The backdrop for Obama's speech 
Obama says "at minimum, we should expect a president to feel a sense of responsibility for the safety and welfare of all 330 million of us — regardless of what we look like, how we worship, who we love, how much money we have — or who we voted for."
Obama: "For close to four years now, [Trump's] shown no interest in putting in the work; no interest in finding common ground; no interest in using the awesome power of his office to help anyone but himself and his friends ..."
Obama: "Donald Trump hasn’t grown into the job because he can’t. And the consequences of that failure are severe."
Obama says Biden and Harris will "get this pandemic under control, like Joe did when he helped me manage H1N1 and prevent an Ebola outbreak from reaching our shores."
Obama: "But more than anything, what I know about Joe and Kamala is that they actually care about every American. And they care deeply about this democracy."
Obama: Biden and Harris "understand that political opponents aren’t 'un-American' just because they disagree with you; that a free press isn’t the “enemy” but the way we hold officials accountable ... "
More: "... that our ability to work together to solve big problems like a pandemic depends on a fidelity to facts and science and logic and not just making stuff up."
Obama: "None of this should be controversial. These shouldn’t be Republican principles or Democratic principles. They’re American principles. But at this moment, this president and those who enable him, have shown they don’t believe in these things."
Obama: "I understand why a white factory worker who’s seen his wages cut or his job shipped overseas might feel like the government no longer looks out for him, and why a Black mother might feel like it never looked out for her at all."
OBAMA: "Do not let them take away your power. Don’t let them take away your democracy."
Obama: "Whatever our backgrounds, we’re all the children of Americans who fought the good fight. Great grandparents working in firetraps and sweatshops without rights or representation. Farmers losing their dreams to dust. ..."
More: "... Irish and Italians and Asians and Latinos told to go back where they came from. Jews and Catholics, Muslims and Sikhs, made to feel suspect for the way they worshipped. Black Americans chained and whipped and hanged. ..."
Obama: "If anyone had a right to believe that this democracy did not work, and could not work, it was those Americans. Our ancestors. They were on the receiving end of a democracy that had fallen short all their lives."
More: "They knew how far the daily reality of America strayed from the myth. And yet, instead of giving up, they joined together and said somehow, some way, we are going to make this work."
Obama: "You can give our democracy new meaning. You can take it to a better place. You’re the missing ingredient – the ones who will decide whether or not America becomes the country that fully lives up to its creed."
Continued: "That work will continue long after this election. But any chance of success depends entirely on the outcome of this election."
