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

Well, the attempt at featuring 17 rising stars might have been a bit much — it was just too hard to follow any one person — but on this live blog, we were quite impressed by the virtual roll call vote. Dare we say we thought it was an improvement upon how it’s normally done? We like that it added a sense of pageantry to tonight’s events and, in many states, did a great job of capturing what makes that state so unique. We also got a better sense of some of the Democrats’ policy priorities, including health care and how they’d tackle issues of foreign policy with Biden at the helm. But perhaps the biggest point of tonight was just getting to know Biden better. Biden has been in politics a long time, but for many Americans, especially those under 40, this is their first time to really meet Biden the candidate. Tonight was an opportunity for many Americans to do that. To relive tonight in all its chronological glory, just scroll the live blog, but if that’s too much work, here’s the team’s headlines from tonight:

• Tony: Virtual Roll Call For The Win
• Geoffrey: Democratic Roll Call Showcases America’s Diverse People And Places
• Kaleigh: Democrats Accidentally Discover The Best Way To Do A Convention Roll Call
• Meredith: 50 Nifty States (Plus Territories) On Display, Make Biden’s Nomination Official
• Meena: New Mexico, Puerto Rico, North Dakota, Hawaii Win DNC’s Virtual Roll Call Vote
• Seth: Democrats Highlight National Diversity, Rising Stars And Experienced Hands
• Geoffrey: Democrats Look Ahead To The Future But Also To The Past On Night 2
• Amelia: The DNC Started Night 2 With 17 Rising Stars, But the Old Guard Got Most Of The Airtime
• Nathaniel: Headliner-Less Tuesday At DNC Likely To Get Record-Low Ratings

https://youtu.be/n3wyrupdB5E

This evening had a much more positive energy than last night. There are two tensions I’m watching. First is the need to establish a big varied party and do things like the roll call or the early video with lots of speakers, while also focusing on and unifying around the presidential nominee. We’ve heard a lot about Joe Biden as a person tonight — his background and character. The other one is the push and pull between the need to reach out to progressives and the efforts to reach out to Republicans, and to former presidents who are national figures but symbolize a very different party.

It is hard for any speaker or issue to stand out when parties try to showcase so many different themes on one night. The main takeaway is that the party is diverse in demographics and priorities. But the contrast with 2016 shows much more unity.

The roll call was cool, and I’m kind of hungry for fried calamari.

Frankly, I thought it was kind of a weird night that was all over the place. Things got off to a start with a collection of young up-and-coming politicians within the Democratic Party, but it eventually transitioned to a run through many familiar faces. That look back also including retracing Biden’s personal and political history, which built up to Jill Biden speaking at the close. Probably the only really memorable thing will be the virtual roll call, which featured a wonderful visual tour of the country’s states and territories.

Each night has had one moment that actually demonstrated an advantage of the online format over the in-person one. On the first night, it was Michelle Obama’s speech, which was polished and intimate in a way that a podium speech can’t be. The second night it was the roll call, which took place in each state and territory.

Tonight was supposed to be all about unity, but it kind of felt like the people who are supposed to be the future of the party — the rising stars — got some lip service at the beginning and ignored afterward. On the other hand, if you’re telling Joe Biden’s story, it’s hard not to do it without going through his long history in Washington, and we certainly got a tour of his time in politics tonight.

While tonight didn’t really live up to the “rising star” expectations of a Night 2, that may well have been intentional (as my colleagues have already noted). With the delightful virtual tour of the U.S. during roll call, though, I think they made up for that.

Overall, tonight was a pretty forgettable night. None of the 17 keynote speakers stood out — because almost none of them spoke for more than one line at a time! The tone of the evening also jumped around a lot, between the party’s future and its past, serious issues of national security to Joe and Jill’s relationship history. Honestly, the most fun part was the state-by-state roll call, where we were reminded of the nation’s fascinating demographic and geographic diversity.

