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Barack Obama?s full Democratic convention speech, annotated


Democratic National Convention
Trump
American Dream
Congress
the Democratic Party’s
Washington Post
ABC News
The Trailer
PolicyThe


Barack Obama
Trump
Donald Trump
Joe Biden
Kamala Harris
They'll
John Lewis
Jim Crow
Spit
Black Lives
God
Kamala D. Harris
Pence


Americans
Republican
Democratic
Irish
Italians
Asians
Latinos
Jews
Catholics
Muslims
Sikhs
Black Americans


a North Star
South


the Oval Office
the White House


Philadelphia
Wilmington
Kamala
H1N1
America


the Great Recession

Positivity     44.00%   
   Negativity   56.00%
The New York Times
SOURCE: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/08/20/obama-convention-speech-annotated/
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Summary

So at minimum, we should expect a president to feel a sense of responsibility for the safety and welfare of all 330 million of us — regardless of what we look like, how we worship, who we love, how much money we have — or who we voted for.But we should also expect a president to be the custodian of this democracy. Maybe you're tired of the direction we're headed, but you can't see a better path yet, or you just don't know enough about the person who wants to lead us there.So let me tell you about my friend Joe Biden.Twelve years ago, when I began my search for a vice president, I didn't know I'd end up finding a brother. Joe's a man who learned — early on — to treat every person he meets with respect and dignity, living by the words his parents taught him: “No one's better than you, Joe, but you're better than nobody."That empathy, that decency, the belief that everybody counts — that's who Joe is.When he talks with someone who's lost her job, Joe remembers the night his father sat him down to say that he'd lost his.When Joe listens to a parent who's trying to hold it all together right now, he does it as the single dad who took the train back to Wilmington each and every night so he could tuck his kids into bed.When he meets with military families who've lost their hero, he does it as a kindred spirit; the parent of an American soldier; somebody whose faith has endured the hardest loss there is.For eight years, Joe was the last one in the room whenever I faced a big decision. He made me a better president — and he's got the character and the experience to make us a better country.And in my friend Kamala Harris, he's chosen an ideal partner who's more than prepared for the job; someone who knows what it's like to overcome barriers and who's made a career fighting to help others live out their own American Dream.Along with the experience needed to get things done, Joe and Kamala have concrete policies that will turn their vision of a better, fairer, stronger country into reality.They'll get this pandemic under control, like Joe did when he helped me manage H1N1 and prevent an Ebola outbreak from reaching our shores.They’ll expand health care to more Americans, like Joe and I did 10 years ago when he helped craft the Affordable Care Act and nail down the votes to make it the law.They'll rescue the economy, like Joe helped me do after the Great Recession. And they care deeply about this democracy.They believe that in a democracy, the right to vote is sacred, and we should be making it easier for people to cast their ballot, not harder.They believe that no one — including the president — is above the law, and that no public official — including the president — should use their office to enrich themselves or their supporters.They understand that in this democracy, the commander in chief doesn't use the men and women of our military, who are willing to risk everything to protect our nation, as political props to deploy against peaceful protesters on our own soil. But at this moment, this president and those who enable him have shown they don’t believe in these things.Tonight, I am asking you to believe in Joe and Kamala’s ability to lead this country out of these dark times and build it back better. I understand why a new immigrant might look around this country and wonder whether there’s still a place for him here; why a young person might look at politics right now, the circus of it all, the meanness and the lies and crazy conspiracy theories and think, what’s the point?Well, here’s the point: This president and those in power — those who benefit from keeping things the way they are — they are counting on your cynicism. Beaten for trying to vote.If anyone had a right to believe that this democracy did not work, and could not work, it was those Americans. Americans of all races joining together to declare, in the face of injustice and brutality at the hands of the state, that Black Lives Matter, no more, but no less, so that no child in this country feels the continuing sting of racism.To the young people who led us this summer, telling us we need to be better — in so many ways, you are this country's dreams fulfilled.

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