The Republicans have descended upon Milwaukee, and have commenced their presidential convention. In theory, the theme
of Monday's meeting was "Make America Wealthy Once Again," but it was much more a coming-out party for
post-assassination-attempt Donald Trump (who is now officially the Republican nominee) and his new running mate.
If you are interested in watching the proceedings, you can view the second, "prime time," session
here,
courtesy of C-SPAN:
Truth be told, we cannot imagine WHY you would want to watch, unless you're a glutton for punishment. By virtue of
our site's focus, we HAVE to watch. And we can affirm what you should already know: Nothing—not candidates'
debates, nor State of the Union addresses, nor presidential press conferences—is more boring than modern-day
political conventions. The first problem, of course, is that there's no drama because the outcome is already known. The
second is that the lists of speakers are grossly overstuffed, because every key ally expects to be given a few minutes'
stage time. Yesterday, for example, there were 22 different people who delivered remarks just during the primetime
session (and at least a dozen more during the first session). Is there anyone on the planet who actually wants to
hear 35-40 speeches, all on the same basic subject, most of them badly delivered, in a single day?
Today, and for the remaining 3 days of the RNC, along with the 4 days of the DNC, we're not going to attempt an
exhaustive breakdown. That would be very dry reading. We'll just give remarks on ten people/events/things that stand out
to us. We are going to present things in chronological order and, when possible, we've linked to the correct moment in
the C-SPAN feed (those are in blue, not red). And with that explanation, away we go:
Trump Arrives: Either the biggest, or second-biggest, story of the day was Trump's
arrival at the convention. He had a bandage on his ear so large it might well have been able to save the Titanic
from sinking. And he did the whole "conquering hero" bit as he entered, backed by his theme song, "God Bless the USA."
The crowd ate it up, at least for a few minutes, although the greeting he received was actually shorter and less rapturous
than we would have expected (compare, for example, the response that William Jennings Bryan received after delivering
the "Cross of Gold" speech at the 1896 DNC—the standing ovation lasted... 48 minutes).
The other problem here, from a PR standpoint, is that Trump's arrival came during the day's first session (which is why
we aren't able to link to it). That means that unless a TV viewer is a fanatic, or otherwise viewed highlights after the
day's proceedings were over, they didn't actually get to see a fine bit of stagecraft.
One other note. We switched back and forth between several outlets' coverage. And all of them kept their cameras
pointed at Trump for an inordinate amount of time, often even while someone was up on stage speaking. And, for
people who are ostensibly journalists, they were unbelievably fulsome in their praise of the former president.
For example, ABC had an extended discussion (several minutes) of how great Trump looks, and how he must be very
tired but he wasn't showing that at all. You could have been persuaded that EVERY station was using Fox personnel
for their coverage. Obviously, this is a byproduct of the assassination attempt; we'll see if it continues throughout
the convention.
Vance Debuts: We are surprised that the reveal of Trump's running mate waited until the
first day of the convention, and we suspect that's the case because Trump was already dominating the weekend news cycle
thanks to having been shot at. That said, the GOP still managed to give a bit of a "reality show" feel to the unveiling
process. First, at around noon ET, it leaked out that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) was not the pick. Then, around an hour
later, it leaked out that Gov. Doug Burgum (R-ND) was not the pick. Then, there was news that when Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH)
left his residence yesterday morning, he was accompanied by a large security contingent. So, it was not a big surprise
when, around 3:00 ET, it was announced that Vance had been tapped as the VP pick.
According to various reports, the choice was—characteristically—up in the air until the last minute, and
it was a last-minute push from Donald Trump Jr. that sealed the deal for the Senator. Vance was apparently chosen
for three reasons:
Of the finalists, he's the most loyal to Trump.
Because of his hillbilly background, he can bring in blue-collar voters.
Because his wife is Indian, he can bring in minority voters.
Of course loyalty to Trump is #1 on the list. Although, we would not be too surprised to see a Democratic commercial
that includes the footage, from 2016, of Vance criticizing Trump, along with a tagline like "And this is his RUNNING
MATE who thinks this." Maybe throw in some bonus footage of Mike Pence criticizing Trump, as well.
As to Vance bringing in blue-collar voters, we are skeptical. We very much doubt that those folks were the people buying
and reading his book, and we also doubt that they see themselves in a multimillionaire venture capitalist and U.S.
senator. As to Vance's wife bringing in minority votes, that's just silly. We doubt there is a single vote in U.S.
history that was cast based on approval or disapproval of the vice-president's wife. There's also the small matter that
while Trump's running mate might be married to someone of Indian descent, Joe Biden's running mate IS someone of Indian
descent. What we are saying here is that while Vance brings "loyalty," we don't actually see how he brings any votes
to the GOP ticket.
