Joe Biden's wife, Dr Jill Biden, opened up about the death of their son Beau in a moving address to the Democratic National Convention today.
Day two of the week-long convention also featured a speech from former president Bill Clinton.
And once again, the Democrats sought to elevate the voices of Republican figures who have endorsed Mr Biden over their own party's incumbent President, Donald Trump. Today it was General Colin Powell, a former secretary of state under George W. Bush, who got a prime speaking slot.
But it was Dr Biden who impressed the most, as she spoke about the grief she and her husband felt following Beau's death.
"After our son Beau died of cancer, I wondered if I would ever smile or feel joy again. It was summer, but there was no warmth left for me," she said.
"Four days after Beau's funeral, I watched Joe shave and put on his suit. I saw him steel himself in the mirror, take a breath, put his shoulders back, and walk out into a world empty of our son.
"He went back to work. That's just who he is. There are times when I couldn't even imagine how he did it, how he put one foot in front of the other and kept going.
Read on to see how day two of the convention unfolded.
Updates
All the Republicans voting for Biden
There's one more thing worth mentioning before we wrap up the blog.
After two days of this convention, it's very obvious that the Democrats want to place an emphasis on the Republican figures who have endorsed Joe Biden over the incumbent President from their own party.
Yesterday, former Ohio governor John Kasich got a prime speaking slot. Today it was former secretary of state Colin Powell.
So, how many Republicans have defected to Mr Biden so far? Here's a list.
+ John Kasich, former governor of Ohio;
+ General Colin Powell, former secretary of state;
+ Chuck Hagel, former secretary of defence;
+ Christine Whitman, former governor of New Jersey;
+ Ray LaHood, former transportation secretary;
+ Anthony Scaramucci, former communications director for the Trump White House;
+ Miles Taylor, former chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security;
+ Carly Fiorina, former Hewlett Packard CEO and presidential candidate;
+ Meg Whitman, another former Hewlett Packard CEO;
+ Jeff Flake, former Arizona senator;
+ Susan Molinari, former congresswoman;
+ Joe Walsh, former congressman;
+ John Warner, former Virginia senator.
What do all of these people have in common? While all of them are still members of the Republican Party, they are former officials. No one who is currently serving in office has publicly admitted they'll be voting for Mr Biden.
Some have made it known they will not be voting for Mr Trump. They include Senator Mitt Romney and Congressman Francis Rooney.
Former president George W. Bush and his brother, former Florida governor Jeb Bush, won't vote for the President either.
And a number of former Trump administration officials have expressed public opposition to him. They include:
+ Former White House chief of staff John Kelly;
+ Former secretary of state Rex Tillerson;
+ Former national security adviser John Bolton;
+ Former defence secretary General James Mattis.
There's an important distinction to be made here. Refusing to cast a ballot for Mr Trump is not the same as actively casting one for Mr Biden.
For example, in 2016 Mr Romney wrote in the name of his wife Ann, while Mr Kasich voted for the late Republican senator John McCain.
All things considered though, there is an alarming number of Republicans who don't want to see Mr Trump re-elected.
The end of day two
That marks the end of the convention's second day, which means we've made it halfway through this thing.
Tomorrow promises to be a genuine blockbuster, with speeches from Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 2016 nominee Hillary Clinton, Senator Elizabeth Warren, vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris and former president Barack Obama.
Billie Eilish is going to perform as well. Given the image Joe Biden is trying to convey of himself at this event, I assume she won't be singing Bad Guy.
Be sure to tune in.
Dr Jill Biden speaks
OK, on to Jill Biden's speech.
Dr Biden was pretty bold right off the bat, electing not to sit in front of a static camera as everyone else at the convention has done, and instead do a walk-and-talk through the hallway of her old school.
"When I taught English here at Brandywine High School, I would spend my summer preparing for the school year about to start, filled with anticipation," Dr Biden said.
"But this quiet is heavy," she added, coming to a halt in an empty classroom.
"You can hear the anxiety that echoes down empty hallways. There's no scent of new notebooks or freshly waxed floors. The rooms are dark, as the bright young faces that should fill them are now confined to boxes on a computer screen.
"I hear it from so many of you. The frustration of parents juggling work while they support their children's learning are afraid that their kids might get sick from school.
"The concern of every person working without enough protection. The despair in the lines that stretch out before food banks. And the indescribable sorrow that follows every lonely last breath when the ventilators turn off.
"As a mother, and a grandmother. As an American. I am heartbroken by the magnitude of this loss; by the failure to protect our communities; by every precious and irreplaceable life gone.
