Fox’s Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum did their best to damn Joe Biden’s wowzer of a convention speech with faint praise last night. But Chris Wallace tied up the package with the truth: “I thought it was an enormously effective speech.”

Baier swiped at Biden right at the start, saying he accepted the nomination “33 years after he first ran for president.” But even Baier had to acknowledge, “He’s not known for his public speaking but this – after seeing him speak on the stump many, many times – was the best he’s been as far as his delivery.”

“This was what he needed to do for this crowd and to the crowd around the country. The question was, was it enough to affect this race and give him a bounce?” Baier “asked.”

As if Biden needs a bounce. FiveThirtyEight.com currently gives him a 73% chance of winning.

MacCallum highlighted how Black Biden’s speech was, while highlighting how white she is.

MACCALLUM: He tried to strike a hopeful tone. I think he said the word “hope” about seven times in the early part of his speech. He started by quoting a civil rights leader saying, give people light [she didn’t bother to name that civil rights leader, Ella Baker]. He made a lot of references to George Floyd, to what happened in Charlotte, how that inspired him, what the president said about what happened in Charlotte. [It was Charlottesville, Martha]. He said, “That was my moment. I decided then I had to get in.” He talked about John Lewis, rooting out systemic racism. So that was one of the bigger themes of this speech.

Next, MacCallum suggested the convention fell flat, with an assist from Baier:

MACCALLUM: And they have tried tonight to do something that really didn’t happen last night with Kamala Harris, where they got some people involved, cars parked out here, trying to get some music going and get a little bit of energy into this thing which has been a little tough to do in the virtual situation.

BAIER: Yeah, and I guess that’s what I was referring to …

Baier then brought in Wallace, but not before another dig at Biden:

BAIER: Energy, he did deliver energy at the end there. At times it felt like a State of the Union but then he kind of hit the dismount.

WALLACE: Oh, I thought it was an enormously effective speech. Remember, Donald Trump has been talking for months about Joe Biden as mentally shot, a captive of the left, and yes, Biden was reading from a teleprompter and a prepared speech but I thought that he blew a hole, a big hole in that characterization.

You talked about the line that character is on the ballot, decency is on the ballot. He talked about a different path for the country, not in a deep, programmatic sense but he did talk about plans for the virus and the economy for climate change and race and foreign policy. And he talked about what a united America can do to accomplish all of those things. It seems to me that after tonight, Donald Trump is gonna have to run against a candidate, not a caricature. The Democrats have had a good convention. Now it’s the Republicans’ turn.

I guarantee you there will be no veiled shots at the Republican convention from Baier and MacCallum. Even if it’s awful, they’ll accentuate the positive.

You can watch the comments below, from Fox’s August 20, 2020 coverage of the Democratic National Convention. Underneath, in case you missed it, is Biden’s acceptance speech so you can judge for yourself.