Report on 2020 Democratic National Convention, Day 2

I thought the second day of the 2020 Democratic National Convention, totally virtual, on television last night, hit an emotional tone which was at once as deep as it gets, and hopeful. The casting of the nominating ballots, state by state, in alphabetical order, was especially moving and satisfying, a much better multi-faceted picture of America than could ever be offered in an in-person physical convention, because we actually got to see the states and cities across this country from which the delegates, multicultural, colorfully dressed and spoken, were casting their votes.

It was also good to see Joe Biden himself at critical moments in the convention, as we did last night. On night two he accepted the nomination, spoke with people who survived because of the Affordable Health Care Act, which he helped bring over the finish line with Obama, and came out to hug his wife Jill after her speech. This was something you also didn't see, or didn't see much of, in the traditional old-fashioned in-person conventions. (Right, I'm increasingly thinking of those in-person conventions as old-fashioned.)

I also thought the segment of Biden working with John McCain and other Republicans was very effective. Whatever McCain did that was right or wrong in the Senate, his saving of the Affordable Care Act from the Trumpian onslaught will be remembered for a long time in history.

And Jill Biden's talk, and its analogy of making a family whole (what she did when she married Joe Biden) and making a nation whole (what Joe and she will do once they're in the White House), was just the tonic we needed.

As a parting note, it was great to see Caroline Kennedy and her son Jack Schlossberg, looking a lot like his uncle John Kennedy, Jr. and he has the same bearing as his grandfather JFK. There's no going back to Camelot, but Jack may well play a role in building the new and better America in the decades ahead.