An Unconventional Convention

The Democrats aren't so much having a convention as a long infomercial of live speeches and prerecorded presentations all hosted by noted political power broker Eva Longoria - hardly reminiscent of past conventions in which the chair was usually a cigar-chomping Irish party bigwig with a Noo Yawk accent (although I'd rather look at Eva Longoria, of course), and the GOP convention will likely by hosted by Kevin Sorbo or someone like that.  (Last night the Democrats' host was Tracee Ellis Ross.)  But that's okay, given the pandemic and the fact that no one wants to go to Milwaukee even in normal times.  Sure, it has an art museum.  It has a major-league sports team.  It has nice parks.  Well, so does Newark.  

Now, I kid, of course, but with COVID-19 eighty-sixing rational connections, the Democrats have so far done a good job in making their case to the American voters with full-throated denunciations of Donald Trump and some pretty good character-witness testimonials of Joe Biden.  The video of Biden's travels on Amtrak - which he rode frequently as a U.S. Senator between Wilmington and Washington - not only made the case for Biden with the working-class folks who keep that train system going, it reminded voters of one of his key economic initiatives - modernizing Amtrak and putting it on par with the TGV in France or the ICE in Germany.  But ultimately, as I've already said, Biden himself has to make his own case.  Let's see how he does when he accepts the nomination.