Same cast, different story: How the virtual convention benefits Biden

The headliners were the same, with Bernie Sanders and Michelle Obama addressing the Democratic National Convention on its first night, just as they had four years ago in Philadelphia.

But reconciling a divided party is proving easier with a deeply unpopular incumbent in the White House — and with a less polarizing nominee.

It hardly mattered that Joe Biden has disagreements with progressives, as Sanders noted. Or that he is “not perfect,” as Obama volunteered.

So far, Democrats have effectively framed this election as a referendum on Donald Trump. And as they opened their virtual, made-for-Covid-19 convention Monday, they settled in for a weeklong battering of the Republican president, content to let the contrast define their own, imperfect nominee.

The primary purpose of the proceedings Monday was to demonstrate the breadth of Biden’s support. Former Ohio Gov. John Kasich was among a clutch of Republicans who endorsed Biden, within the same hour of programming that Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, did the same.

Former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman called Biden “decent enough, stable enough, strong enough” to be president. Former New York Rep. Susan Molinari described him as a “really good man.”

Contrast those superlatives with Obama’s speech four years ago for the nominee, Hillary Clinton, one of the most rousing addresses of her career. That year, Obama heralded Clinton as the reason her own daughters take for granted that a woman can be president. Her admonishment that “when they go low, we go high” ended up on T-shirts and inspired a Kelly Clarkson song.

On Monday, she called Biden a “profoundly decent man.