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My God. There aren't enough GIFs on the Internet to properly express my reaction to this idea.

Short-term I generally agree with you. Medium- to long-term, we need to get caseloads way down, implement widespread testing and contact tracing, allocate money to schools, and ensure that they can reopen safely. The only reason we're facing this Sophie's Choice is because we've spent the past six months screwing our virus response up so badly. Other countries have done all these things despite not having a vaccine. It's not impossible.

Joe Biden has selected his running mate, revealing to top advisers on Tuesday the woman he will invite to join his ticket, according to two people familiar with the matter. Biden is poised to make the announcement as early as today.

Fingers crossed. I am generally hopeful that this fall will be much different from the spring, not only in terms of quality but also in terms of consistency. My younger son was in a pre-K class with an absolutely wonderful teacher, but she was in her 60s and simply couldn't adapt to the new technological reality. For the first month, she barely did anything, and when she finally did put together some Zooms, they tended to be of the "Can everyone please mute themselves?" variety. I don't blame her, but it was frustrating. I hope that teachers like her will be getting a lot more support this fall.

Also, I saw first-hand last spring the opposite risk with my then-9 year old. He's incredibly smart, but I think all the teachers were encouraged to go lowest common denominator and make sure they didn't try to overwhelm the struggling kids. So he did fine with distance learning, but I'm worried we may not be pushing him as much as he needs.

Dude is almost 96 years old. I know if only has to be virtual, but maybe he's just not up for it? I do kind of agree with you about Bill. I had wondered in the past if he would be PNGd for the convention. I'm guessing that if Tara Read were still a topic of conversation the Biden campaign might have come to a different conclusion.

Former presidents almost always speak (although I don't believe George W has appeared at a single convention since 2004). Past nominees also often speak.

To be fair, one of the biggest problems with distance learning is that it exacerbates inequality. Well-off, highly educated parents -- the type that would be able to set up their own home-schooling program -- should do fine with distance learning. Low-income families -- who may not have reliable devices or Internet connections, and whose parents may not be at home because they work essential jobs -- could fall farther behind. Also, special needs children of all income levels could have particular troubles. So I don't think we should dismiss the costs of schools moving fully virtual. We just have to balance them against the health risks to students, teachers, staff and the broader community of keeping schools open. And we should also be angry that politicians have failed us by putting us in this position.

Supposedly Rice has taken the top spot on the betting markets because Harris was listed as a convention speaker and she wasn't. Which should really tell you more about the betting markets than about Biden's choice.

Sounds like they might be related to the folks running my office who think it's a good idea to continue doing potlucks in the conference room

Yeah, you may be right. I think I'm just a little underwhelmed by Pete. I'm not totally sold on AOC as the future of the party, but IMO she's way more likely to lead a movement than he is, and seems to genuinely represent something new. Of course, her profile is already pretty high with or without a convention speech. I guess if she really knocks her opportunity out of the park it may vault her to another level.

Also worth pointing out that, while everyone is always on the lookout for the "next Obama", I can't think of a ton of other cases where a person's profile was raised, usually because it's hard for those speeches to exceed expectations the way Obama did. I remember how Julian Castro was supposed to be the Chosen One in '12; his speech was fine, he's done fine for himself since then, but nothing amazing. Only other example that's coming to mind was Ann Richards tearing George HW Bush a new one in '88 ("Poor George, he was born with a silver foot in his mouth") and then winning the governor's race two years later.

Could be, though I hope not. I don't have strong feelings either way about him, but I feel like the party can do better in terms of the face of its future. Also, his path to statewide office seems to be mostly blocked, so not sure how much good it would do to raise his profile.

Worth remembering that there are really only 1-2 featured speeches a night. First night will be Michelle and Bernie, second night is Jill and Bill, third night is Obama and the VP, fourth night is Joe. Everyone else is likely to give a relatively short speech that may not even be carried by the broadcast networks. One thing I'd love to see (and just because it's not on this list doesn't mean it won't be added later): a keynote by a party up-and-comer a la Obama in '04. I could see Stacey Abrams or someone like that giving a really strong speech and raising their profile. (Then again, with purely virtual speeches we're not likely to see a lot of stemwinders.)

Not sure if it was that one in particular that I heard about. Might have been Clinton-Booker.