Perhaps a better title for this article might have been, "The DNC's Convention is Now Utterly Meaningless." We previously discussed the convoluted mess in Ohio, where Joe Biden was in danger of not making it onto the ballot because of state election laws declaring that the names of all presidential candidates appearing on the ballot must be submitted prior to August 7. With the convention scheduled for August 19, they would have missed the deadline. The legislature in Ohio put forward two separate bills that would have allowed the Democrats to submit Biden's name later, but the proposal stalled because of disagreements over the details. Now the DNC has apparently thrown in the towel. They will "virtually nominate" Joe Biden and Kamala Harris prior to August 7 and submit their names to Ohio to ensure they appear on the ballot. So why bother having a convention in Chicago? (ABC News)

The Democratic National Committee will move to conduct virtual party proceedings to certify President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party nominees before Ohio's Aug. 7 ballot certification deadline, and before their in-person convention beginning Aug. 19, the party confirmed to ABC News on Tuesday.

This will take a big moment away from Biden and the party -- the official nomination at convention is typically met with fanfare and celebration, but he will become the official nominee virtually, without the pomp and circumstance.

The move came moments before the Ohio Senate convened on Tuesday for a special session to address Biden's ability to appear on their general election ballot in November -- which the GOP-led legislature has tied up with a separate bill related to campaign finance, something Democrats oppose.

The DNC hasn't announced a date for this virtual roll call yet because the entire issue is causing a procedural mess. The current DNC rules do not allow for such a virtual meeting. They will hold an online meeting on June 4 to vote on a rule change that would allow them to do this. Once that's taken care of they should be able to schedule the virtual vote, most likely at some point in July.

This development raises a few highly interesting questions for all of the political junkies following this story. First of all, many in the DNC probably aren't too upset about this situation because they are very nervous about what will happen in Chicago on August 19. Some will no doubt want to attend that convention "virtually" as well because they know that protesters are planning to swarm the streets carrying their signs reading "Genocide Joe." There may be clashes with the police. All of that will serve as a running distraction from their big moment to celebrate the formal coronation of Biden and Harris as their nominees.

At the same time, this adjustment further clouds the picture for those who have no doubt been considering a plan to replace Biden on the ticket. While still unlikely (at least in my opinion), many analysts have suggested that the Democrats wanted to wait a while to see how Biden does in his first debate against Trump - assuming he shows up - and find out whether that increases his standing in the polls. If it looks like Scranton Joe is pulling ahead again, they could let the process play out as it usually does. If not, they might move to replace him at the convention.

Under the previous plan, they would have had a couple of months of breathing room to make that decision. These developments in Ohio will shorten their calendar considerably. If they do have the audacity to remove a sitting president from the ballot and replace him without their voters having a say in who it will be, might that scheme be easier to pull off from a remote terminal than standing in front of a huge crowd filled with potentially divisive voices? Perhaps. The entire proposal is outside of the normal rules of order, but the DNC's internal guidelines allow for it. 

All of this brings us back to the question I posed at the top. If the DNC nominates Biden and Harris virtually (or anyone, for that matter), then what's the point of holding an in-person convention to begin with? We're well into the 21st century and large meetings take place virtually all the time using Zoom or other robust video conference call technology. If people are able to work from home, why wouldn't they be able to vote for their nominee from home? The only real losers would be the reporters who would miss out on all of the pomp and circumstance and clandestine cloakroom meetings.