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Unable to gather in person, the Democrats took their party’s convention digital—and nailed it, argues David Frum, who served as a speechwriter for President George W. Bush. In the process, the party created the first true social-media convention. “It will not be the last,” he predicts.
The event should serve as a reality check for President Donald Trump, our polling expert Ronald Brownstein argues: “Trump has committed the GOP to a strategy of squeezing bigger margins from a shrinking share of the electorate, while systematically alienating the growing groups that Democrats are highlighting this week.”
Five big moments of the week, analyzed by our Politics team
1. Barack Obama sounded scared.
“In a stark, sober address from Philadelphia ... a man elected a dozen long years ago on a gauzy promise of ‘hope and change’ found himself instead turning to fear as a rallying cry,” Russell Berman writes.
2. Kamala Harris took up her party’s mantle.
Emma Green writes: “As Democrats look to women voters for victory in November, this is the story they are telling: It’s time for all women, and not just white women, to finally claim their place in politics.”