The New York Times - USA (2020-11-09)

THE NEW YORK TIMES, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2020 N P3

Election

People have not historically
hustled to spontaneous outdoor
dance parties for Joe Biden.
They have not clanged spoons
against frying pans in celebra-
tion for him, formed triumphant
honk-parades along Fifth Avenue
for him, made Champagne toasts
with strangers in his honor
through chants and tears.
“BIDEN!” his supporters
shouted outside Manhattan’s
Washington Square Park on
Saturday, the call echoing from
apartment windows and taxis
and sidewalk restaurant tables.
“JOE BIDEN!”
Joe Biden. That Joe Biden —
institutionalist 70-something,
incorrigible square, inexhaust-
ible reciter of Irish poetry.
But then, it seems that defeat-
ing President Trump can do
strange things for a man’s repu-
tation.
In Mr. Biden’s first hours as
president-elect on Saturday,
many voters who have appraised
him through the decades as a
particular kind of capital veteran
— prone to perpetual windiness,
requests for a “point of personal
privilege” in casual conversation
and digressions about dead
senators — appeared ready to
greet him as a sort of conquering
hero.
“Winners write history,” said
Amanda Litman, a former aide to
Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign
and the executive director of Run
for Something, a group encour-
aging Democrats to seek local
office. “I think he definitely gets
bonus points for doing what no
one thought was possible, even
when we hoped it was.”
Ms. Litman said she had spent
the day walking miles across
Brooklyn, sobbing in the street
and encountering an intersection
dance-a-thon, set to “Shout” by
the Isley Brothers, that felt air-
lifted from a wedding reception.
Mr. Biden, of course, has not
generally been Washington’s
leading purveyor of cool. That
will not necessarily change over
the long term. It is likely that
gushing Democratic affection
would have awaited anyone who
managed to beat Mr. Trump.
And yet, this is the person who
did it.
If the last two commanders-in-
chief have been phenomenon
candidates who became phenom-
enon presidents, Mr. Biden would
appear to be ending the trend,
comfortable instead with the
identity that helped elect him:
the man to rein things in a bit, to
lower the collective volume
before the neighbors complain.
This is someone who does not
drink, who does not smoke, who
once scolded friends at his own
bachelor party for growing too
rowdy.

During the campaign, Mr.

Biden’s team strained to create a

mini-cult of personality around

him, bragging on his signature

accessory (aviators), his signa-

ture vice (ice cream), his interest

in muscle cars.

“Ridin’ With Biden,” went one

slogan that kinda-sorta caught

on.

While most of the impromptu

gatherings this weekend came in

places unaccustomed to Biden-

associated revelry — with rollick-

ing bashes from Los Angeles to

Washington to most any city in

between, cheering Mr. Biden and

his running mate, Kamala Harris

— there was at least one ZIP

code for which the embrace was

more culmination than novelty.

On Saturday, hundreds of cars

jammed into a parking lot out-

side an events center in Wilming-

ton, Del., ferrying in Mr. Biden’s

friends and fans from the state

he represented for 36 years in

the Senate for a somewhat so-

cially distanced drive-in rally.

They sat on the roofs of their

vehicles and played cornhole as

they waited. They lugged around

oversize American flags and

kibitzed in lawn chairs and bal-

anced Champagne flutes on top

of their cars. They were proud,

they said, of their state’s most

famous resident.

Carrie Casey, 49, said she had

come in part to bask in “the utter

excitement of a Delaware al-

most-native winning the presi-

dency, as well as the first female

and woman of color vice presi-

dent.”

She had turned out a few days

earlier — the original Election

Day, on Tuesday — for what was

supposed to have been a victory

party. Instead, with the outcome

uncertain, Mr. Biden gave only

brief remarks about trusting the

process. Some of his supporters

left deflated and on edge.

Mr. Biden’s team had a few

more false starts this past week

as the counting of votes contin-

ued. Early Friday, his campaign

was advising that he would give

a major prime-time speech by

evening, as a crowd began to

congregate outside a security

barrier. He had planned to make

use of the elaborate, flag-studded

setup that has remained on dis-

play all week.

As the sun set in Wilmington

on Friday, teleprompters were

ready, “Biden Harris” flashed on

big screens, and onlookers con-

vened in an increasingly chilly

parking lot nearby, hoping to

catch a glimpse of a president-

elect. But with Pennsylvania, and

the race, still officially uncalled,

they would have to wait another

day.

