Author: Susan Page, USA TODAY

The Republican and Democratic conventions didn’t so much change the political landscape as sharpen the differences, and underscore the stakes.

Keep it Trumpian: For one thing, Donald Trump at the Republican convention needs to remind reluctant voters why they elected him in the first place.

Pictures of convention delegates in silly hats would have seemed tone deaf after warnings of threats to democracy and mourning for COVID-19 deaths.

By choosing Kamala Harris as his running mate, Joe Biden signals that he doesn’t want to rock the boat in this campaign, and he doesn’t hold a grudge.

The debates. A vaccine. An economic surge or crash. A voting meltdown. Or what about an October surprise? Because 100 days can be a long time.

The iconic civil rights leader was all about bridges, from marching in Selma in 1965 to providing links to a new generation of racial protests today.

When John Bolton posed for a USA TODAY photo, he held aloft his new memoir with a grin, mimicking Trump’s photo op with a Bible at St. John’s Church.

Biden needed to tackle the accusations personally and directly. He also needed to square his denials with the standards of the #MeToo movement.

It is rare for a president to use the White House briefing room for such a fervent defense of himself, especially while a crisis is still unfolding.

Excusive: Polls on U.S. attitudes toward the coronavirus, taken one month apart, show seismic shifts in views of the perils now and ahead.