She walked such a line between the starkness of her message (pack a dinner, pack a breakfast) and hopefulness. Also noteworthy was how she chose to present herself - big hoop earrings, brown top. No WASP-y pearl earrings and jewel tones. Tom and Lorenzo, who covered her style choices extensively during her tenure as First Lady, break down her choices here thoughtfully.

President Obama was also very direct in calling Trump a failed president. It is an interesting contrast with the Bushes, who did not attend the 2016 Republican convention, and are definitely not expected to be involved with the 2020 convention. I feel like this should be more compelling to Republicans - that every living former Republican president won't have anything to do with Trump, but it obviously isn't.

One other thing that I thought was deftly handled - the Republicans had been managing expectations down for Biden's speech, saying that he is senile and unable to string words together. This was likely a ploy to try to capitalize on the chance that he might stumble over his words. The choice to highlight his struggles with a stutter was done in part to mitigate that narrative - if he stumbles over his words it's because of his stutter, not senility! It had the bonus effect of reinforcing their narrative of him being approachable and available to ordinary people. I have mixed feelings about the involvement of the boy with the stutter, but it was a politically savvy move.