#Joe Biden officially accepts Democratic nomination for president at DNC

Former Vice President Joe Biden formally accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination for president on Thursday night, rising above a crowded field of candidates and defying the odds after pundits wrote-off his White House bid.

Delivering the biggest speech of his political career on the final night of the Democratic National Convention, Biden, 77, promised to develop a more inclusive America and said the country had to choose what kind of nation it wanted to be.

“If you trust me with the presidency, I will draw on the best of us, not the worst. I’ll be an ally of the light, not the darkness. It’s time for us, for we the people, to come together,” he began, speaking from the convention center in Wilmington, Del.

“Make no mistake, united we can and will overcome this season of darkness in America. We will choose hope over fear, facts over fiction, fairness over privilege,” he said.

In a 24-minute gaffe-free address designed to rise above the partisan divide, the former veep said the nation wasn’t “just a collection of clashing interests in red states or blue states.”

But he also went for the jugular, only referring to President Trump as the “current occupant of the White House” and accusing him of “cozying up to dictators” and “fanning the flames of hate and division.”

“He’ll wake up every day believing the job is all about him, never about you,” Biden said, showing a fervor and energy which he has lacked during his campaign.

Wrapping up, Biden planted a kiss on his wife Jill, who joined him on stage to congratulate him with running mate Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff.

Wearing masks, the two couples walked outside to watch fireworks with dozens of supporters who had parked their cars in front of the convention center in a socially distanced political tailgate amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The arrival of Biden at this moment seemed improbable earlier this year when he endured humiliating defeats in Iowa and New Hampshire during the primary race — finishing fourth and fifth behind the likes of Pete Buttigieg and Elizabeth Warren.

But the Democratic establishment rapidly coalesced around Biden and his zombie campaign in March amid fears that socialist Bernie Sanders would end up on top of their 2020 ticket.

After a string of thumping victories in southern states, buoyed by the support of black voters, Biden became the presumptive Democratic nominee and Sanders pulled the plug on his bid in April.

But Biden has struggled to win the support of the progressive left flank of his party who argue that a white, male septuagenarian who first entered Congress in 1973 and voted for the Iraq War does not represent them or the nation.

The former veep sought to allay those concerns and gibes about his mental acuity by selecting Kamala Harris as his running mate, a black woman nearly two decades younger than him.

He has also brought progressives like Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez onto his campaign as climate change advisers, blending promises for a Green New Deal with good-paying union jobs.

A Washington veteran who served as the US Senator from Delaware for three decades, Biden built a reputation as someone who could negotiate across the aisle and developed an unusually close bond with the late Republican Sen. John McCain, whose widow delivered a speech for Biden at the convention.

He served as Barack Obama’s veep for eight years, with the pair repeatedly referring to each other as “brother,” and Biden leaned heavily on Obama’s popularity among Democrats during the brutal primary process even though the former prez left him hanging and didn’t endorse him until late April.

In his convention speech, Biden sold himself as someone who would “restore the promise of America to everyone,” promising to be tough on China and the nation’s adversaries, develop a national response to the coronavirus pandemic, build new infrastructure projects, remove the stain of racism and unite the country.

“Love is more powerful than hate, hope is more powerful than fear, and light is more powerful than dark. This is our moment,” he said, closing his address.

“This is our mission, to be able to say that the end of this chapter of American darkness began here, tonight, as love and hope and light join in the battle for the soul of the nation. This is a battle we will win and we’ll do it together. I promise you.”