The 24 Seven: Windows

The top seven stories shaping the race for the White House

California Gov. Gavin Newsom heads in to the convention Wednesday night. (Photo Tom LoBianco/24sight News.)

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As one longtime source and reader noted, 24sight News is akin to a home for the politically homeless, I keep it neutral and nuanced here.

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1. How you see it

Key political events and historic moments are often understood in very different ways based on how you witness them.

The classic example of this is the allegory of the 1960 debate between then-Vice President Richard Nixon and young U.S. Sen. John F. Kennedy. Those who listened on the radio, broadly believed Nixon won the debate, those who watched on the ascendant medium of television said the telegenic Kennedy won.

I thought of this last night as I wrote from the press stands in the upper deck of the United Center. When superstars like Stevie Wonder and Oprah Winfrey walked out, the roars from inside the convention were thundrous and rolling. (I’m re-listening to Winfrey now on C-SPAN and the applause is clear and obvious, but not rattling my laptop.)

Bill Clinton was Bill Clinton — off the paper, not the teleprompter and raspier, same in the center as on-screen, whatever the screen.

To me, after a third night of sweeping rhetoric and narrative arcs inside the convention center, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s decidedly not loud, not energetic, not sweeping speech (which was much like his still-new stump speech) didn’t shake building. But, as just one reporter, I wasn’t the audience.

Texting with some folks afterwards and this morning, the read was it worked — down-home, a new message of Democratic patriotism, and not so overbearing that it overshadowed the real star of the show, who takes the stage tonight.

And he garnered some powerful moments, like his 17-year-old son crying proudly, “That’s my dad!”

Check in with my friend, Patrick Pfingsten, author of

The Illinoize

here on Substack, who I’ve been stringing for from the Illinois delegation breakfasts this week. We’re part of the growing world of independent reporting, staying in the trenches to keep you informed as you decide on who to pick come November and beyond.

2. Probably not flipping

It’s easy to get lost in programming inside a political convention, that’s much the design of these things. So I felt like it was time to call around a bit outside the building and run some checks, are Democrats really flipping reticent Republicans? The kind who haven’t gone full Never Trump, but also deeply, historically want their party back or something close to what Reagan used to represent for them.

The Democratic programming has clearly been aimed at that crowd (which is more sizable than you may think given the standard campaign rhetoric) — former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, a conservative Republican, offered a permission slip to other conservatives in his speech last night, voting for Harris/Walz this cycle doesn’t mean revoking their Republican credentials.

But in my calls today, I didn’t hear much from my Republican sources indicating that this message is either getting through to disaffected Republicans or would work if it did …

3. Instead

The read I got from my R sources was this seems more aimed at depressing veteran conservatives, supporters of former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and other potential flips.

The January 6th presentation, with the powerful video and ever-jarring footage of a subset of Trump supporters attacking police while lawmakers fled, one source said, seemed aimed at dispiriting that target audience — either driving them to stay home or skip voting for president and vote Republican the rest of the way down the ballot, thereby denying Trump critically needed votes.

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4. Hacked

Friends, read

Richard J. Tofel

author of Second Rough Draft on Substack and founder of ProPublica, today with a very sharp (and clear) look at what you do as a reporter if you get hacked documents, like opposition research file on Trump running mate J.D. Vance.

This meshes with much of how I’ve viewed certain items like the famous “Steele Dossier” from the 2016 campaign — if a source came to me with it, I wouldn’t run it outright, you need to check it out first, report it out see what “washes”, what checks out correctly — write it if it’s correct and newsworthy, skip it if it’s not.

5. This is a different Democratic Party

Than what has existed for the last eight years, new stars, a new focus, new energy.

6. A Kennedy bump out of the convention?

That’s the chatter on the right, as to whether the black sheep of the famous Democratic dynasty can offer some more juice for Trump.

7. Where it’s headed

Stevie Wonder, John Legend and Sheena E, Oprah, THE SURPRISE GUEST, and a cavalcade of Democratic presidents, power brokers, even current and former Republicans — all over some very long nights (this is the Democratic Party’s convention, after all, not the Republican Party’s) lead up to the big finale in Chicago tonight, when Harris will accept the party’s nomination, becoming the first Black woman to win a major party nomination — and, based on the messaging out of Chicago’s, the country’s best shot at preventing disaster if Trump returns to the White House. (Trump and his campaign team have argued throughout the week that it’s Harris and departing President Joe Biden who are the disaster.)

To get there, a succession of former presidents and powerbrokers passed the torch, turned the page on almost a decade of intensive focus on Trump, and highlighted new and rising stars in the party.

And they presented a pair of older, lowkey white guys (they’re not actually lowkey of course, they have very powerful positions) — Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff and Walz — to soften the ground with the humanizing story of Harris.

That answer will come tonight in the finale from Harris herself.

Thanks for reading, drop a line: tom@24sight.news