The Party Is Over For Democrats. Now Comes The Hangover.

CHICAGO ― Well, the party’s over.

The Democratic National Convention ― a four-day whirlwind of electric speeches, late-night bashes, policy panels and tens of thousands of attendees from all over the country feeling absolutely rejuvenated about the prospects of victory in November ― has come to an end.

Now comes the hard part as the hangover sets in: Democrats have to keep this off-the-charts momentum going for 72 more days and mobilize swarms of voters to turn out for Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign. If they can’t, given that this race is currently so tight that it could ultimately be decided by a handful of votes in certain precincts in swing states, there is a very real possibility that she will lose to former President Donald Trump.

Former first lady Michelle Obama got at this stark reality on Tuesday night, in what was easily the most effective speech of the convention: “Michelle Obama is asking you ― no, I’m telling y’all ― to do something.”

HuffPost was certainly a buzzkill at the convention, walking around asking elated delegates and attendees if they recognized, given current polling, that Harris could lose.

Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.) acknowledged that the ongoing celebrations at the convention could be papering over the reality for people that the race remains extremely tight.

“I am very worried about that,” Stansbury said.

She drew some parallels to Hillary Clinton’s run for president in 2016, when Democrats headed to polls overly confident about victory only to see her lose to Trump. Buoyed by mistakenly rosy polling in key states and an over-reliance on data analytics, the Clinton campaign famously began advertising on TV in Texas, which was never really in contention. By contrast, during the