BREAKING UPATE:
Character Did Matter:
Joe Biden elected the 46th President of the United States – Even Fox has to (reluctantly) admit.
OriginalPost:
As former vice-president, Joe Biden is on the cusp of reaching the “magical” number of 270 electoral votes, one of the toughest, closest, and most important elections our nation has ever experienced may be finally nearing an end.
Once that number is reached or surpassed, it will finally be over but for the celebratory shouting — and the recounts, and the legal challenges and the finger-pointing and the baseless conspiracy theories and “the process is rigged…they are stealing the election” claims and accusations that are certain to come — have already been made.
It will also the time for the hundreds of winners and losers at the local, state and national level to start delivering their victory and concession speeches.
The vast majority of them, men and women who have fought so hard — sometimes in a rough-and-tumble way — will still manage to be graceful in both victory and defeat which brings me to character, because “as they say”:
It’s in defeat that a man reveals himself.
Defeat doesn’t build character; it reveals character.
The true character of a man is revealed in how he handles defeat.
Or, as Alison Goodman – addressing both victory and defeat– says: “There was a saying that a man’s true character was revealed in defeat. I thought it was also revealed in victory.”
One of the presidential candidates, true to style and character, just before 2:30 A.M on the day after the elections prematurely and falsely declared victory, noting that the vote count should be “called off” because he had won with an insurmountable lead in the swing states and calling the voting “a fraud on the American public…an embarrassment to our country” and threatening to go to the Supreme Court to “stop all voting.”
“We don’t want them to find any ballots at 4 o’clock in the morning and add them to the list,” the “victor” crowed.
It was a “wee-hours rant” that even staunch Trump defender Andrew McCarthy at National Review called “a legal blunder,” “ill-advised,” “irresponsible,” “incendiary.”
About 12 hours later, the other presidential candidate, although leading Trump, refrained from declaring victory but rather expressed confidence and promised to “unite, to heal, to come together as a nation.”
“To make progress, we have to stop treating our opponents as enemies. We are not enemies…” Biden said.”…this will not be my victory alone or our victory alone. It will be a victory for the American people. For our democracy, for America…There will be no blue states or red states when we win, just the United States of America.”
This should give one a clear idea of what Biden’s formal acceptance speech will be.
But how about Trump’s concession speech – if any?
Will it be anything like his nemesis’ — GOP Senator John McCain’s — speech when he conceded the 2008 election to Barack Obama?:
Will he acknowledge his loss and express respect and honor for his opponent, as McCain did towards Obama?:
My friends, we have come to the end of a long journey. The American people have spoken, and they have spoken clearly. A little while ago, I had the honor of calling Sen. Barack Obama — to congratulate him on being elected the next president of the country that we both love.
Will he call on the patriotism of Republicans and Democrats alike and urge his devotees to support and work with Biden?:
Tonight — tonight, more than any night, I hold in my heart nothing but love for this country and for all its citizens, whether they supported me or Sen. Obama, I wish Godspeed to the man who was my former opponent and will be my president.
And I call on all Americans, as I have often in this campaign, to not despair of our present difficulties but to believe always in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here.
Will Trump be as gracious?
I have been shocked and offended by Trump’s words and deeds so many times that I am so ready to be pleasantly surprised.
(Edited to correct the date of Senator McCain’s concession speech)
