Despite obstacles, a successful Democratic National Convention

After four days of tributes to his empathy and compassion, Joe Biden showed a different side in his acceptance speech Thursday night: righteous indignation.

When he spoke of foreign threats to U.S. elections, or Russian bounties on American troops, or the "current president's" performance during the pandemic, his eyes flashed with anger and his voice acquired an edge of steel.

In a convention dominated by odes to character, speakers had sought to contrast the Democratic presidential nominee as the moral opposite of President Donald Trump. At times, the testaments to Biden's character seemed to credit him with healing the sick, as if he were a candidate for sainthood. (By contrast, a speaker who'd lost her father to COVID-19 said he'd been in perfect health, save for one pre-existing condition: his fatal faith in Trump.)

Biden's performance seemed calculated to take the wind out of Trump's characterization of him as "sleepy Joe." It also undercut his detractors' assertions that he will be a hapless puppet of the Democratic left. In sum, his speech lived up to its billing as the defining moment of his career.

And it was a fitting conclusion to his party's remarkable convention. It turns out that a virtual convention has a few advantages over the traditional, in-person kind. It mostly sticks to a tighter schedule. It reduces the possibility of disruptive floor demonstrations. It invites creative initiatives, like the whip-around tour of the 57 states and territories for the virtual roll call.

It's true that the four-night webcast bordered at times on extended infomercial — but let's admit honestly that the national conventions have long done that.

Among the convention's surprises were moments of clever writing inserted in the texts of speeches, like the so-called Easter eggs that modern showrunners leave for hard-core fans. One such was the 17-voice keynote address delivered on the second night, when several of the presenters referred to Obamacare as a "big effing deal." People who pay attention to politics will remember that Biden was caught on tape using that phrase when the Affordable Care Act was passed, except that he didn't say "effing."

When Michelle Obama summed up her view of Trump by saying, "It is what it is," few could have missed the allusion to the president's use of that phrase in regard to COVID deaths. And when Kamala Harris noted, "I know a predator when I see one," she did not name the predator. She didn't need to.

The web-based convention format also helped the Democratic Party highlight one of its real strengths: its diversity. People of color cast votes, gave speeches, wielded gavels and accepted nomination for high office. The Democrats' advantage over Republicans in racial and other kinds of diversity is not so much an edge as it is a tectonic plate, and they missed no opportunity to showcase the fact.

They were smart to do so, for the result was a convention that felt like a true reflection of the nation's people. The first night's moment of silence for George Floyd and other victims of police violence was especially moving, and appropriate.

The convention could have benefited from more substance. We don't confuse a national nominating convention with a policy seminar, but we do quail at such gooey generalizations as "restoring decency." Happily, the third night's content offered a refreshing dose of specific issues — gun violence, women's rights, trade agreements, immigration, education and more.

We hope that in the weeks to come, Biden and Harris will balance their rhetoric about compassion and empathy with even more talk about the nuts and bolts of governing.

But do they need to? For many people, the decision in November will come down to the character question that was the focus of so much web and airtime. If Biden and Harris try to overwhelm Trump and Vice President Mike Pence with their command of policy, they may be missing the point. In tweets, speeches and deportment, the president has made his personality a central issue in this campaign. Soon he, and we, will see the results.