Subject: Re: Julian Epstein...
And then we arrive at the convention, where a potentially desperate democrat party is faced with 3 options:

Again, I think this fundamentally misunderstands the changed nature of party nominating conventions.

They used to be able to exercise control over who the nominee was. Back in the old days, the parties (meaning the institutional organizations) got to choose who their candidates for President were. Some of them would hold primaries or caucuses in some states, but only so that the party poobahs could get some input into who their voters might prefer. Ultimately, though, the choice was to be made by the parties - not primary voters.

That era is gone. They changed the rules. The convention rules for both parties don't allow the party leaders to pick the nominee any more. The delegates are required to vote for the individual who won their states' primaries/caucuses. The convention is a party and organizing and campaign event, not a venue in which the delegates are actually choosing among alternatives.

So the Democrats in Chicago won't have three options. They'll have one option, and the convention will be a celebration of Biden's re-election campaign.