I think we’re still going to be talking about Night 1 tomorrow.

If this night was about making a positive case for Biden, it’s been somewhat successful, judging by social media (which again isn’t real life!). Mentions of Biden have topped the president and has remained highly positive for most of the evening. However, total volume tonight still trails Night 1, suggesting this will be less remembered …

Speaking somewhat candidly in a church basement is a very different scenario that reading off a teleprompter on live national TV. I’ve seen many politicians who are great in person but freeze up in front of the camera. Biden was a bit stiff here, but certainly holding her own.

Jill Biden is bringing this night back to her husband’s character. On most traits polled by Pew in late June, Joe Biden leads Trump. He is viewed as more honest and even-tempered, and is seen as a better role model and more caring, than Trump. But respondents think Trump is more”energetic” and has more “courage” than Biden.

The role of first lady is a weird one. More pointedly, it’s an antiquated one, but Jill Biden is pitching herself as the kind of first lady who’s been a part time public servant while holding down a full time job (which feels a lot like what parents are doing right now, during the pandemic). She’s certainly not at ease as a speaker, but I’m not sure it matters much in the long run. If anything, I think it makes me think more about how out of the ordinary Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama were for their ease in public settings and bigger platforms.

Democrats twice won the presidency with Southerners moderating on social liberalism (Carter and Clinton). But Obama successfully reimagined the formula by maintaining liberal policy positions while still running against polarization. And now Biden is using the Obama formula, despite talk of further party reinvention. Case in point: Michelle Obama and Jill Biden have both emphasized in their keynote addresses how we as Americans are not as divided as we seem.

I saw Jill Biden speak at an event in South Carolina and she definitely had the undivided attention of the audience in that church basement, if we’re judging dynamic speaking.

This may seem obvious given the setting, but Dr. Jill Biden isn’t actually a doctor of medicine, as some people assume — she’s a doctor of education.

It’s pretty poignant to see Jill Biden in a classroom at this moment, when so many students can’t go back to school in person this fall. She’s not as natural in front of the camera as Michelle Obama, but she’s clearly comfortable in this setting.

Whoa, they’re actually doing a walk-and-talk!

One thing made clear in Richard Ben Cramer’s “What It Takes” is how many of the leading 1988 presidential candidates (Bush, Dole, Biden, Dukakis, Gephardt) dealt with serious loss and injury in their immediate families.

Yeah, political scientist Jennifer Wolak has compiled reams of experimental and survey evidence that voters prefer candidates who compromise, in both theory and practice. It is almost never detrimental to say you’ll compromise.

But there is a lot of data that suggests most Americans aren’t engaged with the minutiae of who is or is not working with the other side. They just want government to work and be something they can ignore. This DNC is making the case that Biden will make government boring again.

Yeah, Sarah, I don’t think a lot of Democrats want a Biden administration to compromise. But some independents or Biden-curious Republicans might.

This is an unsatisfying answer, but I bet most people respond differently depending on how it’s framed. Most Democrats might shy away from “compromising with McConnell” or “Republicans” on issue X, but might be more positive if it’s framed in terms of getting something done.

Realistically, if Democrats want to pass some of the things that they’re talking about — say, a new Voting Rights Act or statehood for D.C. — that’s only happening if Democrats have full control of government. And I suspect you won’t see many crossover votes in the Senate or House for Biden-backed initiatives.

In the McCain montage, a lot was made of Biden’s bipartisan track record in the Senate. In fact, as Obama’s VP, he was sometimes called the “McConnell Whisperer” for his ability to reach across the aisle and find compromise. But I’m curious how much you all think Democrats are actually looking for their nominee to compromise with Republicans if they win back the White House? I can’t help but think even if Trump were to lose, one lasting legacy of his presidency might be that compromising is not respected as much.

Jill Biden doesn’t think about negative things while she runs. Honestly, teach me.

Can you all imagine the production meetings ahead of this? I’m getting a headache just thinking about it.

