Virtually Over
Various thoughts on the last night of the Democratic Virtual Convention --
I loved the video they put together at the beginning, "This time next year..." where an excellent mix of people gave their hopes for the year ahead. I suspect they voiced the wide range of thoughts what most Americans have been feeling. And none of the resolutions involved Trump's participation,
I thought Julia Louis-Dreyfus was wonderful as moderator. I'm sure some won't like all the humor, but I thought it was ideal. First, 99% politics to 1% humor is a perfectly fine mix, and second, as I think was made abundantly clear, this wasn't a political symposium, but a TV show about politics. Besides, I thought much of her quips were great. (I also suspect they may have been written by Armando Iannucci, who created her show, Veep, since I'm pretty certain he's written some of her other "special material" at several awards events.) What I particularly loved about her self-effacing story of being on the cover of Amtrak's magazine and Biden calling her wasn't just that it was funny...but unspoken and perhaps missed by many (but not all) is that he likely read the magazine on one of his countless train trips between Washington, D.C. and Delaware. And most of the quips were pointed and had a place in the evening, like my favorite line, "At Trump's inauguration, when he spoke of American Carnage, I thought he was against it, not a campaign promise."
It was wonderful to see The Chicks -- not just because I like them, but also how....well, still they persisted after having their career destroyed by conservative country music radio stations and fans. Further, that was one gorgeous arrangement and performance of the National Anthem.
I don't like when religion is made a part of politics, but I thought the segment of Joe Biden talking to a black reverend (who I got the sense had had a shooting at his church) about how religion has helped him deal with tragedy was very good. Not for the importance of religion, but the contrast with him and Trump who professes to be oh-so religious (and is likely a heathen...) and has such high evangelical support.
Actually, the contrast between Biden and Trump seemed to be a big theme through the night, but very subtle, deeply low-key, showing Biden in situations where you'd like, "I can't see Trump doing this."
For instance, Biden sitting down and talking with four workers on individual screens, listening to what they were saying and asking them questions was very smart -- and something they did once before during the convention. It was low-key, interesting, important and...I couldn't imagine Trump doing that.
And the discussion with half a dozen of Biden's opponents during the primaries was wonderful. Not only for the warm, lovely stories they told -- and I thought Bernie Sanders stood out -- but because I couldn't imagine Trump's 2016 opponents doing that and having anything to talk about.
How remarkable it was to see highly-regard historian Jon Meacham give a talk on the country, and one so eloquent. I later heard him explain that he wasn't either a Democrat or Republican and had voted for both sides, but he felt that there were certain time in life when silence wasn't an option.
Yesterday, I had noted discovering that Michael Bloomberg had been added to the lineup of speakers, and would be the last official speaker before Biden -- and wrote online how really smart that was. I got some disagreement and kept defending my opinion. And I thought Bloomberg was excellent and confirmed all my reasons I thought it was so smart to have him there. He was pretty low-key by his standards, his opening contrasts between Biden and Trump were spot on, and then when he got into the business world where people know he's an expert and Trump wants people to think he is, too, Bloomberg's rant to small business owners about how if you had an employee with did all the harmful things to your business that Trump has done, would you rehire him? "And if the answer is no, why in hell would you rehire Donald Trump to be president??!"
By the way, Bloomberg talked about his favorite book as a kid was Johnny Tremaine. Most people watching probably didn't know that it was made into a film by Walt Disney in 1957. I can't find a trailer for it, but here's a preview of sorts, when they promoted showing in on The Wonderful World of Color.
For me, as far as the segments went, my favorite was with young Brayden Harrington talking about Joe Biden helping him with his stutter. It wasn't just courageous of the kid to do this, and also showed Biden helping the boy, but it also made clear Biden's own stuttering problem (reinforced later in the "life-story" video) that will make it far more difficult for Trump and his campaign using Biden's speech gaffes against him, as supposed evidence of him "losing it." And if they do (or rather, when), it will make them look foolish and, again, cruel.
UPDATE: An hour after writing this, I saw Ari Melber on MSNBC show news video of Biden on the campaign trail this past February where he actually met Brayden Harrington and his father. It's amazing. I can't do it justice, but hopefully I'll be able to find footage. It begins with the father coming up to Biden saying they came because his son wanted to hear him speak, because he stutters. Biden immediately leans over, puts his arm around the deeply-shy, silent, withdrawn boy. and says (and I paraphrase) how "You can do it. Because you're smart. But I know you can do it. I know it. When I used to stutter, I ttttalked -- like -- like -- this when -- when --wwwwwhen I tried" and you can finally see the boy respond and nod knowingly, because he recognizes that this is an adult who gets it, who he can relates to. And Biden explains how he practiced a lot and asks, "Can I give you my phone number so that I can tell you what I did?" As Ari Melber explained after this, "It was just a moment on the campaign trail where reporters had no knowledge or expectation that Biden ever called, but it turned out he did" which got them to last night's moment. It was...amazing.
Another great moment, and perhaps the most unsung one -- the rabbi's story of Biden showing up as mourner's sat shiva for a woman because he said she had given him $18 for his first campaign, and he wanted to pay his respects.
The video with Biden's granddaughters was wonderful. And I thought it was very smart of them to do a segment with his children, including Hunter. A friend disagreed, but my point was that we know Republicans will bring him up and try to define him for the public. But this let America actually see Hunter Biden and present him to the world first. And get a sense of who he is, first. Define someone before you let Republicans do it for you. He wasn't "great," but he was absolutely fine.
The segment with Steph Curry, his wife and two little girls was weird and wonderful. (A friend didn't know who they were. Steph Curry is one of the top stars in the National Basketball Association.)
Which brings up Biden's speech. I'm not going to go into detail. I'll just say I thought it was absolutely great. It wasn't The Best Speech, or as good a "speech" as Barack Obama's or even Michelle Obama's. But it was spot on for what was needed. It started low-key and built. and as Brian Williams put it, "He nailed the landing," and may have been the best speech Biden has delivered. The way I'd describe it is strong and kind. And what was deeply important about it is that it took away Trump continuing trying to call him "Sleepy Joe." (Not that that's a bad thing these days, where calm is what I suspect the public wants after 3-1/2 years of Trump mania.) This was anything but sleepy. And when Trump does try it -- and he will, repeatedly -- people saw this speech and know otherwise. Also, I liked that there was not only some policy in it, but specifically a lot of policy about the one issue I'm sure most people want to know about -- his plans to get the country through this pandemic. When he brought all that up, and in detail, I was overjoyed.
I note that I didn't have any quibbles here, like in the previous days. But that's because I think they got this final night right. And if you're going to get any night right, this is the one.
And overall, I was very impressed by how well the Democrats pulled off this totally uncommon convention. By all rights, it could have been a mess for four days. To me, it was shockingly well-done and very interesting throughout. One of the advantages of recognizing months ago that they'd have to do their convention this way and plan for it. Unlike Republicans who just decided to go "virtual" mere weeks ago. We'll se.
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