When it comes right down to it, national political conventions are television shows, nothing more and nothing less. Sure, there are 20,000 people in the hall, and the balloon drop is always a blast, but every one of the delegates and other grandees are already voting for Kamala Harris, so entertaining them only matters to the extent it makes the week of nightly broadcasts in primetime more riveting, highly rated, and successful in accomplishing other goals that are more tangible and measurable: reaching a bunch of people who don’t normally pay attention to politics, raking in campaign contributions, and recruiting new foot soldiers to the cause. And it’s in terms of these quotidian metrics that the Democratic convocation in Chicago last week was truly killer.