The vice president last night had the most extended discussion of the pandemic that we’ve heard so far at the Republican convention. It is the most important issue to the public by far, according to Gallup. Pence listed a lot of actions that the administration has taken, said we were on track to have a safe, effective vaccine by the end of the year, and turned his attention to the task of re-opening and rebuilding the economy. The anti-COVID policies he talked about were in the past; by implication, all we need to do now and in the future about it is to continue the measures the administration has already undertaken — measures that have been, on his account, working well.

The speech won’t look good if we have serious upsurges in September or October. Perhaps the campaign thinks that the ticket is cooked if that happens, whatever the administration does or says now.