They had good B.O.

The Democratic Party appears to have gotten halfway through its convention with no major disasters. Last night the crowd was addressed by the Obamas. After the former President healed a couple of lepers on the sidewalk outside the arena, he and his wife were carried in on sedan chairs and gave some darn good speeches.

You have to wonder whether too many young voters were watching at that point, however. Earlier they had to sit through Chuck Schumer, who explained what their grandfather thinks, and Bernie Sanders, who told them what their great-grandfather thinks.

About the only bone I could see thrown to anyone under the age of 70 was that they had a fairly clever DJ who played a snippet of an appropriate song after each state cast its vote in the ceremonial roll call to nominate Kamala Harris. As an adjunct to this, a complete playlist was released on the music streaming sites, but I'm not sure how good an idea that was, because when you listened to the entire songs, a fair number of them consisted of rappers belting out one swear word after another. Snoop Dogg mugging it up at the Olympics is one thing; Kendrick Lamar telling you "I'm fucked up, homie, you fucked up" is a little different.

A couple of reformed Republicans explained why they were through with Trump, which was a nice touch. Every single moderate Republican in the nation should be ashamed of what's at the top of their ticket, and if they don't vote for Harris, at least they ought to have the decency not to vote for anyone this time around. You would think that they would be glad to rid themselves of Orange Caligula once and for all.

There was a benediction at the end of the night, which seemed a little odd given the Democrats' outrage over the recent violations of the separation of church and state. But it was a pretty nondenominational blessing. While the preachers did talk to "God," pronouns were avoided.

It's on to Night 3 tonight, and I think it might be the most hazardous of all of them for the blue team. The big draws on the speaker list are Bill Clinton and Nancy Pelosi. Once again, geezers, aged 78 and 84, and each with baggage galore. They may "fire up the base," whatever that means, but the million or two key voters in the half-dozen swing states may pass on their spiel.

You wonder how Ron Wyden must feel about being left off the stage. He's been in Congress for 43 years; you'd think they'd let him say the Pledge of Allegiance or something. But don't worry, Ron. Nvidia's interests will be well-represented by Pelosi.