“I was here Tuesday night, and

it was, like, very stressful,” Ms.

Casey said. “To wake up in the

morning and there still be hope,

and the next day and the next

day, and being patient — and to

be here right now is absolutely

incredible.”

In his own speech, Mr. Biden

was quintessentially himself.

After jogging onstage to a chorus

of car honks, he began with a nod

to the fine people of Delaware

(“the people who brought me to

the dance!”) and then decided to

name a few, shouting out as-

sorted local dignitaries like a city

council candidate.

He quoted relatives and wel-

comed Ms. Harris and her hus-

band to the Biden family, “like it

or not.”

He tried to empathize with

Trump voters, noting that he had

“lost a couple times myself” in

his political day. He acknowl-

edged the present national grav-

ity. He projected humility. He

smiled a little.

It had been a long campaign —

three, actually, for the presidency

alone in his lifetime. He looked

out on guests who had seen him

lose as often as they’d seen him

win.

This time around, the mood

was purely festive — so much so

that Maureen Whilby had de-

cided to celebrate her 55th birth-

day on-site, where the fireworks

and confetti blasts might as well

have been for her, too.

“Best birthday in the world!”

she said, several hours before the

sky would light up with the

words “Biden” and “president

elect.” “Never forget this birth-

day. Unity. Bring us back togeth-

er. No division.”

Nearby, a cluster of Delawar-

eans stood together wearing

T-shirts indicating their past

lives as Iowa volunteers for Mr.

Biden, a reminder of the dark,

icy days he spent in a state that

rejected him in his 2008 run and

again in 2020.

“We were a little nervous at

that point,” admitted Patti McK-

elvey, 53, a Pilates and yoga

teacher from Wilmington. “But

we were still 100 percent backing

Joe.”

State Representative Krista

Griffith — “I’m Joe Biden’s state

representative,” she noted — also

made the trek to Iowa. This, she

suggested, was more fun.

“We all know him,” she said on

Saturday. “We just can’t wait for

the rest of the country to experi-

ence that.”

NEWS ANALYSIS

Dancing in the Streets Honors a Capital Veteran as a Conquering Hero

By MATT FLEGENHEIMER

and KATIE GLUECK

Revelers filled Times Square and streets in most every city from Los Angeles to Washington on Saturday to cheer for Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Kamala Harris.

CHANG W. LEE/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Biden has not been a

purveyor of cool, but

he was on Saturday.

Katie Glueck reported from Wil-
mington, Del.

Joseph R. Biden Jr. waited a
long time to give the speech he de-
livered in Delaware on Saturday
night. Not just the five days since
Election Day, but arguably the 48
years since he was first elected to
the Senate, during which he ran
for president three times. And at
age 77, as Mr. Biden came trotting
up the runway to an explosion of
car horns and cheers, beaming
and looking almost surprised by
the ovation, it was clear that his
moment had arrived.
Here are five takeaways from
the president-elect’s victory
speech.

A new tone from the top.

The contrast between Mr. Biden
and President Trump was bracing
and notable in almost every pas-
sage, as the president-elect in-
voked his own spirituality and
shared credit for the moment with
his supporters and the people
around him.
He quoted from a hymn, “On
Eagle’s Wings.” He thanked his
supporters: “I owe you, I owe you,
I owe you everything.” He warmly
praised Kamala Harris, his run-
ning mate, and celebrated the fact
that she would be the first woman,
let alone woman of color, to serve
as vice president: “It’s long over-
due, and we’re reminded tonight
of all those who fought so hard for
so many years to make this hap-
pen.”
Most of all, even as the nation
faces one of the darkest periods in
its history — a deadly pandemic,
economic decline, political polar-
ization — Mr. Biden was relent-
lessly optimistic, even cheerful.
“We can do it,” he said. “I know we
can.”
There were many notable pas-
sages in the speech, but one stood

out. “Let this grim era of demon-

ization in America begin to end

here and now,” he said. That is

probably a line that people will

talk about long into the Biden

presidency.

President Who?

Mr. Biden mentioned Mr. Trump’s

name only once during his 17-

minute speech. He ignored the

fact that the president had not

conceded, and that he had chal-

lenged — without any evidence —

the legitimacy of the election. Mr.

Biden also did not note that many

top Republican leaders, presum-

ably following Mr. Trump’s lead,

had not offered him the custom-

ary congratulations.

