President Biden hasn't had much to smile about lately. But he got a huge laugh on a recent call when he was told about this encounter at Fenway Park in Boston, Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei write in a "Behind the Curtain" column.

• A former top White House official under President Obama ran into Mike Barnicle — the "Morning Joe" regular, and close friend and ardent defender of Biden — and said: "Isn't it great that f---ing guy finally figured out he had to quit?"
• Barnicle was tired, and wasn't having it. "What guy?!" he replied.

"Joe Biden!" the West Wing alumnus replied.

• "You know something? F--k you!" Barnicle replied. "And f--k all your friends with their anonymous quotes in the papers. Put your name on it next time!" And kept walking.
• A source familiar with Biden's reaction to the story told us: "He might still be laughing."

Why it matters: Biden's friends tell us that as the president heads to his Democratic National Convention sendoff in Chicago tonight, he's somewhat relieved and pretty nostalgic — but also still stunned and pissed about the way he was pushed out of his re-election race.

👂 What we're hearing: Tonight's prime-time speech by Joseph Robinette Biden Jr., 81, will be a heartfelt passing of the torch. He'll herald Vice President Kamala Harris, who'll turn 60 in October, as the future of the party and the country.

• Look for the president to say he believes in democracy, and believes in America. And to say there's nothing soft or nostalgic about what he's been able to accomplish in the White House — achievements that have been made possible by those beliefs in democracy and in the country.
• There'll be some catharsis for Biden after an astonishing 52 years on the public stage. He'll remind us that his life in politics — from senator-elect at 29, to Judiciary and Foreign Relations chair, to vice president to president of the United States — has always been about you the people, not special interests.

🖼️ The big picture: For the first time in the epic life of Scranton Joe, it's the end of the road. Until now, aides had compared Biden with a shark — to breathe, he has to keep moving. Now, the future holds a presidential library and retirement in Delaware.

• After a lifetime of maneuvering and strategizing, Biden has five months to frame his legacy and, his staff tells us, make a final mark — perhaps with a Gaza ceasefire and hostage-release deal.

Behind the curtain: On the opening day of their convention, Democrats are ecstatic — giddy at how far Harris has come in the 29 days since Biden bowed out. But among some in Biden's innermost circle, there's astonishment about how instantly Harris became a celebrated, glamorous star.

• Some Biden stalwarts blame the press for forcing him out, and now seethe at what they see as fawning coverage of Harris.

They know that the best thing for Biden's place in history is for her to win. But after four years of doubts about her governing chops and reliability as a politician, they see the party's instant embrace of her as an even more brutal rejection of Biden.

• They're not fooled by the patronizing praise of Biden by public officials who were knifing him just last month.

🔭 Between the lines: Biden and his aides long rationalized staying in the race because they worried Harris wasn't up to beating Trump.

• They thought her chaotic 2020 presidential campaign and initial year as vice president showed she wasn't ready for prime time, people familiar with the matter told Axios.
• There was also resentment and a belief among some that she ran away from responsibility — particularly on immigration — rather than trying to tackle a complex issue. Biden felt that as vice president, he embraced tough assignments early on, including withdrawal from Iraq and implementing the stimulus package.
• The Biden team also saw Harris churn through staff at a far higher rate than Biden had when he was VP.

Yet two national polls yesterday gave Harris a slight lead over Trump. "They're still in shock," a Biden insider told us. "It just shows how isolated they were from the world around them."

• Share this column ... Axios' Alex Thompson contributed reporting.

White House chief of staff Jeff Zients tells me President Biden is determined to make his final five months in office — 154½ days! — as productive as any five months of his presidency.

Why it matters: "The president's belief is that every single day matters," Zients told Axios in an interview ahead of Biden's valedictory address to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago tonight.

• "We're going to finish the job as strong as we started it and continue to make history together."

Zients recalled that when Biden called from Rehoboth Beach on that fateful Sunday, July 21, to tell him he was dropping his bid for re-election, the president spent one minute on the decision and "the rest of the call talking about ... the six months that were left when he made that call."

• Zients said Biden is looking for new policy openings "both to get things done and put a stake in the ground in the future."
• Look for action on issues personally important to Biden, including veterans, cancer and AI.

Zients singled out four big areas where Biden plans to run to the tape:

1. "Continued aggressive implementation of the historic legislative accomplishments," including the CHIPS and Science Act and infrastructure bill, "and getting more projects launched and completed [across] the whole country — urban, suburban, rural, tribal communities."
2. "Lowering costs for families. ... You should expect more on student debt relief. You should expect more on junk fees and anything we can do to make Americans' lives more affordable."
3. "Personal freedoms and civil rights. ... We're going to keep protecting reproductive health-care access, and keep calling out hate and extremism."
4. "Continuing to restore America's position as the indispensable nation. ... The president is very focused on securing a hostage deal on a cease-fire in the Middle East, helping Ukraine defend itself, and to keep outcompeting China and investing more and more in our alliances."