"Like so many of you, I'm left asking, 'How do I keep my family safe?'"
Dr Biden said motherhood had come to her in a way she never expected.
"I fell in love with a man and two little boys standing in the wreckage of unthinkable loss. Mourning a wife and mother; a daughter and sister. I never imagined, at the age of 26, I would be asking myself, 'How do you make a broken family whole?'" she said.
"Still, Joe always told the boys, 'Mummy sent Jill to us.' And how could I argue with her? And so we figured it out together."
Over the course of the next few minutes, Dr Biden tied the love she felt for her family into a broader point about the state of the US.
"How do you make a broken family whole? The same way you make a nation whole. With love and understanding, and with small acts of kindness," she said.
"You show up for each other, in big ways and small ways, again and again. It's what so many of you are doing right now, for your loved ones, for completely strangers, for your communities.
"There are those who want to tell us that our country is hopelessly divided. That our differences are irreconcilable. But that's not what I've seen over these last few months.
"We're coming together and holding onto each other. We're finding mercy and grace in the moments we might have once taken for granted.
"We have shown that the heart of this nation still beats with kindness and courage. That's the soul of America Joe Biden is fighting for now."
"After our son Beau died of cancer, I wondered if I would ever smile or feel joy again. It was summer, but there was no warmth left for me," she said.
"Four days after Beau's funeral, I watched Joe shave and put on his suit. I saw him steel himself in the mirror, take a breath, put his shoulders back, and walk out into a world empty of our son.
"He went back to work. That's just who he is. There are times when I couldn't even imagine how he did it, how he put one foot in front of the other and kept going.
"But I've always understood why he did it."
She proceeded to reel off some examples of Americans less fortunate than the Bidens' own family.
"For all those people Joe gives his personal number to at rope lines and events. The ones he talks to for hours after dinner, helping them smile through their loss, letting them know they aren't alone," she said.
"He does it for you. Joe's purpose has always driven him forward. His strength of will is unstoppable.
"His faith is unshakeable. Because it's not in politicians, or political parties, or even in himself. It's in the providence of god. His faith is in you, in us.
"Yes, so many classrooms are quiet right now. The playgrounds are still. But if you listen closely, you can hear the sparks of change in the air across this country.
"We haven't given up. We just need leadership worthy of our nation. Worthy of you.
"That's Joe. He and Kamala will work as hard as you do every day to make this nation better."
As Dr Biden finished, her husband wandered into view.
"Great job. God, I love you," he told her, before addressing the camera.
"You can see why she's the love of my life and the rock of our family. She never gives herself enough credit, but the truth is, she's the strongest person I know."
How the Bidens met each other
The final speech of the night is coming from Joe Biden's wife, Dr Jill Biden. She's speaking from a classroom in Delaware where she used to teach English.
Before we get to that, though, the convention has aired a video introducing her and exploring her relationship with Mr Biden.
As always with these things, there was a thorough, heartwarming explanation of how the couple ended up together, complete with a joint interview from their living room.
"When I met Jill, I knew," the candidate said.
"My brother said, 'There's this woman. You'll really like her, Joe.' So I gave her a call. And she had a date that night.
"You said, 'Do you think you could break your date?'" Dr Biden recalled, turning towards him.
"That's right. And what did you do?" he asked her.
"Well, I called and told the guy that I had a friend in from out of town, and went out with Joe," she told the camera.
Cue the photos of Joe and Jill Biden from their younger years.
Some crucial context – when Mr Biden met Dr Biden, he had already lost his first wife Neilia and daughter Naomi in a car crash. His two sons, Beau and Hunter, survived.
"She put us back together. She gave me back my life. She gave us back a family," Mr Biden said.
Of course, there were funny anecdotes as well. According to her grandchildren, Dr Biden is a bit of a prankster. And according to her husband, he had to ask her to marry him multiple times.
"I asked her to marry me five times!" he said.
"It wasn't just my heart that was on the line. I loved the boys so much. I had to be sure that it had to be forever," Dr Biden explained.
Joe Biden's 'unlikely friendship'
That video we mentioned earlier, narrated by Cindy McCain, just aired. Here's the full thing. It explores Joe Biden's friendship with her husband, the late Republican senator John McCain, and their shared ability to work across party lines.
Next up is another former secretary of state, the retired four-star general Colin Powell.
Gen Powell, who also served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under George H.W. Bush, is a Republican.
So, here we see another Republican figure endorsing Joe Biden over the incumbent President from his own party.
