Tom Jones of the Pointer Report –
Democrats have set the bar high. They will have to match or beat it in the final two days of the convention, and so will the Republicans next week
Halfway through the Democratic National Convention, what do you think? Are you liking this unconventional convention?
I have to admit, I’m really liking it. A lot.
Years and years of watching conventions coming from big arenas and it all looked the same, felt the same, sounded the same. Big speeches to roaring crowds might rile up the base, but the past two nights have delivered something that big conventional hall conventions rarely do: a real personal connection. Instead of speakers talking to thousands of people inside the hall and millions watching on TV, it feels like each speaker is talking to just one person: you. That was especially evident when Dr. Jill Biden spoke from a classroom in Wilmington, Delaware, on Tuesday night. Clearly that was a speech made more effective by this format than had it been from at a podium on a big stage in front of a packed arena.
Credit the Democrats for a solid list of speakers who have been able to make that personal connection through a TV or computer screen, which isn’t necessarily easy.
In the end, the one thing that the party might have feared with a virtual convention — an inability to connect with the audience — has not been a problem at all. In fact, quite the opposite.