Joe Biden got, as expected, sustained applause and chants of “Thank you, Joe!” at last night’s Democratic convention in Chicago. The subtext was that most of the delegates were thanking him for leaving the ticket.
For me, his speech underscored why it was so important that Nancy Pelosi engineered Biden’s exit. His performance was just good enough that, had he been like this in his debate with Trump in June, he would have been speaking on Thursday night instead of Monday. And that would have been a disaster. Biden would still be the nominee and he would still be on a track to lose in November.
Biden gave a serviceable speech. He looked more robust than usual, his voice was strong (almost too much so as he seemed to shout every sentence) and he was able to read lines from the teleprompter that were the unmangled versions of what he had planned to say at the debate.
A performance like this on June 27th would have only reinforced the despair Democrats were feeling in that period, but it wouldn’t have sparked the justified panic that led to his ouster. It would have been just good enough to keep the party locked into autopilot, flying straight and level with the mountain not far in the distance.
And this week delegates would have shuffled into Chicago the way you slump into the DMV to get your license renewed. It’s not life’s worst experience, but it’s not something you eagerly anticipate either. Next…
But because Biden was so much worse back in June things were so much better here in August. His disastrous performance gave Democrats the opening they needed to force Biden to the sidelines. And then they quickly moved to anoint Harris — something I thought was a big mistake at the time (not the anointing, but the one anointed). But I was wrong. She has taken full advantage of the chance to reintroduce herself to voters and her selection of Tim Walz looks right now like an inspired choice.
The energy at the convention last night was obvious. In her brief appearance onstage Harris was relaxed, confident, even joyful. And she appeared to be speaking without a teleprompter. Either she actually was and that shows her abilities as an extemporaneous speaker or she wasn’t and that shows her ability to use a teleprompter without letting it get in the way.
I have a couple of quibbles. Biden went on too late because the party packed in too many speakers in prime time. Maybe that was intentional to keep an unpopular president out of the limelight, but I suspect it was just my party being my party, which is to say not a paragon of organization.
And I think it’s a mistake for the nominee to show up before she accepts the nomination. Trump did that, showing up for all four nights to drink in the adulation. You got the feeling that if the praise wasn’t strong enough, he’d raise a downward facing thumb and the speaker would be wrestled from the stage never to be seen again.
It wasn’t like that for Harris, but it was awkward. And nobody thought to keep the press away from her box, so there was this scrum in front of her and Walz as they tried to ignore questions being shouted from three feet away. Again, an organizational failing.
One thing that went very well was what we didn’t see. At least in the coverage I sampled there was not a mention of the Gaza protesters, much less any footage from the protests. That seems to have fallen flat as I suspected it might, but worried it wouldn’t.
So, overall I’d have to say that the content and the stage management of Day One for the Democrats was okay, not great. But that doesn’t really matter. The thing had the vibe of a party. And it might have been an evening at the DMV.
Yellow Stripes & Dead Armadillos 