Former Vice President Joe Biden did what he had to do Thursday night. He delivered a coherent acceptance speech that made the case for his candidacy. His delivery was more than passable, and the media rejoiced!

Pollster Frank Luntz summed up the election well when he said this:

The Democrats are trying to make this a referendum on Donald Trump, not his policies, not the issues, but on Donald Trump himself. [Trump] needs to make it a referendum on Joe Biden’s policies because his [Biden’s] persona is very positive.

[Voters] have to choose between Trump, who they agree with in terms of issues but disagree with his personality, or Joe Biden, who they like but don’t agree with what he wants to do.

But I do take issue with something in Luntz’s remarks. Voters inclined to think Biden is a decent man need to think again. There’s a lot I could say about his speech Thursday night, but I will focus on just three glaring lies.

• Biden again repeated the disgusting lie that President Trump called white supremacists and neo-Nazis at Charlottesville “very fine people.” President Trump did not say that. He specifically said that they should be “condemned totally.”

• Biden accused the president of turning “a blind eye to Russian bounties on the heads of American soldiers.” This is another hoax. There were unconfirmed reports and the president was never briefed on them. But we do know that Iran was paying the Taliban to kill American troops, and Biden is silent about that. Worse, he wants to reward Tehran with another nuclear bailout deal.

• Biden also said that he would “not put up with foreign interference in our most sacred democratic exercise — voting.” Well, that’s exactly what the Obama/Biden administration did when it discovered that Russia was meddling in the 2016 election. In fact, national security officials were ordered to “stand down.”

Here are some additional observations about the Democrat National Convention.

• Democrats spent a lot of time showcasing washed-up former Republicans who are now politicians without a party. They will never be accepted in the Democrat Party, and they have betrayed the party that made them who they are.

• They spent virtually no time presenting a platform or discussing policy ideas and a lot of time trying to politicize a virus. They claimed Trump did nothing and has no plan. That’s false.

• They offered no real solutions to the pandemic other than shutting the country down again, allowing no more than 10 people in churches, and national masks mandates (presumably with criminal penalties), even though the science shows the virus does not effectively spread outside.

• More significantly, by the time the election is over and Inauguration Day has taken place, the odds are overwhelming that the coronavirus will be fading into the background as a sad chapter in American history. Before Inauguration Day, we likely will have not one but several vaccines. We likely will have multiple drugs to treat the virus. And the economic recovery will be well underway.

Democrat Darkness

The Democrats’ dim view of our country was on full display all week. Biden continued the theme Thursday night, suggesting that this election was a choice between darkness and light. Meanwhile, two huge issues were totally ignored — the major darkness descending on us domestically and the darkness that is descending internationally.

The domestic darkness is what descends on our cities every night. It covers the spectrum from ideologically driven rioters and mobs that threaten civilization to the vicious drug cartels, crime syndicates, and gangs that turn cities like Chicago into killing fields once the sun goes down.

The second great darkness comes from abroad. Communist China is rising economically and militarily. Joe Biden has said this is a good thing. It is not.

China is marrying technology with oppression in ways never before seen in the world. Politicians like Joe Biden have watched cluelessly as 60,000 U.S. factories closed and millions of jobs were sent to Chinese serfs. Not content to merely watch it happen, the Biden family figured out a way to get rich while it happened.

While the cultural left that lives within the Democrat Party has taught its children to hate our country, hundreds of millions of Chinese youth burn with a patriotic passion and believe their day to rule is coming soon. To Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and their party, this major threat was not worth one sentence.

Even when they were demagoguing the virus they could not bring themselves to call it by the country of its origin, communist China.

Good News

The latest readings from the U.S. purchasing managers index show surprisingly strong economic activity. The figure for the manufacturing sector hit 53.6 — the highest reading since January of 2019. The figure for the services sector hit 54.8 — the highest since February of 2019. Both numbers were well above estimates.

In addition, sales of existing homes soared nearly 25% last month, posting the biggest monthly gains since 1968. And sales prices are also up 8.5%.

Along with last week’s retail sales figures, which surged back to pre-pandemic levels, this is incredibly encouraging news, suggesting that the economic recovery is well on track.

Pelosi Goes Postal

Speaker Nancy Pelosi has cut short the August recess and called the House of Representatives back into session in order to pass an emergency bailout bill for the United States Post Office this weekend as her party obsesses over mail-in voting.

Needless to say, the optics of this move aren’t good, and her party knows it. Democrats are blocking another stimulus deal for the economy and emergency aid for the American people while she wants to bail out the Post Office!

More than 100 House Democrats sent the speaker a letter this week urging her to consider adding some additional items for the American people and small businesses to her agenda, but so far “Postal Pelosi” has refused.

Referring to the stalemate in negotiations between the White House and congressional Democrats, Pelosi recently quipped, “We have a vast difference in our values.”

I’d certainly say so. Billions for the Post Office and nothing for the American people.

Hypocrisy the Chicago Way

Twenty-one people were shot in Chicago not last weekend but this Wednesday. The shocking violence that used to be limited to the weekends is now becoming a regular occurrence.

Meanwhile, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is in a heap of hypocrisy. She’s taking heat for shutting down protests … in the neighborhood where she lives. According to reports, as many as 140 police officers are guarding the mayor’s home.

High-end stores in the Miracle Mile can be looted. Ronald McDonald houses can be ransacked. Children can be gunned down in the streets every single day. But don’t you dare think about protesting outside Mayor Lightfoot’s home!

And Lightfoot is unapologetic. “I have a right to make sure that my home is secure,” she said.

Really? Well, I’m sure every law-abiding resident in gun-controlled Chicago feels the same way. I’m sure Mark and Patricia McCloskey of St. Louis felt the same way when they tried to defend their home from a mob. Now they’re being prosecuted by left-wing politicians like Lightfoot.