📜 The big picture: Zients, previewing the case aides will make as they begin framing the president's legacy this fall, says Biden has done more in the past 3½ years than many presidents did in two terms.

Behind the scenes: Zients said Biden and Vice President Harris talk most days. Sometimes when she's on the road, for instance, she'll call in for the President's Daily Brief, then stay and chat with him afterward.

• "So it's hectic," Zients added. "It's as hectic as any period that we've had here."

🔎 Between the lines: I asked Zients, a former entrepreneur and CEO, how he keeps his team motivated.

• "I'm communicating a lot," he said. "Talking about the forward agenda and celebrating the victories is key."

"I talk a lot about the responsibility of a leader is to be optimistic, to believe that good things can happen, because optimism is sort of a depreciating asset in an organization," Zients added. "People look up to their leaders. And if their leaders don't believe, then they don't believe. Now, it's not just blind optimism. It's optimism coupled with a credible plan."

• Read the full interview.

Vice President Harris has proved herself unafraid of chasing votes with populist policy promises — no taxes on tips! money to buy houses! — that veer from orthodox economics, Axios' Felix Salmon writes.

• Why it matters: Such policies tend to elicit eye-rolls from economists, who see them as counterproductive.

Such policies serve to increase consumer demand, pushing up prices and worsening the inflation problem they're attempting to address.

• Mainstream left-leaning economic pundits including Jason Furman, Ernie Tedeschi, the Washington Post editorial board, Josh Barro, and Catherine Rampell have all criticized the Harris campaign's proposals.

🖼️ The big picture: Most economic policies can be placed somewhere on a spectrum from "sensible" to "unhelpful" to "harmful."

• The paradox of democracy is that many of the worst policies also tend to poll very well, especially among swing voters.
• On the flip side, if Harris were to stick firmly to "more of the same" policies that don't directly and immediately promise to give voters more spending power, she could end up losing votes to an opponent whose policies are more popular and less sensible.

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Some House GOP lawmakers fear their party's new investigations into Vice President Harris and Gov. Tim Walz could potentially backfire politically, Axios' Andrew Solender writes.

• Why it matters: House Republicans have unleashed a barrage of investigations targeting Harris and Walz in the run-up to the Democratic convention.

Several House Republicans argued the investigations stand in for the scrutiny that would have come from a competitive Democratic primary, which Harris sidestepped by replacing Biden on the ticket.

1. House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) launched a probe into Walz over his ties to China.
2. Comer has also been investigating Harris for her role as the Biden administration's point person on the sources of migration to the U.S.
3. Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), chair of the House Armed Services subcommittee on military personnel, is investigating Walz for how he represented his record in the Army National Guard.

A House Republican told us: "We have an election to win. Don't make these people martyrs."

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Hamas rejected an updated U.S. proposal for a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza yesterday, blaming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for moving the goalposts and the U.S. for indulging him, Axios' Barak Ravid writes.

• Why it matters: The White House had claimed significant progress had been made during talks in Doha over the last several days. The rejection of the new proposal makes President Biden's goal of getting a deal this week almost impossible.

A stalemate in the negotiations would also make an attack by Iran and Hezbollah against Israel much more likely.

• Both Tehran and Hezbollah have vowed revenge for Israeli assassinations in Beirut and Tehran, but have held their fire so far.

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Five years ago today, CEOs of America's biggest companies upended a decades-old statement on the purpose of corporations to say they should deliver value to all stakeholders (employees and customers, too), not just shareholders.

• Why it matters: It was a major shift for the CEO-led Business Roundtable, which had defined a corporation's purpose as maximizing shareholder return for 22 years.

"In the long term, the interests of a company's stakeholders are inseparable. No single stakeholder will succeed unless they all do," the BRT wrote in an essay to mark the anniversary:

"The statement adopted by Business Roundtable in August 2019 reflected this conviction. It was not a call on companies to address every societal challenge, but rather to focus on those who contribute directly to a company's success. It was the view of Roundtable CEOs that this would make companies more successful in the long run, while advancing broader economic opportunity."

Go deeper: Five Years On — Corporate Purpose and Profit.

August's rare blue supermoon will appear a touch bigger and brighter than most full moons when it lights up the sky this week, Axios' Kelly Tyko writes.

• Why it matters: It's the first of four consecutive supermoons this year, according to NASA.

The agency says it will appear about 6% bigger and 13% brighter than average.

• It will appear full through early Wednesday morning.

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