One of the convenient things of running against another septuagenarian is that Biden isn’t running from his age. The videos emphasize a lot of his Capitol Hill experience over many, many decades.

Sure, Matt, though speakers from the opposite party is a familiar convention play. Think of Zell Miller, who gave the keynote address at the RNC in 2004, or when Joe Lieberman endorsed McCain in 2008.

The breadth of Republican validators help reinforce Biden’s crossover appeal and undermine the sense of a party moving leftward. They’ve been as prominent as the left so far at the convention.

Julia, totally agree! I have long been fascinated by that move. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that he’s a real PARTY guy. He waited his turn, and all that. By the book, I guess.

I would read a deep dive into Bob Dole post-1996 and why he seems to have embraced Trump more than other Republican politicians of his age and stature.

George H.W. Bush said he voted for Clinton in 2016. I think there’s little doubt that W. won’t vote for Trump this fall. Perhaps a hangup for the Bush family is that they still have a member trying to make his way in Republican politics: George P. Bush, current land commissioner of Texas.

But the real question is whether someone like George W. Bush will actually come out and say he won’t support Trump. He’s given veiled hints, particularly in regards to the Black Lives Matter protests and how Trump’s handled them, but he’s stopped short of actually saying he won’t support Trump. That matters.

Colin Powell is a fascinating political figure. Many Republicans wanted him to run for president, but he never took the plunge. He came closest ahead of the 1996 election, when polls showed him ahead of Bill Clinton.

Seeing a brief glimpse of former Ukraine Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch in the foreign policy montage (you may remember her from the House impeachment hearings last November) is another reminder of how little we’ve heard about Trump’s impeachment or the Ukraine scandal in the DNC program so far. It’s been hinted at, of course — but it feels almost like the impeachment happened in another life! And in a different world, we would probably be hearing a lot more about the impeachment during this convention.

I guess I think this would have been better programmed if the whole night had been about rising stars, then the roll call, then “soft” bio stuff, capped off by Jill Biden. Instead we have this rather somber and sober detour into foreign policy, which could have gone on another night?

This is Colin Powell’s first speech at a political convention since the 2000 RNC.

It seems like pretty standard, boring fare for past party nominees to speak at conventions. But it shows how different the Democratic and Republican parties are right now. There is no way in hell the last two Republican presidential nominees would be invited to speak at the Republican convention next week (assuming John McCain was still alive).

Democratic candidates are typically seen as less qualified to deal with national security issues than Republicans, in the abstract. But as a former senator and vice president, Biden is an easier sell, which this montage is attempting to do.

I can’t believe you’re grading on substance and policy, Julia. What kind of live blog is this anymore?

Agreed, Nate. It’s also odd to me that, at this point in the evening, we’ve heard from all the rising stars. We’ve only got the old vanguards of the party left, plus Jill Biden. That feels … off? Even if some of the speeches in the past have fallen flat, I can’t help but think back to what Galen said earlier. Maybe the reason we heard from 17 “rising stars” instead of just one is because Biden is refusing to point the party in one direction. Maybe he is a transition candidate, as he says, and that resonates with voters, but I’m curious how that plays in a general election.

I’ll be grading on policy again tonight, but Kerry’s speech is also pretty focused on Trump’s missteps and some basic stuff, like you want to have allies. I get it, and why this seems like a good idea, but I would still like to hear some ideas.

Kerry says of the U.S., “like everything he [Trump] inherited, he bankrupted it.”

Kerry makes the foreign policy case for Biden’s election, criticizing Trump for undoing accomplishments from the Obama-Biden administration (Kerry served as its second secretary of state, after Hillary Clinton).

Here’s 2004 Democratic nominee John Kerry. Once upon a time, people thought he might actually run this year too!

The regular people make the politicians, deprived of a live audience, seem boring.

Nathaniel, the DNC could have used an editor on this one.