Shane: So Adam, I’m starting to get used to this whole virtual convention thing. The remote roll call was a refreshing window into just how big and incredibly interesting (Rhode Island calamari!) and diverse this country is. Dr. Jill Biden got her national debut, and Bill Clinton made what I would guess was his shortest convention appearance in decades. What stood out to you?
Adam: I’ll go beyond just getting used to; I’m wondering if I might like it better …
Shane: Stop.
Adam: OK, sorry, I take it back. Well, not really. We can talk more about this later, but I will argue that the roll call this time was better. The everyone-jump-into-the-pool keynote not so much, at least if you were a Democrat wanting to take the Barack Obama route to the White House. And these “Hollywood Squares”-style applause moments feel a little cheesy, though I guess they’re better than pumping in an applause track.
Staging aside, two other things struck me on Night 2: Health care and national security.
With health care, Mr. Biden was staking out a Democratic strength. On national security, Democrats were going after what has traditionally been a Republican strength, with the help of a Colin Powell endorsement and a Cindy McCain testimonial.
Shane: For the most part, Democrats didn’t want to talk about health care from 2010 to 2016. Tonight it was a centerpiece. Frankly, that was one of the arguments that Biden advisers made to insiders during the primary: If Democrats nominated a “Medicare for all” candidate (see: Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren), the party would cede the health care high ground that it gained during the Trump years. Just ask House Democrats who won in 2018 about the power of pre-existing conditions as a message.
Adam: Or ask those House Republicans who lost. There was a time where I was skeptical anyone would want to get close to that-thing-we-used-to-call-Obamacare. But three things changed, and we saw that tonight.
First, the pandemic and the economic collapse. Second, President Trump’s campaign to eliminate the Affordable Care Act. And third, the act is actually popular now. The montage of people with medical conditions, emphasizing Mr. Biden’s role in getting the legislation passed, is almost certainly something we are going to see more of in the months ahead.
Shane: If Monday was about unity (and Michelle Obama), then tonight seemed to be about presenting Mr. Biden as a three-dimensional character with a life story — perseverance through loss and grief — that is a singular match for this moment. That said, my prediction is by Friday the programming from Tuesday will have been mostly forgotten.
Adam: I suspect people will forget the details. But they are likely to walk away from this with a fuller impression of Mr. Biden’s life. If successful, that could help inoculate Mr. Biden from the Republican attacks that will come next week.
The pandemic convention: A virtual roll call and 17 keynoters
Adam: So, Shane, I confess I’m a little hokey. I kind of like the traditional roll call, even though some of those state-delegation speeches can get annoying. But change is what it is (sorry, couldn’t resist), and I might be ready for some. It’s worth noting that the people tapped to speak were not only elected officials or party leaders; the roll call included family members of victims of mass shootings and homophobic attacks.
The travelogue format was certainly engaging, it was like taking the road trip we aren’t supposed to take these days. I’m missing Hawaii and Colorado.
Shane: I sure miss mountains, beaches and maybe even Marriotts. Look, one of the goals of the Biden convention is to showcase a party that looks more like America than President Trump’s government. And the diversity of settings and people in the roll call was a powerful way to make that point without words.
Adam: Hmm. Starwood. Anyway. In normal times, the single keynoter — Ann Richards comes to mind — has a pretty specific task: Introduce the nominee, make the case for him or her, and trash the other side. This time that task was divided among 17 people. Sentence by sentence. Do you think it worked?
Shane: Not really? I started forgetting this keynote address before it was over. Even now I can’t quote any particular line. But it was revealing that Mr. Biden didn’t anoint a single voice to elevate as an emerging leader, but a host of them that spanned the party’s spectrum.
Adam: They were definitely spared what could have been a big political battle here. Who wants to anoint one “future Democratic leader” in a party that is going through such generational and ideological change?
Shane: Maybe another way to think about it is that on Wednesday night, Kamala Harris will deliver both the vice-presidential speech and the future-of-the-party keynote.
Bill Clinton slips out of prime time.
Adam: I’ve been lucky, I think, over the years to cover some really interesting political figures, among them Mario Cuomo, Bob Dole, Barack Obama, John McCain — and Bill Clinton. So I was particularly interested to see Mr. Clinton with all the inevitable “lion in winter” coverage. (Insert plug for my own story here).
Shane: Fun fact about that: Mr. Clinton is younger than Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump! Here’s the thing. I’m not sure there is going to be much more Clinton coverage. He was a blip out of prime time, even if he managed to spin both an attack and a Biden motto into a single line: “You know what Donald Trump will do with four more years: Blame, bully and belittle. And you know what Joe Biden will do: Build back better.”
