A weary-sounding Joe Biden, who periodically managed to flog himself into a weak and shrill rage, delivered a singularly awful acceptance speech.  When it wasn't hackneyed, he plagiarized ideas and policies from President Trump and made boasts that were inconsistent with his 48 years in politics, whether as a senator or a vice president.  The worst thing about it, though, was that he repeated a vicious, and unforgivable, slander about Trump. 

Here's a short list of Biden's platitudes: Trump is darkness.  I am light.  FDR was a great president.  Help young people by ending Trump's darkness.  America is racist.  More darkness, more light.

You must judge Trump's entire presidency by looking at the six months of the Wuhan virus and its damage to the economy (damage wrought, though he doesn't say it, by Democrat politicians).

America had the worst virus outbreak in the world.  (That's not true, by the way, but it is true that Democrat policies, especially regarding nursing homes, made it horrifically worse than it should have been.)  Trump will kill the economy.  Trump will take people's insurance.

Wasn't Obama great?  Trump isn't great.

No one suffers in America the way minorities do.  Trump didn't protect Americans, but I will.  It's horribly painful when people you love die.

I hereby remember that we Americans are endowed, not by "you know, the thing," but by our Creator with unalienable rights.  I'll quote more from the Constitution Declaration of Independence because I can: "Among them life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

My dad was a great guy.  He didn't want the government to solve his problems.  I'll solve all of your problems.

American young people talk to me, and I listen.  They want all sorts of justice — economic, racial, environmental.

Kamala Harris checks off so many intersectionality boxes: "Women, black women, black Americans, South Asian Americans, immigrants..."  She's like an all-in-one-printer.  (No, he didn't actually say that last point.)  Harris is great at attacking banks and the gun lobby.  Harris and I are strong because of our families.

My wife died.  I love Jill.  Jill loves America.  Beau died.  That makes me suited to be commander in chief.

President Biden won't cozy up to Russians!

George Floyd's 6-year-old daughter, Gianna, said, "Daddy changed the world."  Biden is now inspired.

Trump is darkness.  I am light.

Whew!  I just saved you at least 18 minutes of your life by giving you the gist of the banal parts of Biden's speech.  But wait!  There's more.

I mentioned plagiarism, which shows up in Biden's plan for responding to the Wuhan virus.  Biden announced that when he is president, he will test Americans; make medical supplies and protective equipment in America, not in China; give schools resources to open; listen to experts; and use federal law to make everyone wear masks.  Except for the despotic national mask mandate, all of those are things that Trump already did beginning at the end of January.

Biden promises to protect America.  He apparently missed the fact that there have been no serious Islamic terrorist attacks on Trump's watch.

Biden will magically provide all of life's necessities: jobs, infrastructure, Obamacare, the end of paid college and student debt, childcare and eldercare, a better immigration system, labor unions, closing the imaginary gender wage gap, and fighting climate change.

The obvious question is that if Biden has the secret to making all those wonders take place, why didn't he tell Obama during their time together?  And even before that, why didn't he share those ideas with the Senate?  He mostly seems to have spent his time there creating a law that locked up black fathers, attacking a black Supreme Court candidate, and fighting desegregation.

And to make all the above wonders happen, Biden says he'll end Trump's tax cuts.  That should be popular.

But you know what was the single worst thing Biden said?  He again told the Big Lie, the one that claims that Trump called neo-Nazis and white supremacists "fine people."

Everything else Biden said was fatuous, dishonest, or plagiarized.  But this lie isn't any of those things.  It's an evil slander.  And either Biden knows it is and says it anyway or he's so senile that he'll mouth anything his handlers tell him to.  Either explanation should disqualify him from even being elected as second assistant dog catcher.

Trump gets the last word:

In 47 years, Joe did none of the things of which he now speaks. He will never change, just words!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 21, 2020

Image: Joe Biden, VOA American video screenshot (gov’t work; public domain).