Live-blogging the DNC: Joel McNally
There couldn’t have been a more dramatic contrast between the Republican convention of wealthy businessmen claiming they built America and President Barack Obama’s triumphant, positive Democratic convention asking ordinary Americans to join him in finishing the business of moving the country forward out of hard times.
All Republicans offer, Obama said, “is the same prescriptions they’ve had for 30 years. Have a surplus? Try a tax cut. Deficit too high? Try another. Feel a cold coming on? Take two tax cuts, roll back some regulations and call us in the morning.”
The upbeat convention inspired Vice President Joe Biden and Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, who previously ran for president themselves, to give the best speeches of their careers.
Kerry, a Vietnam hero whose military career was trashed by Republicans, called out Mitt Romney’s convention oversight: “No nominee for president should ever fail in the midst of a war to pay tribute to our troops overseas.”
And few conventions could ever have a more moving moment than former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, recovering from a brain injury from one of America’s mass shootings, leading the Pledge of Allegiance.