A Tale of Three Conventions

PHILADELPHIA -- The Democratic National Convention here was Broadway to the summer stock production that Republicans put on in Cleveland. The Democrats' show was polished and uplifting, while the grand spectacle Donald Trump had promised to produce was amateurish and angry.

The chants of "USA! USA!" -- even if they were, at times, a device to drown out protests by Bernie Sanders' supporters -- and the impassioned waving of flags, were more reminiscent of past Republican gatherings than the typical Democratic convention. You half expected Lee Greenwood, the country star omnipresent on the Republican political circuit, to pop up, joining Katy Perry in a "God Bless the USA" duet.

Yet this was not simply the tale of two conventions. It was, rather, a tale of three: Republicans versus Clinton Democrats versus the Sanders wing.

The Clinton team confronted the delicate task of presenting -- or re-presenting, or re-re-presenting -- their nominee to the country as an acceptable, if not exactly cuddly, alternative to the threat of Trump.

"I get it that some people just don't know what to make of me," Clinton said in accepting the nomination. That is the sanitized version of the skepticism, if not outright hostility, she faces from some voters.

And the campaign had to do this all while assuring -- or re-assuring or re-re-assuring -- the Sanders crowd that she would behave as their kind of Democrat, not the incrementalist moderate they suspect she is at heart.

The intraparty tensions that erupted at the convention's opening, inflamed by the WikiLeaked Democratic National Committee emails, were salved by the swift, even if not swift enough, dispatch of party chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Still, protests lingered on the floor, like a trash fire that is never entirely extinguished.

And the underlying strains remain, reflected in the duality of the Democrats' message, pitched simultaneously to swing and Sanders' voters. Both are essential to Clinton's fate in November, and while it is possible to forge a common appeal to the white working-class and left-leaning Democrats in the anti-trade, raise-the-minimum-wage message, these remain two distinct constituencies.

Thus the appearance Wednesday by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who endorsed Clinton even while noting that he has often disagreed with her and advising, "I know what it's like to have neither party fully represent my views or values."

Thus the testimonial from Doug Elmets, a former aide to Ronald Reagan, albeit an obscure one. Thus the remarkable display of patriotic, even militaristic, themes, capped by Thursday's speech by retired four-star Marine Gen. John Allen, flanked by other retired military leaders.

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.