“It’s time for us, we the people, to come together. We can overcome this season of darkness in America,” Biden said, accepting “with great honor and humility” the Democratic nomination for president.
“This is our moment to make hope and history rhyme… Love is more powerful than hate. Hope is more powerful than fear. And light is more powerful than dark. This is our moment. This is our mission. May history be able to say that the end of this chapter of American darkness began here tonight as love and hope and light joined in the battle for the soul of the nation,” Biden said.
It was hardly a moment the former vice president could have envisioned even a few years ago. It is his third run for the presidency, having lost in 1988 and 2008, and skipping 2016 as he grieved the death of his son Beau. He came in fourth in the Iowa caucuses, and fifth in New Hampshire, making his campaign look nearly dead before he scored a landslide win in South Carolina.
The pandemic meant Biden had to deliver the most important address of his career in an audience-less room at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware (though cheering supporters greeted Biden and vice presidential nominee Sen. Kamala Harris, along with their spouses, with fireworks afterward, and in cities around the nation people watched outside and applauded).
