DNC 2020 recap: Joe Biden's character & the 2020 presidential election

Watch as Eurasia Group's Jon Lieber offers a recap of the Democratic National Convention to nominate Joe Biden as the Democratic candidate for president:

All in all, a successful convention for the Democrats, four nights of pretty slick production values that drove home the message of Joe Biden's decency and the fact he is not Donald Trump. One interesting contrast between 2020 and 2016 was that the Democrats largely treated Donald Trump like a joke in 2016 and didn't seem to take very seriously. This year, they're treating him as though he's an existential threat to democracy with a really dark and ominous warning from former President Barack Obama.

Interesting snub of Julián Castro, the former presidential candidate who did not appear alongside the other Democratic candidates, even though Mike Bloomberg, a former Republican, got significant airtime along with other Republican validators of Joe Biden's bipartisanship and decency, trying to suggest that if you elect him, he's going to return represent a return to normalcy. Not a lot of talk about policy at the convention, which, of course, would take the focus off the character of Joe Biden and give President Trump stronger grounds for attacking.

Next week, you're going to have the Republican National Convention, where I think you're going to have a lot of focus on Democratic policies designed to make the Democrats look like out of touch urban elites. Some interesting, colorful characters. I expect ratings will probably be down for the Republicans as well. And in a couple of weeks, the campaign will have moved on to the next really important thing that's going to happen, which is the debates. And that's President Trump's next opportunity to try to make Joe Biden look like he may be a little bit too old for the job, something Biden did a great job last night of dispelling with a very competent workman-like acceptance speech.