The Note: Biden sells not-Trump normalcy as Democratic convention nears close
Joe Biden's agenda is no more complicated than normalcy
The TAKE with Rick Klein
The policy has been there, for those who look for such things. Health care, climate change, racial justice, gun violence -- it's all been mentioned along the way.
But as Joe Biden prepares to close out his convention by accepting the Democratic nomination on Thursday night, his main agenda is no more complicated than normalcy.
More specifically, as this virtual convention week has progressed, Biden and his party have sought to define themselves by what they are not, and what they argue the country can't afford for another term: President Donald Trump.
Selling normalcy sounds more simple than it is. Biden's moment looms larger because he's been so absent from the public eye since capturing the nomination -- in part by circumstance, in part by design.
Now, as the nominee and with a new running mate in Sen. Kamala Harris, he will likely have no bigger platform than he will Thursday evening -- and how he delivers every word might matter.
This convention has been heavy on validators. From boldfaced political names on down to regular Americans brought into the programming, knowing Joe Biden as a man and an elected leader has been a recurring theme.
Thursday marks a moment more than 30 years in the making for Biden.
But viewed another way, it is a moment most influenced by just three and a half years of a Trump presidency -- pulling Biden and his party in a competing direction.
ABC News Live will kick off primetime coverage each day at 7 p.m. ET on the network's streaming news channel and primetime coverage will air from 10-11 p.m. ET each night of the convention on the ABC Television Network.
The RUNDOWN with MaryAlice Parks
Inner-party squabbles about programming or platforms will look small-ball to Democrats now. Former President Barack Obama upped the ante in a race where the stakes already seemed sky high.
At times it looked as if he was fighting back tears as he said the fate of the nation's democracy was on the line this fall and that, at a 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."
"Donald Trump hasn't grown into the job, because he can't, and the consequences of that failure are severe," Obama said in a speech that was not at its core about policy, but about people. He argued Trump, the man, was putting the idea of America in jeopardy.
Obama capped his remarkable speech with an emotional call to action -- for people to make a plan to vote.
It's been a unique and continuing theme this convention. Obama, Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, Harris and others have all given a dark and disturbing warning that exercising the right to vote is getting harder in America.
"I know many of you plan to vote this year, but amidst the excitement and enthusiasm for this election, you've also heard about obstacles and misinformation, and folks making it harder for you to cast your ballot. So I think we need to ask ourselves, why don't they want us to vote? Why is there so much effort to silence our voices?" Harris said.
Clinton warned Democrats needed to win by such overwhelming margins that the president could not try to "steal" a win.
Democrats are clearly gearing up, not just for a political fight this fall, but legal ones too and asking Americans not only to think about who to vote for, but how they will cast their ballots.
The TIP with Kendall Karson
"We all ran for president motivated by the same reasons," vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris said in a video featuring a roster of her, and Biden's, former 2020 rivals.
The Democratic presidential primary -- and the many ups and downs that came with it -- is officially over, and it's Biden who is the party's standard-bearer. Sharing the virtual stage with the former vice president in the lead up to him accepting the nomination on the final night of the convention will be those same adversaries, who are now ready to be his most ardent backers.
Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Mike Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Andrew Yang, an entrepreneur, representing the range of the ideological spectrum for Democrats, are set to speak on Thursday -- and line up behind Biden in their "one shot" to take down Trump, as Booker said.
Before they give their remarks in primetime, some have already previewed what to expect, touting Biden's leadership and the personal moments that endear those to him: "He wants to get the best ideas on the table, so we can move forward in the best way possible," Yang said in that video.
And Booker said of Biden, "I still remember standing side-by-side with him on the debate stage, and we were having a go of it. But what was remarkable to me was in the commercial break, he puts his arm around me and starts telling me how good my ideas are, and next thing you know I feel like he's giving me a pep talk and literally telling me how important it is -- how really important is that I'm on that stage."
THE PLAYLIST
ABC News' "Start Here" Podcast. Thursday morning's episode features a conversation with Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., as his friend Joe Biden prepares to accept the Democratic nomination Thursday night. ABC News White House correspondent Karen Travers explains why President Donald Trump called for his supporters to boycott one of Ohio's largest employers. And ABC News' Alex Perez tells us what new audio from an investigators' interview with one of the cops involved in George Floyd's death case tells us. http://apple.co/2HPocUL
ABC News' "Powerhouse Politics" Podcast. Kate Bedingfield, former Vice President Joe Biden's deputy campaign manager and communications director, joins ABC News Political Director Rick Klein and Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl following the third night of the Democratic National Convention. On Wednesday's episode: Amid accusations that the Democratic National Convention lacks Latino representation, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, the first Democratic Latina governor elected in the United States, told the "Powerhouse Politics" podcast that she agrees the party needs to keep working to develop relationships with that "incredibly diverse" constituency. https://bit.ly/2w091jE
FiveThirtyEight's Politics Podcast. Instead of choosing a single rising star to deliver the keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention Tuesday night, the party highlighted 17 up-and-coming politicians. In this reaction to night two of the convention, the FiveThirtyEight Politics Podcast crew discusses who the Democrats are trying to appeal to and how. https://53eig.ht/2E06IDH
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