CHICAGO — This was not the Democratic convention that we expected a month ago.
As Republicans were wrapping up their convention in mid-July, Democrats were dreading theirs. Their voters were depressed. Their donors were closing their checkbooks. And elected officials were convinced that the election was going to be a bloodbath.
At a briefing here in Chicago co-hosted by the Cook Political Report and the University of Chicago Institute of Politics, Chauncey McLean, the head of the super PAC supporting the Vice President, and before her, President Joe Biden, told us that their modeling and polling suggested that Biden’s chances of winning the race were in the single digits.
This week, the mood was ebullient. But, while the energy at the RNC in Milwaukee was driven by a sense of almost inevitable electoral victory, the mood here was driven by relief. The kind of relief that comes from realizing that you have another lease on life.
Compared to the last time we had an in-person convention in 2016, the mood here was more joyous and the party was more united.
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