no interest in finding common ground; no interest in using the awesome power of his office to help anyone but himself and his friends; no interest in treating the presidency as anything but one more reality show that he can use to get the attention he craves. Donald Trump hasn’t grown into the job because he can’t. And the consequences of that failure are severe. 170,000 Americans dead. Millions of jobs gone while those at the top take in more than ever. Our worst impulses unleashed, our proud reputation around the world badly diminished, and our democratic institutions threatened like never before.”
I briefly thought I might skip Thursday, I have seen Vice-President Joe Biden speak numerous times and I was getting burned out but I’m glad I didn’t. He gave the best speech I have ever seen him give but I was already convinced that Joe Biden is a deeply decent guy. That heavy lifting was already done by Jill Biden and a young man with a stutter, Brayden Harrington, who went on National TV, most likely knowing he would stutter in front of the world when he spoke of Joe Biden, a fellow stutter, taking the time to talk to him about his stuttering.
Next week will be the Republican Convention and it will be interesting to see how it is different than this last week has been. Kind of ironically given Trump’s position of the Climate Crisis, it is likely that we will have two Tropical Storms or even Hurricanes hit the Gulf Coast during the Republican Convention next week and I will be particularly interested to see how Trump handles that disaster. It could give him a chance to shine, to show his leadership, but I think Michelle Obama was right when she said, “…he is clearly in over his head. He cannot meet this moment. He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us.”