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US election: Clinton and Biden rouse Democrats in call for unity
Democrats overcame bruised egos and a rancorous primary campaign tonight to line up solidly behind Barack Obama as their party’s official presidential nominee and open up a coordinated and devastating attack against the Republican, John McCain.
Hours after Hillary Clinton led Democrats in making Obama the official nominee, Joe Biden used his debut performance as the vice-presidential candidate to establish his bona fides as the Democrats’ attack dog.
The full frontal assault on McCain’s main strength as a candidate - his expertise on national security - was reinforced with a bravura speech from Bill Clinton intended to dispel any doubt that he was on board with Obama.
The former president thrilled convention attendees with what amounted to a whole-hearted endorsement of the man who beat his wife in a divisive primary contest.
“Barack Obama is ready to lead America and restore American leadership in the world: ready to preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the United States. Barack Obama is ready to be president of the United States,” Clinton said.
The triumphant night was capped by a surprise appearance by Barack Obama - his first at the convention - which brought down the house. “I think he has done pretty well so far, what do you think,” he said of Biden’s speech.
Then, in a sign that the Democratic healing is nearly complete, Obama added: “If I’m not mistaken Hillary Clinton rocked the house last night.”
It marked a distinct change in direction for the Democrats, who had earlier held back from attacks on McCain.
That changed with Biden. In a speech that roamed from childhood nostalgia to withering anger, Biden drew on his working-class roots as well as his reputation in the Senate as an authority on foreign policy to make a devastating critique of McCain’s judgment.
He opened by tying McCain directly to George Bush’s policies on the economy as well as foreign policy
“Now, despite being complicit in this catastrophic foreign policy, John McCain says Barack Obama isn’t ready to protect our national security,” he said. “Now, let me ask you, whose judgment should we trust? Should we trust John McCain?”
Like much of the convention, Biden’s speech was as much about biography as politics. His son, Beau, who is about to deploy to Iraq described how Biden lost his wife and daughter in a car accident soon after he was first elected to the Senate at the age of 29.
But the sentiment was deceptive.
Though a fixture in the Senate for a generation, and known in Washington for being verbose and prone to embarrassing gaffes, Biden, 65, did not let up in his attacks on McCain.
He accused McCain of being wrong about the Iraq war, the Afghan war, the rise of the Taliban in Pakistan. “John McCain was wrong. Barack Obama was right,” he said.
Biden’s attack on McCain was made more powerful by his own reputation as the Democrats’ authority on foreign affairs and his claims to be an old friend of McCain.
It was a similar tack to that adopted by John Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate in 2004. Kerry’s speech was scathing of McCain, a man whom he briefly considered as a running mate during his own race for the White House.
“Who can we trust to keep America safe?” he asked the crowd. “Obama” they roared.
The stirring speeches crowned a day which saw the Democrats set aside the rivalries of their primary campaign to come together behind Obama.
He became the party’s official nominee in a vote of acclamation, proposed by Hillary Clinton.
The final steps of the Democratic healing process got underway mid-afternoon with a highly choreographed vote to affirm Obama as the party’s nominee.
At Hillary Clinton’s behest, the voting process was suspended to declare Obama the nominee by acclamation. The move came as a source of tremendous relief to Democrats, who had feared the continuation of combat between the Obama and Clinton camps could cost them the White House.
“I really thought things were going to get tense, but in the end it was all so emotional, holding hands and cheering and dancing to Love Train,” said Janay Smith, a lawyer from Alabama.
It fell to Bill Clinton to put that new found unity on even surer footing. In a rousing speech that repeatedly brought the crowd to their feet, Clinton went to great lengths to dispel the impression formed during the hard-fought primary campaign that he thought Obama was not ready for the White House.
He even went so far as to compare criticism of Obama as young and inexperienced to the charges that were levelled against him in 1992 when he ran for president.
“Everything I learned in my eight years as president and in the work I’ve done since, in America and across the globe, has convinced me that Barack Obama is the man for this job.” Subscribe=>
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