What Went Down On The First Night Of The Democratic National Convention

If you’re trying to reach less-engaged voters (although you can certainly question whether they’d be spending their Monday night watching this), I kind of think this low-key, earnest version of the convention speech might be more effective? It feels much less like a political pageant, anyway.

Michelle Obama mentions Dwight Eisenhower, possibly a first for a Democratic convention. A big theme of the night — counteracted somewhat by the images surrounding the protests and discussions of police violence — has been reaching for cross-partisan patriotic themes and talking about maintaining American identity, values and greatness.

Obama mentioned that 2016 was a very close election. About 78,000 votes in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin made the difference in the Electoral College. That worked out to about 0.06 percent of the 137 million votes cast.