Takeaway from Biden’s big speech

Former Vice President Joe Biden went to a church in Delaware to listen to voices of protest, then gave a speech in Philadelphia about what has happened in the country since George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis. Both appearances told us a lot about what a Biden presidency would look like.
A while ago, I called Barack Obama’s high school graduation speech “adequate,” but I should have said: adequate for Obama, who excels at giving speeches. Biden is not gifted in the way. What he said in Philadelphia will not be remembered. The writing and delivery were choppy, and the combination of the harsh attacks on President Donald Trump, the poetic language about the nation and the pragmatic policy suggestions never really came together.
That’s OK. Speeches don’t win elections. They don’t even win presidential nominations. If they did, one of the dozen or so Democratic candidates who are better at set-piece speeches than Biden is would be preparing to accept their party’s nomination.
Politicians such as Bob Dole, Michael Dukakis, Al Gore and both Presidents George Bush would never have been nominated.
And as with all electioneering and candidate skills, speeches are more important in the nomination process than they are in the general election, when most voters are mainly influenced by party identification and events than they are by the candidates. This is especially true when it comes to the out-party challenger of a sitting president. So don’t spend much time worrying whether Biden’s oratorical performance will hurt his chances of winning.
A candidate’s speeches are nevertheless important because campaigning isn’t just about winning or losing; it’s a crucial part of the process of representation. Presidential candidates make promises, and, if they are elected, they try to keep those promises. What they say on the campaign trail helps determine how they will govern.
Assessing a candidate’s promises is more complicated, however, than just going to a checklist of policy positions.

—Bloomberg