CHARLES LIPSON: Joe Biden offers platitudes, not policies.

What was missing? Three important things. Biden made no mention of

What policies he would implement or how they differed from Trump’s; he simply offered vague picture of a happier, more prosperous future;

Riots and looting in major cities; he ignored them entirely; the closest he came was saying that, during his administration, America would finally rid itself of ‘systemic racism’; he included a sweet vignette of talking to George Floyd’s young daughter, who said her father had changed the world; but there was no mention of the chaos in Portland, Seattle, Chicago, New York, and other cities, which may have begun with Floyd’s killing but is now divorced from it;

Any international threats and challenges, or how he would deal with them differently from Trump, aside from saying he would not ‘cozy up to dictators’. He never mentioned Russia, Iran, North Korea, or terrorism. His one glancing mention of China was that his administration would not depend on them for medical supplies, a policy Trump is already pursuing.

The absence of any policy ideas was striking, especially because so many commentators expected them. The whole convention, they noted, had been devoted to attacking Trump, which left Biden was free to explain what he would do in office and how his policies would make the country better. He didn’t do that. He hardly tried. He simply promised everyone the Christmas presents they were wishing for — and then only in the vaguest terms.

To be completely fair, it was also badly delivered.