A grateful party watches Biden pass the torch

David Jacobsen arrived wearing Joe Biden-style aviator sunglasses Monday at the start of the Democratic convention, in honour of the candidate he'd expected to nominate this week.

Peter Hancon, for his part, had won a delegate spot from Texas with a personal rallying cry at a state selection selection meeting earlier this year. 

"My slogan … was 'Octogenarian for Joe,'" said Hancon, who notes he's 81, just like Biden. 

These are fans of the outgoing U.S. president. Yet, like the vast majority of delegates assembled in Chicago, they're quickly turning the page to the Kamala Harris era.

Jacobsen said he was devastated by Biden's poor debate performance against Donald Trump in June; he insists the president could still have won re-election, but said it's undeniable that the change in the ticket has had a salutary effect on the party.

"The enthusiasm!" said the delegate from northern Florida, a retired public-health educator, referring to a burst in fundraising, polls, and grassroots activity

"People are energized. Particularly young people."

Hancon said he's feeling good at this convention – this is 56 years after he was at the last convention, also in Chicago, where a sitting president abandoned the nomination.

That time, in 1968, Hancon was with the National Guard, protecting the site, but he said his sympathies lay with the anti-Vietnam war protesters.

That ill-fated convention has now differed in an important respect from Chicago in 2024. Joe Biden has given the speech that Lyndon Johnson didn't.

Johnson never attended that convention, where antiwar elements of his party might very well have booed him; he toyed with speech drafts but shelved them.

Johnson also stuck it to his vice-president and successor, Hubert Humphrey. He stiff-armed Humphrey's plans to map out a different Vietnam strategy, and even expressed indifference about whether his VP might beat Richard Nixon.

Kamala Harris, meanwhile, got the speech Humphrey never did.

Biden arrived on stage late as other speakers ran well over their allotted time, and took the podium just before 11:30 p.m. ET, to a four-minute ovation and chants of, "We love Joe," and "Thank you, Joe."