The Best Speech of the Convention

John Hendrickson, writing for The Atlantic, on 13-year old Brayden Harrington addressing Democrats:

“Consider the emotional maturity it takes at Brayden’s age to talk about his personal struggle—especially when that personal struggle is talking, when it’s hard to talk at all, when it hurts to speak.”

“Like Biden’s, Brayden’s eyes drifted from the camera when he began to stutter. As kids, most stutterers develop a habit of looking down at the floor during a segment of severe disfluency. This is partly a manifestation of shame that comes over time; after a while, you don’t want to meet the eyes of the person giving you the look, that subtle recoil. You don’t want their pity. But Brayden never hung his head. His stutters and blocks were mild on the broad spectrum of stuttering. But even that’s not the point. Brayden’s fluency, or disfluency, is not what you or I or any viewer tonight should judge him on.”

“He stood up and delivered his speech, and stuttered through it, and said all the words he wanted to say. He told a powerful story in just over two minutes, which is more than some other DNC speakers can claim.”

Must watch: A video of when Biden met Brayden the first time.