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

Joe Biden is running against an unpopular president who gets poor marks from the public on the most important challenges of the day, principally the coronavirus pandemic and race relations. So unsurprisingly, much of tonight’s program featured Democratic leaders and regular people attacking Trump on his shortcomings. But importantly, they did spend a fair bit of time trying to reinforce the idea that Biden is the right person with the right attitude to take over the job of president. From anecdotes about his empathy to a segment on the people he met and befriended while riding Amtrak to Washington, D.C., the convention attempted to shore up confidence in Biden, and not just generate anger toward Trump.

This could have been much more of a disaster than it was, given gestures vaguely everything. But in the end, the Democrats managed to pull off a fairly smooth first night of virtual rallying that emphasized the sense of urgency many voters feel about this election. It’s undeniably a shift in mood and tone from four years ago, but did we expect anything less?

Two things stood out for me tonight. First, the night’s sharpest and most effective attacks on Trump focused on how Trump’s coronavirus response cost lives. Kristin Urquiza and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo were extremely effective at this. Second, Democrats made strong overtures to Black voters with speeches like Michelle Obama’s and the powerful moment of silence led by George Floyd’s brothers. They know that low Black turnout is a big reason why they lost in 2016.