Democrats show they have a deeper bench

Follow Us Get the newsletter Get Jonathan Bernstein's newsletter every morning in your inbox. Click here to subscribe. On night three of their national convention, the Democrats exploited their personnel advantage over the Republicans. It wasn't just President Barack Obama, who gave a stirring speech. The party also has four women in the Senate who ran for president in this cycle, and two of them — Senator Elizabeth Warren and vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris — both gave fine performances on Wednesday. So did former nominee Hillary Clinton and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. And then there was former Representative Gabby Giffords, her career tragically disrupted, who gave perhaps the most gripping and courageous speech of the night. There simply aren't Republican women of similar stature. As for male luminaries, the Democrats have the benefit of three former presidents while Republicans have only one — and that one appears to be neither interested in attending nor welcome at his party's convention. The same goes for the 2012 Republican nominee. Their 2008 nominee received a tribute narrated by his widow at the Democrats' event because his memory wouldn't be honored by his own party. In all likelihood, some newer Republicans will turn out to be excellent convention speakers. But for now, the party has virtually no one who is well-recognized, a strong speaker, and both welcome and willing to appear.  Obama had strengths and weaknesses as a politician, but he has no real parallel when it comes to preparing and delivering a speech. His great theme in his most important speeches, from the 2004 convention through his eulogy for Representative John Lewis earlier this summer, has been the challenges of American democracy, the collective enterprise of overcoming those challenges, and how the long struggle for equality by Black Americans is central to all of that. In this speech, he took dead aim at President Donald Trump as a threat to the very roots of this enterprise. Perhaps the most memorable lines were personal:  I did hope, for the sake of our country, that Donald Trump might show some interest in taking the job seriously; that he might come to feel the weight of the office and discover some reverence for the democracy that had been placed in his care. But he never did. For close to four years now, he's shown no interest in putting in the work; no interest in finding common ground; no interest in using the awesome power of his office to help anyone but himself and his friends; no interest in treating the presidency as anything but one more reality show that he can use to get the attention he craves. The truth is that every modern president until Trump, Democrat and Republican, took the job seriously. They absorbed briefing materials, consulted experts, made personnel decisions based on reasonable criteria, and put up with tons of flack without lashing out immaturely. Obama seemed almost as angry that his successor treats the whole thing unseriously as he was about Trump's threat to democracy. That said, Obama soon transitioned back to his usual themes, this time with particular emphasis on the Black Lives Matter protesters and how, he said, they're leading the way to a more robust democracy. It was well crafted and delivered throughout. In fact, he probably overshadowed Harris, who followed him. Her speech was fine, but nothing special, and the staging didn't help; the organizers rolled out a mock-up of an (empty) convention hall, and she spoke from a podium looking out at … well, nothing much. Perhaps it was meant to evoke Trump's pandemic failures; perhaps the planners thought it would give her speech more gravitas. Whatever the rationale, it was a minor misstep in a week that so far has been nicely choreographed — and has managed to showcase one of the party's great strengths.  1. Rick Hasen on how to have a well-run election despite Trump. 2. Jonathan E. Collins and Sally A. Nuamah on public opinion about school openings. 3. Tom Pepinsky on public opinion about delaying elections. 4. Dan Drezner on Trump and foreign policy. 5. Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux and Meredith Conroy on the gender gap in voting. 6. My Bloomberg Opinion colleague Brooke Sutherland on Trump's attack on Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. 7. Greg Sargent on Trump and conspiracy theories. 8. And Philip Bump ranks the roll-call videos. I always love the convention roll call, and this was the best ever. I hope Republicans can find a way to top it.  Get Early Returns every morning in your inbox. Click here to subscribe. Also subscribe to Bloomberg All Access and get much, much more. You'll receive our unmatched global news coverage and two in-depth daily newsletters, the Bloomberg Open and the Bloomberg Close.   Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can't find anywhere else. Learn more.   You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Early Returns newsletter. Unsubscribe | Bloomberg.com | Contact Us Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022