Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden has called for “a time to heal” after the November 3 elections, dealing with the Coronavirus pandemic, racial and social issues, and the damage to the American system and political life since January 2017.

Biden spoke on Tuesday in Warm Springs, Georgia, the former retreat of Franklin D. Roosevelt. The immediate significance was the surge for Democrats in a once solid-Republican state, with Biden narrowly leading Donald Trump in polls and the party’s candidates competitive in both US Senate races.

See Essential Guide to Biden v. Trump: The 13 Swing States That Will Decide the US Presidential Election
Essential Guide to US Senate Elections — The 13 Key Races

The wider significance was Biden’s tapping into the historical legacy of Roosevelt, who appealed for the country to unite during the Great Depression and World War II.

The Bible tells us there’s a time to break down, and a time to build up, a time to heal. This is that time. God and history have called us to this moment, and to this mission.

With our voices and our votes, we must free ourselves from the forces of darkness, from the forces of division, and the forces of yesterday, and the forces that pull us apart, hold us down, and hold us back.

And if we do so, we’ll once more become one nation under God, indivisible, a nation united, a nation strengthened, a nation healed.

Without ever referring to Trump, Biden noted:

Time and again, throughout our history, we’ve seen charlatans, the con men, the phony populist, who sought the play on our fears, appeal to our worst appetites, and pick at the oldest scabs we have for their own political gain.

They appear when the nation’s been hit the hardest and we’re at our most vulnerable, never to solve anything, but only to benefit themselves.

He called for responsible leadership over the pandemic, the economic consequences, inequality and injustice, and toxic political language and behavior.

While the Biden campaign is primarily focused on northern battleground states, where most polls show him ahead, Georgia carries tantalizing potential for the former vice president. This is the sort of Republican-leaning state that, if the president loses, would likely be the leading edge of a national rout.

Scorning Mr. Trump for his cavalier handling of the virus and lamenting the country’s economic hardships, racial inequities and toxic polarization, Mr. Biden said he would not accept that “the heart of this nation turned to stone.”

Paraphrasing Pope Francis, he said “For those who seek to lead, we do well to ask ourselves, why am I doing this? Why? What is my real aim?”

As Biden spoke, the US death toll from Coronavirus reached 226,711, an increase of 991 in 24 hours. Confirmed cases are 8,778,680.

“The Most Important Election”

Speaking in Orlando, Florida, the 44th US President Barack Obama called turnout in the “the most important election of our lifetimes”. He compared Biden, his Vice President, with a Trump driven by ego during the pandemic.

This week with everything that’s happening, you know what he brought up? He was fussing about the crowd size at the inauguration again, saying his was bigger. Who is thinking about that right now? Nobody except him.

But the rest of us have had to live with the consequences: More than 225,000 people in this country are dead, more than 100,000 small businesses have closed, half-a-million jobs are gone in Florida alone.

Obama noted one of Trump’s frequent lines at his rallies, “What’s his closing argument? That people are too focused on COVID….’COVID, COVID, COVID.'”

He added, “If he had been focused on COVID from the beginning, cases wouldn’t be reaching new record highs across the country this week.”

Listen, winter is coming. They’re waving the white flag of surrender. Florida, we can’t afford four more years of this. That’s why we’ve got to send Joe Biden to the White House, because we cannot afford this kind of incompetence and disinterest.