A Tale of Three Conventions

But then came Clinton, with what may have been the most liberal acceptance speech by a Democratic nominee in decades.

One measure: This was the first since Jimmy Carter in 1980 not to mention the federal debt or deficit. "You can choose a future where we reduce our deficit without sticking it to the middle class," President Obama told the convention four years ago. "We are wallowing in deficit," he said in 2008. "Our plan will cut the deficit in half in four years," John Kerry vowed in 2004.

From Clinton on this score, silence. The only debt she mentioned was what students owe to colleges, as in, "Bernie Sanders and I will work together to make college tuition free for the middle class and debt free for all."

Indeed, on this and other policy prescriptions, Clinton's speech, and the statements by her advisers leading up to the evening, went pretty much full Sanders. "I want you to know I've heard you," she assured Sanders supporters. "Your cause is our cause."

But another cause, one that may end up being the most convincing of all, is defeating Trump. Which is why two of the most important moments of the convention may end up being Clinton's taunt -- "A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man we can trust with nuclear weapons" -- combined with the even more powerful rebuke of Trump's ignorant intolerance by Khizr Khan, father of a fallen American -- and Muslim -- soldier.

For me, two related images will linger: Khan, reaching into his jacket to retrieve a copy of the Constitution, while his wife stood by his side, draped in a headscarf. Clinton, holding Chelsea in an extended hug before beginning to speak. An intimate moment on the most public of stages, made all the more compelling because it took so long to arrive.

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Ruth Marcus' email address is ruthmarcus@washpost.com.