Thread by @daveweigel

The Bidenphilia is coming fast and furious at the Delaware Dem dinner -- even when he's not named, speakers seem to be referring to him in the audience. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) talking 2020: "We cannot blow this moment. This is our moment, Delaware Democrats."

How we know we're not at a Trump rally: LBR adds "the media in the back" to her list of "heroes and sheroes" saving the country.

Sen. Tom Carper addresses Biden in the audience as "President Biden," then half-jokes that Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (who he refers to as "young, brown") should be his running mate.

Carper's 2018 opponent, Kerri Harris, is in the audience.

Carper's using his remarks to talk about non-wall border security, praising Biden for addressing "the lack of hope and opportunity" and supporting Plan Colombia. "Give Joe Biden a round of applause. He wrote that!"

Carper closes by congratulating 2018 primary foe @KerriHarrisDE on being elected a DNC committee member. "We have a new committee member and her name is... Harris! Kerri Evelyn Harris! Are you out there?" (She is in the very back of the room.)

Sen. Chris Coons on 2020: "We will show the country and the world that what happened in 2016 was an aberration."

Coons keeps describing a future president "who unites and us and heals us."

"Folks, I am praying for that man, and I am excited to hear from him a few moments from now."

Coons has a way of referring to negatives that Biden does *not* have but it's never clear who, if anyone, he is referring to. "He hasn't just shaped history on some college campus. He's changed history."

"We know Joe. Literally every single one of us."

One of tonight's activist award winners, Sonia Schorr Sloan, tells the audience that she's worked in every Biden campaign and told him "I have one more campaign left in me."

*learned not shaped

Gov. John Carney: "Joe doesn't just look like he's back. He looks like he's ready for a fight."

Biden's on stage, and we have our first Bidenism 90 seconds in: "I'm serious. Not a joke."

Biden talking a lot about Beau, his late son: "You know you're a success when you look at your child and know he turned out better than you."

He used that line at the 2008 DNC and followed with "I'm a success. I'm a hell of a success!"

Tonight: "Beau was better than me."

Biden praising Rep. Blunt Rochester: "She's one of the best new leaders in the House of Representatives. That's not hyperbole." Bidenism count: 2.

"I've been in the excess of 80 nations... and I always talk about Delaware. We don't demonize our opponents. We don't belittle them. We don't treat the opposition as the enemy. We might even say a nice word about a Republican if they do something good."

Biden referring repeatedly to "Barack," as in "As Michelle writes in her book, Joe was like Barack’s big brother."

Biden on a riff now about how politics has become too personal: "When the man who sits next to you, a Republican, is crying because his wife has breast cancer, it’s awfully hard to dislike that man."

Biden talking about Delaware's tradition of "returns day," a post-election parade which ends when the winners and losers literally bury a hatchet together. "They know about it in Mumbai. They know about it in London. They know about it in Beijing."

Biden almost slips up! He says he gets "criticized by the new left," then says "I have the most progressive record of anybody running..." He stops himself and kind of hem-haws as the crowd gets up and cheers.

Biden now doing that the thing where he goes from a low rumble to A BIG YELL, attacking Trump for his Charlottesville remarks. "The world's worst dictators are using his own words to justify his own abuse of power."

Biden moved on fast from whatever he was saying about the new left after that slip, focusing on Trump. "If you asked me a few years ago whether our democracy could ever crumble, I would have laughed at you."

Biden's closing (unless he goes over 30 minutes) riff is star-spangled stuff about American greatness. "It's an idea that's stronger than any army, more powerful than any ocean, bigger than any dictator."

Biden previewing a campaign theme: "We need a new corporate ethic in America. You're gonna hear a lot more about it from me."