Think this Democratic convention is bad? Imagine their 17-day convention from hell

I recently asked a friend if he would be watching this week’s Democratic National Convention. “Nope,” he replied. “Who wants to watch a convention on Zoom?” Which, for all practical purposes, is what the 2020 version of that quadrennial gathering is.

It’s a sad reflection on how far political conventions have fallen. The mystery and the excitement of wondering how it will all turn out are gone. We knew in March that Joe Biden would be the nominee. We knew last week that Sen. Kamala Harris would be his running mate. Nobody has paid attention to either party’s platform since Bill Clinton ignored his in 1992. All that was left was the fun of the balloon drop, the event’s traditional grand finale. Now, even that’s been denied us.