To hear President Trump tell it in his nomination acceptance speech, he has done a terrific job in leading the country through the COVID-19 pandemic. And whatever else that has gone wrong—such as violence in cities—is the Democrats fault.

Facts and reality remind that (a) Trump downplayed dangers of the pandemic for months at the start of the virus’ spread—and continues to do so now. Partly as a result of what he did and didn’t do, the U.S., with 4% of the world’s population has about 25% of global Covid-19 cases (The U.S. has had about 6 million cases with more than 180,000 deaths). And (b) All of the violence and increased racial tensions Trump laments have occurred under his national leadership, while he has been President. No reasonable person blames him and him alone, completely, but any reasonable person would have to point that he, after all, has held the most powerful position in the country. Blaming his opponents for it all is not fair, nor is it in the best tradition of American Presidents.

But so it went on the convention’s final night and the ones that preceded it. Speaker after speaker, including Trump, played fast and loose with the truth. What’s written above is just one example among many. The Democrats may have been guilty of some similar such techniques themselves at their convention but the record doesn’t t show much if any.

Trump mentioned Biden 41 times. Among the quotes: If Biden is elected “rioters and criminals will be running American cities.” “No one will be safe in Biden’s America.” “Biden’s agenda is ‘Made In China’”

Republicans no doubt left feeling bullish on their re-election chances. For them, by many measurements, their convention went off well. Democrats are left with the knowledge that their dreams of not only winning but winning big are in for an exceptionally brutal campaign test, the outcome of which may depend on whether they can get a huge voter turnout.

Do more American voters fear Joe Biden and the Democrats more than they fear another four years of Donald Trump? Trump belies they do…or, better said, he believes they can be made—convinced—to fear Biden more than they do now. His convention speech gave a preview of how he intends to do it.