“Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to fuck things up.”

That was, reportedly, Barack Obama’s assessment of his former vice president, the man he personally worked to make the Democratic candidate, and whom he, his wife, and his party have spent this week pitching as the only thing standing between Donald Trump and the end of US democracy.

Joe Biden had a good night last night, delivering probably the best speech of this year’s Democratic convention. Unlike virtually every other, Biden’s speech rested his case not on abstract appeals to decency and charges that Trump isn’t up to the job, but on promises to improve the lot of working-class Americans, including some actual, specific policies. It seemed to actually exist in the world most Americans occupy right now, one of fear and hurt, where the biggest concern isn’t Trump’s tweets, but whether they’ll be able to find food and shelter, or if they’ll even have a future in a decade’s time.