"The values I learned growing up in the South Bronx and serving in uniform were the same values that Joe Biden's parents instilled in him," Gen Powell said.
"I support Joe Biden for the presidency of the United States because those values still define him, and we need to restore those values to the White House.
"Our country needs a commander-in-chief who takes care of our troops in the same way he would his own family. For Joe Biden, that doesn't need teaching. It comes from the experience he shares with millions of military families, sending his beloved son off to war and praying to god he would come home safe."
Kerry: World 'laughs at' Trump
And now, the moment you have undoubtedly been waiting for – a speech from human cardboard cutout John Kerry.
"Hi, I'm John Kerry," John Kerry began.
Mr Kerry is a former secretary of state. He was also the Democratic presidential nominee who lost to George W. Bush in 2004.
He spent most of his speech talking about foreign policy.
"Donald Trump invented a growing economy, and a more peaceful world," Mr Kerry said.
To be fair, Mr Trump also inherited a world with the Islamic State in it. Are we not counting that? I guess we're not counting that.
"Like everything else he inherited, he bankrupted it," Mr Kerry continued, blatantly stealing an applause line from Kamala Harris. Which seems silly when you think about it, given there was no audience there to give him applause anyway.
"When this President goes overseas, it isn't a goodwill mission. It's a blooper real. He breaks up with our allies and gives love letters to dictators," he said.
"America deserves a president who is looked up to, not laughed at."
John Kerry has been reminding me of someone I can't quite place for 16 years now, which is more than half of my life. It's extraordinarily distracting and annoying.
Nice hair, though.
The moment Biden was nominated
When the convention officially finished nominating Joe Biden, the feed briefly cut to a shot of the former vice president with his wife Jill.
There were balloons, and even some streamers, and boy was he chuffed. Though I must say, not quite as chuffed as Bill Clinton was to see some balloons four years ago.
We then saw a compilation of shots from random people's lounge rooms. Unlike yesterday, they all remembered to clap.
When the camera cut back to him, Mr Biden's life appeared to be flashing before his eyes.
After a moment he roused himself and thanked the Democrats for nominating him.
"Well thank you very, very much, from the bottom of my heart.
"Thank you all. It means the world to me and my family, and I'll see you on Thursday. Thank you, thank you, thank you."
Thanks to the magic of time zones, that actually means Friday, our time.
AOC explains her role
Earlier I attempted to explain what was going on when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spoke, nominating Bernie Sanders – not Joe Biden – for president.
I would hazard a guess that Ms Ocasio-Cortez's own explanation is clearer.
Incidentally, there isn't a heck of a lot going on at the moment, because the convention is going through the formality of a virtual roll call. But you should be aware that Mr Biden has officially crossed the threshold of delegates he needed to claim the nomination.
If you were confused, no worries!
Convention rules require roll call & nominations for every candidate that passes the delegate threshold.
I was asked to 2nd the nom for Sen. Sanders for roll call.
Former president Bill Clinton has addressed the convention. He spent most of his speech taking aim at Donald Trump's coronavirus response.
"How did Donald Trump respond? At first he said the virus was under control, and would soon disappear. When it didn't, he was on TV every day bragging about what a great job he was doing," said Mr Clinton.
"When he didn't like the expert advice he was given, he ignored it. Only when COVID exploded in even more states did he encourage people to wear masks.
"By then, many more were dying. When asked about the surge in deaths, he shrugged and said, 'It is what it is.'"
There's that quote again. The Democrats are mad keen to use Mr Trump's own words against him.
"But did it have to be this way? No. COVID hit us much harder than it had to," Mr Clinton continued.
"We have just 4 per cent of the world's population, but 25 per cent of the world's COVID cases. Our unemployment rate is more than twice as high as South Korea's, 2.5 times the United Kingdom's, more than three times Japan's.
"At a time like this, the Oval Office should be a command centre. Instead, it's a storm centre. It's only chaos.
"One thing never changes – his determination to deny responsibility and shift the blame. The buck never stops there.
"Now you have to decide whether to renew his contract, or hire someone else."
I'm a little bemused by the irony of Bill Clinton talking about blame-shifting and the denial of responsibility.
Anyway, the former president took a few more potshots at Mr Trump before he wrapped up.
"If you want a president who defines the job as spending hours a day watching TV and zapping people on social media, he's your man," Mr Clinton said.
"Denying, distracting and demeaning works great if you're trying to entertain or inflame. But in a real crisis, it collapses like a house of cards.
"COVID just doesn't respond to any of that. To beat it, you've got to actually go to work and deal with the facts."
He said Joe Biden would be a "go to work president".
