Biden, in his message from the Oval Office, changes tone for a less stormy election based on the stakes

“I want to talk to you tonight about the need for us to lower the temperature in politics,” Biden began. He asked Americans to remember that “while we may disagree, we are not enemies. We are neighbors. We are friends, colleagues, citizens, and, most importantly, we are Americans like us.”

After recovering from his 1981 assassination attempt, President Reagan spoke to a priest about his new outlook on life. “Whatever time I have left now,” he said, “belongs to the big guy upstairs.” While an assassination attempt can have no positive effect, a bad reaction can make things worse. Reagan chose to see this as a positive.

Mr. Biden was also inspired to adopt a positive attitude. “Everyone should be treated with dignity and respect,” he said, “and hate should have no safe haven. (…) We must come out of our silo where we only listen to those with whom we agree.”

It was as if he had never called “MAGA Republicans” “anti-American” and, along with his supporters, had not spent years calling Trump a “threat to democracy,” comparing him to Adolf Hitler and warning that his election would result in a dictatorship.

If that meant Mr. Biden restarting his campaign, the nation would be much better off. “We don’t know the motive of the shooter yet,” Mr. Biden said of the gunman, Thomas Crooks. He then condemned “the political rhetoric in this country” that “has gotten very heated.” He told the nation: “It’s time to calm down.”

Mr Biden then listed instances of political violence against “members of Congress from both parties”, “a violent mob attacking the Capitol on January 6th”, the assault on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband – which had no political motive – and the plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Whitmer, involving FBI informants.

Only after selecting those examples did Mr. Biden mention the “attempted assassination.” He condemned the “violence in the streets,” but omitted Black Lives Matter and Antifa, the assaults on members of the Trump administration in restaurants, and the would-be assassin captured outside Judge Kavanaugh’s home.

The most positive aspect of Biden’s speech was how he framed the election not as a “democracy on the ballot,” as he has often said, but as simply another presidential choice. “The stakes in this election are extremely high,” he said, before once again reimagining the past.