What Went Down On The Final Night Of The DNC

Voters unsurprisingly rate COVID-19 as the most important problem facing the nation. Despite the economic downturn, 2020 has seen a historic low in the proportion of Americans citing economic issues as the most important problem.

Going back to Julia and Kaleigh’s point earlier about the nature of Democrats’ anti-Trump message … we were talking about that on the podcast last night — that running strictly on an anti-Trump message is much different in 2020 than it was in 2016. In 2016, it was about Trump personally and somewhat hypothetical. In 2020, Biden can run a much more substantive, policy/real-world-focused anti-Trump message — about what he’s done and not done.

The Biden family’s collectively tragedy was always going to be a big part of the campaign’s DNA, and it does soften some of Biden’s unlikeable qualities — he can be cringey in his remarks on race and of course, he’s a career politicians with longtime presidential ambitions, which most people find to be a turnoff. But obviously, the losses resonate so much more during the pandemic. That’s been what tonight has been about. And it softens the ground for Biden to speak.