We also wonder if Vance might end up doing more harm than good. Mike Pence was a shrinking violet, who never did or said
anything other than exactly what he was told to do or say. Burgum would have been the same sort of running mate. But
Vance is very upwardly aspirational, is far more outspoken than Pence or Burgum, and tends to shoot from the hip. We
wouldn't be terribly surprised if he sticks his foot in his mouth more than once over the next few months. And even
if he doesn't have any miscues, he's staunchly anti-choice. This appeared on his personal website until yesterday,
when the site was replaced by a redirect to WinRed:
END ABORTION
I am 100 percent pro-life, and believe that abortion has turned our society into a place where we see children as an
inconvenience to be thrown away rather than a blessing to be nurtured. Eliminating abortion is first and foremost about
protecting the unborn, but it's also about making our society more pro-child and pro-family. The historic Dobbs decision
puts this new era of society into motion, one that prioritizes family and the sanctity of all life. The pro-life fight
continues by ensuring that every young mother has the resources to bring new life into the world, expanding adoption and
promoting pregnancy centers, so that every child grows up in a loving home, as they deserve. We'll expand child tax
credits and ensure that young parents don't come home from the hospital with budget-busting surprise bills.
That is not going to help with those suburban women voters.
Anyhow, this is the other story that is in the running for biggest story of the day. Shortly after Trump arrived at the
convention, he and Vance stood face-to-face for the first time as ticket-mates. However, this was also before primetime,
so relatively few people saw it.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI):
Shortly before the convention began, the word went out that the speakers were to emphasize unity, and not to pander
solely to the base. Johnson got the message, and rewrote his planned remarks, but the person running the teleprompter
did not. So, "the world's going to hell in a handbasket" version of Johnson's speech is what was loaded, and Johnson just
went with it. Apparently, quite a few Republican pooh-bahs were not happy about this
Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson (R-NC):
Robinson may be even crazier than Greene, but somebody got to him and persuaded him to tone it down. They also gave him
just a couple of minutes' speaking time, presumably to reduce the risk that he might say something really whackadoodle.
As such, the only thing he really said is that NAFTA destroyed his life, and it's Joe Biden's fault because Biden voted
for it. Someone might want to point out to Robinson that the treaty got more Republican votes (34) than Democratic votes
(27). They might also want to tell him what president was in office when the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement
(a.k.a. NAFTA v2.0) was adopted.
Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL):
Turns out, the SOTU response wasn't an anomaly. That weird cadence is just how she talks, at least when she's trying to
be forceful/dramatic.
Amber Rose:
Rose is a D-list celebrity who has appeared in several music videos, has done some modeling, and has hosted a
couple of radio/basic cable talk shows. She's also part Black, and has been in romantic relationships with both
men and women. A major point of emphasis on Day 1 was that the GOP is welcoming to everyone; at least half a dozen
speakers were wholly or partly minority. Rose declared that while she was once anti-Trump, she eventually learned
that the Trumpublicans are "her people," and "don't care if you're Black or white, gay or straight." That latter
part is news to us, and, we suspect, to many of the people who were in attendance in Milwaukee. Say, the
evangelicals.
Linda Fornos:
Fornos was one of six "everyday Americans" who was included in the speakers' roster. The Democrats used this same bit in
2020, and undoubtedly will do so again next month. Does letting Joe and/or Joan Sixpack talk for a minute or two make an
impression on viewers? We don't know. What we do know is that most of the networks used these speeches as an opportunity
to cut away from the stage to focus on Trump and/or the talking heads.
Sean O'Brien:
O'Brien is the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Yesterday, the union
issued
a statement that said that they may not be making a presidential endorsement in 2024. That may be so, but O'Brien
certainly has HIS candidate. He gave a fiery, class-war-type speech, probably the most memorable of the night. He also
announced that Republicans are the pro-labor party, while Democrats are anti-union. Again, this is news to us.
Music: The Republicans' stagecraft was rather better than it usually is, and whoever
was stage managing the proceedings made sure that music played during any downtime between speeches. The music
was almost entirely in three categories: country songs, songs that are 50+ years old, and country songs that
are 50+ years old. This may just give a clue as to the demographics of the modern Republican Party.
Again, we are writing this up because it's the biggest political news of the day. However, we cannot see how the
day's proceedings did anything to materially affect the presidential race. The event was too long, too repetitive, too
full of red meat for the base, and too boring. Sure, political junkies and GOP true believers will tune in, but the
15%-20% of voters who are not yet backing a major-party candidate? We just don't believe they are watching. And if
that's so, then the conventions—Republican and Democratic—are not terribly relevant. (Z)
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