With President Joe Biden as the keynote speaker, the first night of the Democratic National Convention seemed to be about passing the torch. And that’s what it was – although the Democrats on stage did not make that explicit.
Biden’s speech came late. It began around 11:30 p.m. Eastern time, so late that some pundits believed the DNC had intentionally omitted his speech (a theory that party leaders denied). When the president finally spoke, he completely skipped the obvious question his presence raised: Why her and not him? Biden spent most of his speech touting his own record in office and portraying Harris as a champion of his legacy, without a single word explaining why he needed a champion in the first place.
Biden was far from alone in this. Throughout the night, Democrats were careful not to acknowledge the unprecedented move that resulted in the incumbent president delivering the opening address rather than the convention’s closing speech. The convention essentially behaved as if Biden were a second-term president legally barred from running for office, rather than a president cast aside by his own party.
This may seem uncomfortable, but it was probably the best way to handle the situation.
The elephant in the donkey room?
Political conventions are essentially multi-day commercials for the host party. They are designed to present the party in the best light and highlight its most important issues, most talented politicians and clearest points of unity.
Right now, the Democrats actually have a pretty good story to tell. Harris is rising in the polls, buoyed by an enthusiasm among the party’s base not seen since Barack Obama’s election victory. The economy is strong, crime is down, and no American soldiers are dying in major wars abroad. In fact, things are going so well that election models and prediction markets now see her as the slight favorite to beat Donald Trump in November.
The last thing you want to do is ruin the party by dwelling on the recent past—especially the ugly, still-fresh internal fight over whether to replace Biden with Harris. But could Democrats really not avoid acknowledging that the party had just made history when they switched out a presidential candidate after the primaries?
Yes, as it turns out, they could.
For most of the evening, that felt natural. The program focused on the choice voters will have to make in November, pitting Harris (good!) against Trump (bad!). There was little reason to dwell on Biden because he is not on the ballot.
The whole thing only started to feel strange as the night of Biden’s speech approached, with speeches from figures all over the world: Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, First Lady Jill Biden and the President’s daughter Ashley. There are reports that the President is still angry and upset about the whole thing, and it’s hard to imagine that postponing his speech until late in the evening wasn’t like salt in the wound.
“This is terrible. He literally built a campaign and handed it over to them – do they have to take him out of prime time?” a Biden aide complained to Axios reporter Alex Thompson.
But when the time came, Biden stuck to the script. Of course he talked about himself, but he didn’t say or do anything that could be seen as obvious disapproval of Harris. Like everyone else, he simply ignored the succession question. And the problem more or less resolved itself.
This concession reflects Biden’s broader political style.
“Biden has actually built and relied on a coalition rather than a personality cult, to a greater extent than almost any modern president,” writes Georgetown University political scientist Matt Glassman. “He’s just not as popular as Obama or Clinton or Reagan or, well, Trump. That shows in his approach to policymaking, his approach to public relations and his relationship with the party’s factions.”
This is probably the reason why Biden resigned under pressure from the party when Trump did not (after the Access to Hollywood tape or the Capitol riots on January 6th). But it also explains why Biden was able to resist the temptation to dwell on his own impeachment and carry on as if it had never happened.
At the end of the day, he’s a party man.
