Editor's note: Chris Hawke is a graduate of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and a journalist who has reported for over two decades from Beijing, New York, the United Nations, Tokyo, Bangkok, Islamabad and Kabul for AP, UPI and CBS. The article reflects the author's views and not necessarily those of CGTN.
The last night of the Democratic convention focused primarily on personal tragedies Joe Biden has suffered and his empathy for other people. In normal times, this would seem like a low bar for becoming the president of the United States. However, the Democrats have calculated that in this moment, it's good enough.
Trump's inability to empathize or relate to normal Americans amid a health and economic crisis of historic proportions has put him and the Republican Party well behind Biden and the Democrats in polls. Almost every speaker on Thursday told an anecdote reflecting Biden's sincere interest and concern for people, especially members of the military and their families.
This point was drawn out with a focus on Beau Biden, Joe's son who served in the U.S. military and then as Delaware attorney general. Beau passed away from brain cancer in 2015, causing his grief-stricken father to not enter the 2016 race as a Democratic candidate.
The convention took an unusually religious tone, with Biden saying Donald Trump has "cloaked America in darkness," and promising, "I will be an ally of the light, not of the darkness." Biden's Catholic faith was invoked directly and frequently throughout the evening to a striking extent, in an apparent bid to appeal to evangelical Christians who overwhelmingly support Trump.
Biden may also have been hoping to energize support in the Black community, which is also strongly Christian. Reverent pre-recorded segments focusing on faith and prayer were contrasted with cutting remarks from the evening's host, comedian Julia Louis-Dreyfus. In the era of a reality TV show presidency, it seemed fitting that an actress famous for playing the U.S. president on television would have a starring role. "Joe Biden goes to church so regularly that he doesn't need tear gas and heavily armed troops to get there," she quipped.
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden celebrate in front of fireworks after the former accepted the party's nomination, Wilmington, Delaware, August 21, 2020. /Reuters
Personal attacks on the faith of a political opponent are very unusual. However, Trump opened the road for this when he said earlier this summer that Biden was "against God" and will "hurt the Bible."
In one of the more amusing moments of the evening, Biden's four granddaughters sat on a couch talking about how "Pop" liked to eat vanilla ice cream out of the freezer when his wife wasn't looking, and called them so often they sometimes wouldn't pick up.
Democratic strategists focused on Biden's focus on his family, good character, and support of the military to appeal to moderate Republicans turned off by Trump's lies and corruption. The few broad references to policy stuck to safe middle-of-the road positions that most Americans support.
Biden did say he hoped this generation could wipe "the stain of racism from our national character."
Hunter Biden made an appearance in the video, which is a bold choice. Democratic strategists probably hoped the strong focus on Biden's loyalty to his family would help people understand why he sticks by his surviving son Hunter, who has a history of alcohol and drug addiction and has conducted business deals that was described to be leveraging on his father's political position.
It was Republican efforts to dig up dirt on Hunter's work in Ukraine that triggered a series of events leading to Trump's impeachment. This issue is sure to come up repeatedly in the final 11 weeks of this campaign.
U.S. President Donald Trump opens a pizza box while campaigning for re-election in Old Forge, Pennsylvania, August 20, 2020. /Reuters
Many people were curious not so much about the content of Biden's speech, but rather how he delivered it.
The Republicans' most effective line of attack on Biden has been that the 77-year-old is losing his edge. Biden has always rambled and frequently put his foot in his mouth, but Trump and his surrogates have been suggesting that recent gaffes were caused by diminished cognitive abilities due to his age.
Democrats tried to rebut this in two ways. First, Thursday's program focused on the fact that Biden has a stutter, which he has worked hard to overcome, the implication being that this accounts for some of his strange speech patterns. The second and most powerful rebuttal was Biden's masterful speech, which was delivered without a flaw.
The speech resembled a church sermon, keeping with the light-versus-darkness theme of the evening. Although the delivery style was in the old-fashioned manner you'd might expect from an aging politician, Biden went through the whole range of human emotions, convincingly conveying his fear about the current state of the United States, his anger at Trump's callous and incompetent behavior, his empathy for people being hurt by the current crisis, and his hope for the future. Biden was a politician at the top of his game – a sharp contrast to Trump's rambling musings on ingesting bleach and Biden's supposed opposition to windows.
Unless Biden stumbles, the Democrats are on track to win the presidency and both chambers of Congress. Biden and Trump are scheduled to have the first of three debates on September 29. Considering Biden's strong performance, the legal problems that have already led to the convictions of many in the president's inner circle, and ongoing criminal investigations into Trump's finances, the possibility of Trump's next term is hanging in the balance.
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