She looked radiant-one in the eye for Donald Trump, who claimed recently that he was better looking than her. In his dreams! Harris's first act was to praise Joe Biden.
"Thank you for your historic leadership, for your lifetime of service to our nation, and for all you will continue to do," she said to roars of approval. "We are forever grateful to you." With these words, she consigned her boss to the history books.
The party's relief was palpable. When Biden finally appeared close to midnight, after a parade of attention-hogging party grandees, it was easy to forget he was still president of the United States, the most powerful man on earth.
"We love Joe!" delegates chanted and waved hand-outs with the same message, but the applause for the first lady, Jill Biden, and daughter Ashley, who preceded him, was muted. America has seen enough of the Bidens (particularly the naked Hunter, who put in a fully-clothed appearance at the end).
After giving Ashley a tearful bearhug, Biden opened his address with lengthy praise for his family and made an off-colour granddad joke about Jill still leaving him "speechless and breathless".
The over-the-top thanks for his family seemed pointed, as though they deserved special kudos for sticking with him while more fainthearted Democrats bailed on his candidacy. Biden went on to glower and shout at delegates for more than 45 minutes, while delivering what he surely intended to be his 2024 acceptance speech.
"You've heard me say it before, we're facing an inflection point in history," he said. Yes we have, I groaned, somewhat ungenerously. In his telling, Biden nobly ran for president in order to save the "soul of America".
But he sounded furious as he ran through his greatest hits. Inflation was down, the stock market up, infrastructure was booming, the US had the greatest economy in the world, he yelled. "Why weren't we more grateful?" went unsaid, but implied.
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