Notes from the DNC: A Cast from the Past

Monday's Speeches Looked Backwards; to Succeed, the Message has to Point to the Future

The dirty little not-so-secret about Party Conventions is that the only thing that really counts is the very last night. Sure, during the week they get live, constant coverage of the event on all the news channels, and it seems like a happy family in front of the cameras with everyone reiterating the same tired cliches and messages. Noentheless, everything is completely ephemeral and quickly forgotten.

The first night is always about the past, bringing back favorite sons and daughters and parading them back into the spotlight, albeit briefly as over the course of the week they pivot to the future. The second night is usually the trash talking night; where they beat up and bloody the other side. The third night is where they have the VP candidate speak, and usually has the roll call vote (although this can happen on the second night sometimes too). The last night, the only one that really matters and that will be remembered through to election day, is when the Presidential candidate addresses the country. It’s their singular best chance to make the case for election, since its the one time a candidate gets in prime time, alone as a candidate, to make their case to the nation.¹ On Thursday, Kamala Harris will address America as the Democratic Candidate for the White House, and it’s this speech that will determine if the convention was a success or not. ²

In the meantime, we have to endure jumping through the hoops. Which brings us to last night.

First off, to show you where I am coming from, I am a huge Joe Biden fan. Always have been. Politically, he is in the sweet spot for me, catering to the more moderate portions of the Democratic Party; this range has only gotten bigger as Republicans have become much more conservative and few Democrats venture out to the middle. Joe is exceptionally smart at policy, and like other long term stalwart Senators who made their way into the Executive Mansion, they are excellent at working legislation through Congress to get stuff done. When Joe ran in 2019, I was with him even though his campaign seemed stalled. I was with him as the party rallied behind him to beat Trump, and I was with him the last four years in what has been the most consequential and positive first term in memory.

All that said, the two main speakers for the first night were Hillary and Joe. Pairing these two together on the same night, as the last two Democratic candidates, both of whom faced Trump (and lost, since Hillary failed to win the Electoral College and Joe failed to show up at the debate that would have cost him his second term). The whole evening had a sense of yesteryear to it and not in a good way. Nobody was nostalgic to revisit Hillary’s loss in 2016. It’s still a sore spot that Democrats want to memory hole. Sure, Hillary was a fine speaker (always has been) but it had the stale aura of a past nobody wants to remind themselves of.

And then came Joe.

He deserves so much better. The last convention in Milwaukee was shut down because of COVID. For a candidate, the Convention speech is their night. The accolades and applause. The balloon drop. The feelings coming out of the convention. Joe was deprived of that last time. This election season was going to make up for that and he just couldn’t make it there. The decision to swtich to Kamala Harris was the right one, as every poll bears out. But for Joe, having to speak to the convention on the first night instead of the fourth had to be a bitter pill to swallow. He was fine. There was the typical Biden stammer and gaffe, more common and pronounced with age as everyone now expects it and he looks worse with every small one. Joe can still deliver a stemwinder or two. He still has the mind, but the body is no longer willing. On Monday night it showed. I know how much he would love to take Trump out into the alley behind the United Center and bring the smackdown on him, but let’s be honest, Biden has just gotten old and frail. It was hidden for much of the past year, but it can no longer be ignored. For Joe, listening to him speak and seeing the crowd in his eyes, it just seemed he still wished he was at the top of the pyramid, and that he was being deprived of an entitled right a second time.

That he isn’t is not Kamala Harris’ fault, but Father Time’s.

The whole evening I couldn’t escape the feeling that putting the last two standard bearers of the Party speaking on the same night was a mistake. It re-emphasized a narrative you don’t want in a campaign; that you are the party of the past. People want to feel energized and get the party started, and beginning the evening with two figures from yesteryear just was not the way you want to go.

On the other hand, it cleared out two major figures you would have had to have had speak at some point during the week. Getting them out of the way early clears the lineup for the next three nights to focus on youth, vigor, and the future of the party. Let’s hope that’s the direction we go, because there was just too much nostalgia on Monday evening.

PurpleAmerica’s Final Word on the Subject

“It’s so hard, to say goodbye, to yesterday.”

—Boyz II Men

“That was Yesterday.
—Foreigner

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Footnotes and Fun Stuff

1. Obviously, a major exception to this is Presidential incumbents, who can address the country on a host of major issues at any time, often from the confines of the Oval Office or some other area of the White House, which only makes them look even more Presidential.

2. Bar none, the most successful (sort of, get to that in a minute) Presidential Nominee speech I’ve seen in my lifetime was Barack Obama’s. The whole week was positive, but Obama’s zeitgeist was so large, they moved the venue for him to deliver the speech to Mile High Stadium to accommodate a larger in person audience. The speech was pitch perfect and people were wondering out loud at that point how badly the Republicans would get trounced. And then the following morning, John McCain picked a relatively unknown Governor from Alaska as his VP candidate, and it dominated the news cycle, cutting Obama’s honeymoon short. According to the GOP campaign, this was by design and it went off without a hitch until people realized Sarah Palin was an empty suit.