The National Guard is on standby in Chicago. Businesses in the city have boarded up their windows as if a category 5 hurricane is about to make landfall. Massive fences have gone up in residents’ front yards on the West Side, as the police brace for riots. And you know what all that means: Today is Day One of the Democratic National Convention.
Under normal circumstances, the start of a nominating convention creates a political tailwind for a presidential candidate. There’s supposed to be some enthusiasm about the party’s platform going into the convention because they control the messaging. And in the case of the Kamala Harris campaign, the messaging is about as tightly controlled as it can possibly be. She hasn’t given an unscripted interview since she became her party’s presumptive nominee nearly a month ago. She’s communicating to the public almost exclusively through…
