July 28, 2016

Watch the Dramatic Ending to Joe Biden’s Convention Speech

Wow.


Vice President Joe Biden ripped into Donald Trump as a charlatan spinning a false narrative of national decline in a fiery address to the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday in Philadelphia. After a brief introduction by his wife, Jill, Biden made the case for Hillary Clinton. “There’s only one person in this race who has always been there for you, and that’s Hillary Clinton’s life story,” he said. “She’s been there. She’s always been there, and so has Tim Kaine.”

But the speech shifted into high gear when the subject turned to Donald Trump.

“To state the obvious, and I’m not trying to be a wise guy here, I really mean it: that’s not Donald Trump’s story,” Biden said. “Just listen to me for a minute without booing or cheering. I really mean this. His cynicism is unbounded. His lack of empathy and compassion can be summed up in a phrase I suspect he’s most proud of having made famous: ‘You’re fired.’ I mean really, I’m not joking. Think about that. Think about everything you learned as a child, no matter where you were raised. How can there be pleasure in saying ‘you’re fired!’ He’s trying to tell us he cares about the middle class? Give me a break. That’s a bunch of malarkey!”

Biden at times appeared to take personal offense to Trump’s candidacy, dismissing him on foreign policy as a man who “confuses bluster with strength” while “embracing dictators like Vladimir Putin.” On domestic economic issues, he twisted the knife. “He has no clue about what makes America great—actually he has no clue, period,” Biden said.

He returned to theme of national character again in a dramatic closing. “Americans have never ever ever ever let their country down,” Biden said. “Never. Never! Ordinary people like us who do extraordinary things. We’ve had candidates before who attempted to get elected by appealing to fears but they’ve never succeeded because we do not scare easily. We never bow. We never bend. We never break when confronted with crisis. No, we endure. We overcome. And we always always always move forward. That’s why I can with absolutely conviction I am more optimistic about our chances today than when I was elected as a 29-year-old kid to the Senate. 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. And God willing, Hillary Clinton will write the next chapter in that journey.”

“We are America. Second to none. And we own the finish line. Don’t forget it.”

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

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