Jonathan Chait: “Experienced in the moment, Barack Obama’s speech to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago felt like the rousing culmination of a pep rally, peppered with funny insults of Donald Trump and familiar soaring patriotic oratory. But if you read it more closely, an argument emerges: against Trump and also against Obama’s own skeptics, including those within the Democratic Party who have turned away from his legacy.”

“Obama first electrified his party 20 years ago at the Democratic convention in Boston with a hopeful speech disdaining social division. To Obama’s skeptics, Trump’s rise refuted his optimistic belief in the nature of America and called for a different kind of politics to respond to it: summoning an angry populism to counter Trump’s angry pseudo-populism. The case Obama made to his party is that his political blueprint remains morally and strategically correct.”

Donald Trump questioned whether Democrats knew where Vice President Kamala Harris “came from,” reprising a tactic that he has previously used against other Democrats, including former president Barack Obama and women of color in Congress, the Washington Post reports.

Said Trump: “I wonder if they knew where she comes from, where she came from, what her ideology is.”

The New York Times have every song played by DJ Cassidy last night at the Democratic convention.

Earlier for members: The Best Delegate Roll Call in History

“Maria Bartiromo repeatedly used her Fox Business show to peddle an election fraud conspiracy theory that she claimed originated with the wife of a friend of a friend in Texas and that she made no apparent effort to confirm,” Media Matters reports.

“But when the Texas Department of Public Safety and the local Republican Party investigated her reckless allegation, they discovered that none of it was true.”

Andrew Egger: “We don’t know yet whether Kamala Harris and company will ride out of this week with the traditional post-convention polling surge—after all, parties don’t usually ride into their conventions on the heels of a race-resetting, vibe-unleashing change to the top of the ticket.”

“But here’s what we can say: Two days in, the Democrats are undoubtedly putting on the kind of high-energy, focused, and above all unified show that good polling tends to follow.”

“Here is a 78-year-old billionaire who has not stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago… There’s the childish nicknames, the crazy conspiracy theories, this weird obsession with crowd sizes.”

— Barack Obama, at the Democratic convention, joking about the size of Donald Trump’s penis. (Watch the video.)

Politico: “Tumultuous overseas events like Brexit are often harbingers of U.S. elections. What will be this year’s?”

Rep. Mary Peltola (D-AK) “ranked first on Tuesday in an open primary to set the field for her re-election bid, claiming just over 50% of the vote in preliminary results, well ahead of 11 challengers vying for her position as the state’s sole member of the House,” the New York Times reports.

“The results put Ms. Peltola in a strong position for the general election in November, setting the stage for a possible replay of her successful run in 2022, when Republicans split their party’s support in the state’s unusual ranked-choice system and propelled her to victory.”

The first night of the Democratic National Convention averaged 20 million viewers across 13 networks, surpassing the audience for the initial day of the Republican National Convention by about two million viewers, Deadline reports.

“House Democrats’ largest super PAC got a $10 million cash infusion from Michael Bloomberg,” Politico reports.

“That’s more than half the nearly $20 million House Majority PAC raised in July, according to a campaign finance report it filed Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission. The group ended the month with more than $105 million in the bank.”

“You can tell those flannel shirts he wears don’t come from some political consultant, they come from his closet. And they have been through some stuff.”

— Barack Obama, speaking about Gov. Tim Walz at the Democratic convention.