TJ Walker analyzes Vice President Joe Biden’s July 2016 speech at the Democratic National Convention, praising it as one of Biden’s best performances: confident, passionate, vocally varied (yells balanced by whispers), conversational, and effective in attacking Trump and supporting Hillary Clinton. Walker notes a minor gaffe—Biden calling First Lady Michelle Obama “a kid”—which he thinks could rub some people the wrong way though not strictly racist. Overall Walker calls it possibly the most memorable late-career speech for Biden.
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Vice President Joe Biden addressed the Democratic National Convention this evening. How did he do? I think this will go down in history as one of the best Biden speeches ever. Now, some people may find this surprising. Joe Biden in the 70s 80s had a reputation of being a fantastic speaker. Unfortunately for him, anytime he ran for president, he would say something stupid, stick his foot in his mouth, and it would kind of ruin his reputation. Plus, he would occasionally go long. But tonight was a virtuoso performance. He had tremendous passion, emotion. Now, some of you have been watching my commentaries and listening this week, have heard me say, don't yell, don't yell, don't yell when you're a speaker at a convention. And Biden did yell. But here's the thing. When he yelled, he then instantly counter it with a whisper. There was tremendous contrast in his voice. And for long parts of the speech, he was completely conversational. So I think it worked. His passion came through tremendous variety with his voice, tone, volume, speed, pitch. He was supremely comfortable, supremely confident, really hit Trump hard, made the strong case for Hillary and hit all the right notes. I think the Hillary campaign would be extremely pleased with this Democratic Party and the Obama administration. Now, this being Biden, there's always one little thing, there's one minor gap. I don't think it's going to generate headlines. But he called the first lady, Michelle Obama, a kid. Now, you could tell he said it with complete affection and respect. But I do feel some commentators are going to say this is a little too much like him saying that Barack Obama was the first clean black to run for president. And clean and articulate, and it's almost similar to calling a black man a boy. I don't think it's quite that hard. I don't think it was racist, but I do think it's going to rub some people the wrong way. Now, this speech is not going to get as much commentary as other speeches. Not because the performance wasn't as good, but just because as a soon to be outgoing vice president who is not running for office again and is past the age where people are going to consider him viable as a presidential candidate, he's just not top of mind. But overall, it was a great speech and it may be the most memorable speech of his career, certainly the last really big memorable speech of his career.