Mo Elleithee is the director of the Georgetown Institute of Politics now, but I met him while I was at the RNC and he was the DNC’s communications director during the 2014 election cycle. More on that at the end of our conversation, but I have always found Mo to be the platonic ideal of a political operative: thoughtful, patriotic, competitive, generous, and clever. So when it comes to the Democratic Convention, there’s no one’s opinion I wanted to hear more than Mo’s. And I figured I’d just share our conversation with y’all!

(Oh and fun fact I learned about my friend during our chat: Mo’s very first national political experience came as a volunteer at the 1992 Democratic Convention in New York City where he got to staff Rosa Parks. How cool is that as an introduction to the political operative world?)

Sarah: Some ups and downs these first two nights. But I think we can say for sure, one thing was certainly better and will almost certainly stay regardless of how conventions look in the future, which is the roll call.

Mo: The roll call was fantastic and it was one of the things I was most looking forward to seeing.