A month ago, Democrats were expecting a very different convention than the lavish event planned this week on the shores of Lake Michigan.
The expectation was that President Biden would limp in, accept his party's nomination, and then lead the party to a crushing defeat in November.
That outlook changed, literally overnight, when Biden stepped aside and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, who has since been riding a rocket ship. The money is pouring in, the polls have swung in favor of the Democrats, and the size of the crowds turning out for Harris has been giving Donald Trump fits of nerves.
But nothing lasts forever.
A big question is whether Harris will get a boost from the Chicago apple-picking affair, or whether her popularity peaked with the hype surrounding her replacing Biden and her selection of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate.
Columnists Mark Z. Barabak and Anita Chabria are following developments in the Windy City and have some thoughts on the past whirlwind month in politics and what the Democratic National Convention might bring.
Barabac:So, Anita, what are you seeing here in Chicago?
Chabria: Honestly, the first one for me is Joe Biden, who will be speaking on Monday night.
The delegates are looking at this situation with a sense of optimism. I would dare to copy the Harris-Walz formula and call it joy. For Democrats, the past few weeks have not been just a relief or a reset, but a truly different vision for the party and the future.
And it’s a vision that came out of nowhere. If you can remember back to July, it was far from certain that Harris would be the pick if Biden stepped aside. There was talk (which now seems ridiculous) of a “Survivor”-style open primary at this convention, where any contender with guts and money could vie for the nomination.
We don’t give Biden enough credit for his role in the current recovery. As much as he has stepped aside, his endorsement of Harris is what has put Democrats where they are today: organized, cohesive and on the cusp of a victory in November.
My hope is that this convention will greet him with the respect he deserves for relinquishing power for the common good, a feat of duty above ego that has happened only a handful of times in history.
Because I believe Trump's candidacy remains a threat to democratic government (Lin-Manuel Miranda supporters are now thinking of George Washington, who warned of this moment in his own farewell address in 1796).
But we must also give Biden credit for having endorsed Harris and thereby swept away the chaos that some in the party were clamoring for. Without that bit of strength and leadership — dare I say vision — there would be no momentum for a debate in Chicago. Democrats would be starting from scratch.
And you, Mark? What are you looking for?
Barabac:To start, how are Democrats handling a major shift in programming?
In this age when smoke-filled halls are frowned upon for reasons of both health and small-d democracy, a national political convention is, in effect, a four-day infomercial. The candidate is, of course, the star of the show, and every carefully scripted moment is devoted to celebrating his magnificence and extolling the greatness that will surely come to him when he occupies the White House.
This requires a good deal of planning; consider the many testimonies that will be given, the touching anecdotes that will be shared, and those worship videos celebrating the nominee. Think of them as you would your home movies, if they were polled and focused on groups to say goodbye.
This convention was supposed to be all about Biden, his accomplishments, and making the case for a second term, with Harris in the usual role of almost forgotten stand-in. Obviously, that has changed. As you mentioned, the president receives his thanks and his gold watch on Monday evening. Then he and first lady Jill Biden depart Chicago and the event turns into a full-blown Kama-palooza party.
The convention organizers had very little time to make that change, so we'll see how it goes.
Then there are the usual things to see.
Among them, how does Harris fare in her big acceptance speech Thursday night? (I'd take a dollar for every time a pundit or TV host refers to it as “the most important speech of your life,” and by the end of the week I should have enough to buy that lakefront house in Tahoe I've always wanted.)
And is the party managing to project the reassuring, encouraging air of unity it claims to convey, or will the planned demonstrations outside the convention center — and perhaps inside — dampen that happy face?
Chabria: There has been talk that this convention will be as chaotic as the one in 1968, when veterans like you, Mark (just kidding), remember the tear gas and violence.
I know that protesters supporting the Palestinian cause are planning to demonstrate (and I fully support their doing so), but I don't think we'll see the kind of mass unrest of times past. First, the area where protesters are allowed to gather is not that close to the convention center (an issue many activists are unhappy about), and second, I don't think that, rightly or wrongly, the war between Israel and Hamas is the deciding factor right now for most voters.
I think there will be some kind of activism within the compound. How quickly and effectively it will be suppressed remains to be seen.
BarabacI want to be careful not to minimize what is happening in Gaza or the passions of those protesting. But this is not 1968 (when I was just a boy, Anita) or the Vietnam War, which not only divided the Democrats gathered in Chicago but also divided the country in ways that continue to this day. So we will see what happens outside the room.
Inside, you can be sure that everything will be done to eliminate even the slightest hint of discontent.
Some — well, almost no one — will remember a fight at the 2012 Democratic convention over the insertion of the words “God” and “Jerusalem” into the party platform. It was one of those terribly internal affairs that angered a very small number of people and gave an otherwise bored political press corps something to write about. (Conflict!)
The issue threatened to embarrass President Obama until a resolution was passed by voice vote and the words were added to the platform, though the measure clearly did not receive the necessary two-thirds support. The convention chairman, then-Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, decreed that the resolution had passed, and so it did. “That was the president’s prerogative,” he told reporters afterward.
That's how it works: whoever holds the hammer is the boss.
In the meantime, there will be a lot to complete around Harris, right?
ChabriaThe vice president, as you've pointed out, will be the star of the show. But this is a program that, as surprising as it may seem to political nerds, will offer a lot of new information to many Americans who haven't been following the campaign closely.
A poll, albeit a month ago, found that only 35% of Americans are actively seeking news about the election. So while everyone knows Harris is the first mixed-race woman to run as the number one candidate, I don't know if they've really grasped that she's also a first-generation American, the daughter of immigrants.
But Harris will almost certainly take her family to that stage at some point, and America will see a blended family that mirrors California, and also an America where immigrants (and complex families of all kinds) are welcome. That is very much at odds with the image being promoted by the Trump-Vance campaign.
Not only will Harris’ Jewish husband, Doug Emhoff, be there with his stepchildren, but her sister, Maya, will be there with her children and grandchildren. Maya Harris, an accomplished lawyer and politician in her own right, was a teenage mother who became pregnant in her senior year of high school. Her daughter, Meena, is a lawyer and playwright and has two daughters.
This is a family that is relatable and real. This is what an immigrant family looks like, what it means to adopt America and be adopted by America. To me, that is the most exciting part of the convention and a little-known aspect of this campaign.
With Trump and Vance attacking immigrants, Harris is proof that immigrants are part of the fabric of American exceptionalism.
BarabacAnita and I will be back each morning to report on events as they unfold in Chicago, just as we did last month at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. Please join us.