Adam: He loves this stuff, and I’m sure if he had his way, he would have spoken for 45 minutes before 20,000 people. That wasn’t going to happen for two reasons: Covid, for one, and the D.N.C. just wasn’t going to let him. He is older (he turns 74 on Wednesday), and yes, it shows. His voice is weaker.
Shane: This is also the first post-#MeToo convention and a lot of Democrats, especially younger ones, are reconsidering his history.
Adam: Which is why, I suspect, he got such a short and out of the way moment. He did two things, though: He made a strong case against Mr. Trump, and he did for Mr. Biden what he did for Barack Obama in 2012: make the case on the economy. One thing I was struck by covering Mr. Clinton was his ability to take complex subjects and make them accessible to most voters.
Shane: Yet I couldn’t help but notice that Mr. Clinton didn’t even reference the economic recovery he oversaw. I guess it was just so long ago …
Ocasio-Cortez makes her (brief) convention debut.
Shane: Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is no doubt one of the party’s brightest stars of the future. So why do you think she only got 90 seconds, and why was it to second the nomination of Mr. Sanders, instead of to, say, make the progressive case for Mr. Biden?
Adam: Maybe she didn’t want to? I could understand why, given their ideological differences, that might be something that just rang wrong with her.
Shane: Heading into Tuesday, it seemed like Republicans were agitating for more A.O.C. time as much as progressives. In her less than two minutes, she mentioned “colonization,” “misogyny,” “homophobia” and “xenophobia.” This is not a politician afraid of third rails.
Adam: People were saying, why didn’t she get the keynote address? I have to say that politically, in terms of getting herself out there, she was much better off being one of the nominators for Mr. Sanders. Better than being one of 17 Democrats scattered in Keynote Lake.
Shane: Speaking of A.O.C., did you see the Onion headline today? “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Upgraded To Full DNC Speaking Slot After Announcing Support For Iraq War.” A rough one, especially with John Kerry pegged as one of the major speakers the same night.
Adam: And that might answer your question about why she used her speech to talk about Mr. Sanders instead of Mr. Biden.
Jill Biden ties her husband’s wrenching biography to this pandemic moment.
Adam: So just to get this out of the way, as we talk about Jill Biden, it’s probably not easy to follow Michelle Obama, who delivered the main speech on Monday. I think Dr. Biden is unknown to many Americans, and doesn’t have the experience on the campaign trail — or in public speaking — that Mrs. Obama has. (Don’t forget her book tour.)
Shane: Look, I’m not sure anyone wants to follow Mrs. Obama. Here is a scoopy data point for you, Adam, on how well the two speeches landed. On Monday, Democrats gave $2.8 million in online donations via ActBlue during the 10 p.m. prime time hour. On Tuesday, that figure was only $1.7 million, according to ActBlue’s ticker.
Adam: That’s what we call news-you-can-use. Another point: The choice of an empty schoolhouse for Dr. Biden showed how intensely the Democrats intend to challenge Mr. Trump on the pandemic. The concern she expressed about sending children back into classrooms now seemed a direct rebuttal to Mr. Trump’s call to open schools.
Shane: Most politicians jump on popular issues. Mr. Trump has been on the wrong side of public opinion when it comes to schools. And Dr. Biden made the case of the issue’s complexity both as a grandmother and as a teacher, speaking of how “the bright young faces are now confined to boxes on the computer screen.”
Adam: The other part of her speech that was noteworthy, and this is not unusual for a spouse’s convention speech, was talking about her husband, and in particular, his life of adversity. Voters might not remember a lot, but I suspect they will remember her talking about losing Beau Biden, Mr. Biden’s son from his first wife (who died in a car crash). That moment would probably have silenced the audience, if there had been an audience,
Shane: And then she did something else: She linked Mr. Biden’s experience with managing loss and healing his family to this moment. It’s something the Biden campaign has been trying to do for months — empathy, empathy, empathy. Here is how Jill Biden put it: “How do you make a broken family whole? The same way you make a nation whole,” she said. “With love and understanding and with small acts of kindness.”
Adam: A pleasure as always, Mr. Goldmacher. Good night.
"here" - Google News
August 19, 2020 at 04:00PM
https://ift.tt/3gd5brv
Here is What Happened on the Second Night of the Democratic Convention - The New York Times
"here" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2z7PfXP
https://ift.tt/2Yv8ZPx
No comments:
Post a Comment