5 winners and 2 losers from night 2 of the Democratic convention

The first night of the 2020 Democratic National Convention was about highlighting ordinary Americans, and the second night was about putting the spotlight on its leaders — the figures who dominated the party in decades prior and those who hope to take the reins in the decades ahead. It cast Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as the people at the center who can serve as the bond — though other people did most of the talking, including, perhaps most notably, former second lady Jill Biden. She wove her family’s story into America’s story.

“Love makes us flexible and resilient,” she said as she closed out the night. “It allows us to become more than ourselves together, and though it can’t protect us from the sorrows of life, it gives us refuge, a home. How do you make a broken family whole? The same way you make a nation whole. With love and understanding, and with small acts of kindness. With bravery, with unwavering faith. You show up for each other in big ways and small ones again and again.”\

The evening was a mashup of the ghosts of Democrats past, present, and future — Bill Clinton and John Kerry, Sally Yates and Ady Barkan, and Stacey Abrams and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Ghosts of the Republican Party — Colin Powell and Cindy McCain — were there, too. The opening montages were clips of memorable keynote speeches of previous conventions, including Barack Obama in 2004 and Ann Richards in 1988, followed by this year’s version of a keynote address featuring 17 up-and-coming Democratic politicians from across the country.

“True leaders make sure that policy is informed by all of us, bridging our burdened past to a safe, equitable, and even joyful future. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are that bridge,” said actress Tracee Ellis Ross, who acted as the emcee for the night.

Former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, delivered remarks over a video montage. Former President Bill Clinton, a somewhat controversial speaker in the Me Too era, took swipes at President Trump but also put a focus on the economy — unsurprising given a tagline of his 1992 campaign was, “It’s the economy, stupid.” He noted that the United States has a higher unemployment rate than South Korea, the United Kingdom, and Japan in the era of Covid-19. “Donald Trump says we’re leading the world. Well, we are the only major industrial economy to have its unemployment rate triple,” he said.