Convention managers are referring to President Biden’s speech tonight as a “keynote address.” That’s a term that used to have a very specific meaning in national party conventions, but is now mostly just a label on the schedule
Back in the days when national party conventions were messy, uncontrolled, and sometimes even deliberative affairs, a “keynote address” on the first night traditionally set the tone with a rousing message of party unity and partisan attacks on the opposition. It was an assignment much like the response to the State of the Union Address that parties who don’t control the White House still deploy: an opportunity for some politician (often a “rising star”) to make a mark with a red-meat speech guaranteed to generate cheers and standing ovations and overshadow (at least for a time) fights over nominations and platforms as conventions got underway.
Even when conventions became largely ceremonial (the last major-party convention where the nomination was in doubt was in 1976), the keynote address often got significant attention (e.g., Ann Richards’ 1988 Democratic keynote address mocking fellow-Texan George H.W. Bush, or Zell Miller’s 1992 Democratic keynote address introducing Bill Clinton as the rare politician who “feels your pain.”). Eventually, though, keynotes lost their significance and at some conventions simply referred to featured speeches kicking off each night’s prime time sessions. Most famously, Barack Obama’s 2004 keynote address that made him a national sensation was delivered on the second night of the convention in Boston.
The most recent Republican convention in Milwaukee did not bother to feature a “keynote address;” that gathering got its first day buzz from Trump’s first appearance after his near-assassination, and from his announcement of J.D. Vance as his running mate. While Joe Biden will certainly offer some partisan red meat in his “keynote address” tonight, it’s most likely to be retrospective as much as prospective as he summarizes his presidency and hands off party leadership formally to Kamala Harris.
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