But if Mr. Biden did not dwell on

the president, he certainly spoke

to his supporters, a notable con-

trast to Mr. Trump’s speech after

his own victory in 2016. “To those

who voted for President Trump, I

understand your disappointment

tonight,” he said. “I’ve lost a cou-

ple of elections myself. But now,

let’s give each other a chance.”

And while he ignored Mr.

Trump’s protests about the elec-

tion, Mr. Biden made clear that

there should be no doubt about the

legitimacy of the outcome. “The

people of this nation have spo-

ken,” he said. “They have deliv-

ered us a clear victory. A convinc-

ing victory. A victory for ‘We the

People.’ We have won with the

most votes ever cast for a presi-

dential ticket in the history of this

nation — 74 million.”

Mr. Biden’s strategy here was

clear. He has exceeded the 270

Electoral College votes needed to

become president, and may end

up gathering more than 300. He is

now moving past the contest with

Mr. Trump and into the role of

president-elect. The transition is

at hand, and the trappings of the

presidency have begun to sur-

round him — apparent in the size

of the Secret Service contingent

that followed him to give his

speech, and the way every televi-

sion station spoke of him as the

president-elect.

He is seeking to relegate Mr.

Trump to the sidelines, and turn-

ing to the urgent business of form-

ing a new government and deal-

ing with the crises he will face.

Priority one: The pandemic.

Mr. Biden left no doubt that the co-

ronavirus pandemic would be a

priority for his administration in a

way that it has not been under Mr.

Trump.

Mr. Biden announced that on

Monday, he would appoint top sci-

ence and health experts to a com-

mittee to craft a plan for battling

the pandemic, which he said

would be ready to put in place

when he and Ms. Harris take of-

fice in January. Mr. Biden told the

nation that getting the coronavi-

rus under control was crucial to

normalcy and economic prosper-

ity.

“We cannot repair the economy,

restore our vitality or relish life’s

most precious moments — hug-

ging a grandchild, birthdays, wed-

dings, graduations, all the mo-

ments that matter most to us —

until we get this virus under con-

trol,” he said.

Mr. Trump has taken a much

different approach. Throughout

his campaign, he urged Ameri-

cans not to fear the virus, as-

serting that the danger was being

exaggerated by his political oppo-

nents. He defied the advice of

health officials on precautions like

wearing a mask, even after he

himself was diagnosed with the vi-

rus.

Mr. Biden’s victory comes as

the nation is setting daily records

for new infections and the health

authorities have warned of a bleak

winter. Masks were everywhere

at his celebration.

Seeking ‘the confidence of the

whole people.’

Mr. Trump defined the tone of his

presidency at his inauguration,

with a dark speech in which he no-

tably did not reach out beyond his

base of supporters. The strategy

had lifted him to a narrow victory

in 2016 — in the Electoral College;

he lost the popular vote — and he

sought to reprise it in his losing

campaign this year.

Mr. Biden aggressively moved

in the other direction.

“I pledge to be a president who

seeks not to divide, but to unify —

who doesn’t see red and blue

states, but a United States,” he

said on Saturday. “And who will

work with all my heart to win the

confidence of the whole people.”

To some extent, that reflects

what Mr. Biden said during the

campaign, but the approach will

take on a new urgency as he be-

comes president. Pending the out-

come of two runoffs in Georgia,

the Senate is controlled by Repub-

licans, and he will need to reach

out to senators from the red states

if he wants to enact an agenda.

Their names in lights.

There have been some impressive

pyrotechnics during this cam-

paign — the ones over the Wash-

ington skyline on the night Mr.

Trump accepted the Republican

nomination from the back lawn of

the White House come to mind.

This one, though, set a bar that

may be hard to match: Fireworks

and drones spelled out Mr. Biden’s

name, Ms. Harris’s name and a

map of the United States. Mr. Bi-

den and Ms. Harris, surrounded

by their families, stood onstage

staring into the Delaware sky, lit

up again and again on the night

that Mr. Biden has been awaiting

for most of his life.

FIVE TAKEAWAYS

Jogging In With a Vow to Change the Country’s Mood and the Government’s Focus

By ADAM NAGOURNEY

In a victory speech from Wilmington, Del., on Saturday night, Joseph R. Biden Jr. tried to set a dif-

ferent tone. “Let this grim era of demonization in America begin to end here and now,” he said.

AMR ALFIKY/THE NEW YORK TIMES