Welcome back to The Best & The Brightest. I’m Abby Livingston, filling in for Julia Ioffe while she’s on vacation.

In tonight’s issue, a close look at why, even though many Democrats are publicly (and privately) chewing their fingernails over Biden’s electoral prospects, there’s also plenty of quiet optimism surging through the party.

🎧 If you missed it, my colleagues TaraPalmeri and PeterHamby reunited on The Powers That Be to discuss all the pre-debate campaign chatter ahead of the Trump-Biden showdown on CNN. And on Monday, Jon Kelly and Peter broke down the self-inflicted wreckage at The Washington Post. Meanwhile, on the latest episode of Tara’s essential election podcast, Somebody’s Gotta Win, she phoned up Dylan Byers to talk about the conservative media proxy war over Trump’s V.P. pick.

🎟️ Programming note: On July 10 in D.C., Peter will moderate an exclusive, data-driven panel discussion in partnership with Echelon Insights, focused on voter trends leading up to the November election. Peter will be joined onstage by Kristen Soltis Anderson from Echelon Insights, Margie Omero from GBAO, and Nancy LeaMond from AARP. Puck subscribers can click here to secure a spot on the guest list. Otherwise, subscribe to Puck by clicking here and email Fritz@puck.news for registration information.

Before jumping in, a short dispatch from Eriq Gardner…

• A D.C. arbitration twist: Hollywood may not have invented arbitration, but the film and TV industry came close to perfecting it. So it’s no small irony that streamers are contending with...