The Donald, the greatest salesman and showman ever, has delivered his pitch and the customers have a 100 days to decide on the veracity of his claims and whether to make the purchase. Buyer beware. The goods come with no guarantee and are nonreturnable for four years.
"Trumps doomsday stats fall apart under close scrutiny... 25 key claims differ from reality..." Washington Post Fact Checker"
DONALD - THE REAL DEAL
Donald J. Trump shocked the Republican Political Establishment by his unconventional campaign where he smashed the powerful, influential and talented opposition which represented the leadership of various factions of the party. He achieved this remarkable feat by his charismatic influential personality and his iconic status in American entertainment and business. He projected his invincibility and power and the Republican electorate bought into his mantra that everything he touches turns to gold and that he never loses. He showed incredible insight by identifying with the agenda of fears, disillusionment and anger of the Grand Old Party’s voters and carved out a set of actions that were in contrast to Party policy, that resonated. He painted a picture of America degenerated into chaos at home that was the laughing stock of the world. He maintained that he knew “The Art of The Deal”, the title of his smash hit tome on how he does it, so that he could fix a degenerated America and a world beset with anarchy and terror with the same skills.
In the process he took over the Party as Jay H. Ell blogged, in December of 2015, (Trump’s Hostile Takeover of the Republican Party). Enough of the Establishment took the practical blinkered view that not much had changed and if they grinned and bore it at least the Party’s hard won legislative majorities would not be lost. By doing this the party lost its soul and standard bearers as their last four leaders, including two Presidents begged off the Trump train. They were accompanied by shoals of no - shows at the Convention and the abandoning by other life long intellects such as George Will, Jennifer Rubin and Billy Kristol. The Donald believed he was better off without them. He would find others to join his new retreaded Republican Party.
So it was off to the Convention.
THE AMERICAN WAY
The unique way things work in America is that the political party’s Presidential nomination Convention provides a national stage with a humongous audience with wall to wall coverage on three Cable Channels assisted by blanket exposure in every other media medium. In the past decade the doings have been even more magnified by social media utilized by everyone including the campaigns and participants. So the few hours of TV Prime Time are subject to endless examination, interpretation, debate and comment. Whether the Convention makes any difference to the electoral outcome depends on two variables - the state of the race and the success or failure of the four day proceedings.
WHO RUNS THE CONVENTION AND ITS PURPOSE
The Convention is under the total control of the presumptive nominee. Whether the nominee agrees or not everything that happens will be either be his or her responsibility and or evaluated as to its impact on his or her character and or chances in the election. Nothing is neutral. There are time honored formats and objectives to these spectacles some which even the Donald cannot escape.
There is an overall purpose of a USA Party Convention and that is to provide the platform for the election of their Presidential candidate.There are a hierarchy of constituencies that need to be addressed in this venture. There are the delegates who make up the bulk of the participants, as well as the body politic at home. The delegates are a highly rarefied group being the local leaders and worker bees and it is obvious that their very presence distinguishes them from those who are not spending money and time to be at the jamboree. Those not there will obviously span a spectrum of interest and involvement in the hoopla. For practical purposes there are three groups - the base group who are committed to the cause, those that are independent and are yet to make up their mind and a small number on both sides who can be persuaded to change and leave the fold. The traditional objective is to unify the Party and then win the potential audience at home.
THE CHOIR AT THE CONVENTION
Through the audience participants’ responses it is hoped to that they will persuade those that didn’t come. From the word go the over 2000 delegates were participating in the most divided GOP convention with more floor votes registered against the presumptive nominee than ever. Those State delegations that supported The Donald in the election were placed in the front of the house and those that didn’t were humiliated again and again and they did their best to sabotage the proceedings. It is fair to say, however, that the delegates, in general, were just looking for an opportunity to unite behind the nominee. They hadn’t come all this way to see the party and Party end in tatters.
For the first few days they were fed with hatred and bile against Hillary and they began to resemble more of a lynch mob than the machine engine of the party. They lustilly unified in their vilification of Hillary and divided into two groups - those that wanted to lock her up and those that wanted to kill her. This got them all on the same page but the impact to the Independents and the Democratic fence setters at home could not have been too positive.
Finally late on day three the gathered were presented with the leader who probably had the most support among their number - the eloquent Ted Cruz. The initial reception was rapturous but Cruz extending his allotted time by nearly fifteen minutes refused to endorse the nominee. This obstinacy resulted in floor chaos as the chants from the forewarned New York delegation led an ”Endorse Trump” war cry. Trump, the great negotiator had willingly allowed another wide rent in the Party to occur for the world to see. Trump was highly satisfied with the outcome as he had to win this one as most of the floor delegates had got it by now that they had to be behind the candidate to defeat Hillary Clinton. Cruz was unrelenting making many feel uncomfortable that he was not going to be a servile puppy to someone who he had called a sociopath. Cruz referenced two issues that prompted his “payback” intervention, Trump’s smearing of his wife Heidi and claiming that Cruz’s father was involved in the Kennedy assassination. Trump did not need this resuscitation of his unashamed free flowing, off the wall, uncorroborated tripe that he liberally dished out throughout the Primaries. He had won the fight against Cruz, which to him is that is all that counts. But there were casualties both on the floor and obviously at home in spite of the fact that the issue, according to Trump, united the party.
TRUMP MANAGEMENT STYLE
While The Donald spent the best part of three days vilifying Hillary his mismanagement of his wife’s plagiarism of Michelle Obama’s 2008 Democratic Convention Speech dominated the media cycles. First there were denials that it was plagiarism. Then it was blamed on Hillary. Melania thought she was being thrown under the bus. Finally, a speech writer who worked for the Trump Organization fessed up that she was responsible for the speech. Uncharacteristically Trump forgave her raising more questions as to what really happened. Crisis management 101 will tell you in the first lecture you admit a mistake immediately, apologize and then move on.
Sharing the media focus with Melania were the procedural issues that the Stop The Trump Movement brought up. The unconditional invite to Cruz which lead to him stealing the thunder from Vice President Pence’s acceptance speech was considered a major blunder by all and sundry. Trump’s management style was characterized by Pulitzer Prize winner, Eugene Robertson, opining that the Convention Management under Trump as well as the chaos in his campaign, including the circus relating to his nomination of his Vice President, indicates that he couldn’t organize a funeral procession with two cars!
All this led to Republican Morning Joe’s frustratingly prophesying that if Trump did not bring in the professionals he had no chance.
SUPPORTING CAST
There were four main surrogates who are objectively the bottom of the political barrel of what is left of the Republican Party. Chris Christie, who Trump so much wanted as his Vice President, and a bully of class, is in the middle of an ongoing legal crisis, BridgeGate. While not indicted himself his chief aides are about to go on trial for punishing the mayor of a town, who wouldn’t support him in the Gubernatorial election. Christie’s current approval rate in New Jersey is twenty - four percent. Then there is Newt Gingrich who left the Speakership in disgrace and Rudi Giuliani who was a hopelessly failed presidential candidate and is sadly mimicking the Trump racism by proudly boasting that he treated all Muslims as criminal suspects! In addition to the three has beens is the Vice Presidential nominee Governor Mike Pence who faced an uphill reelection battle in the State of Indiana. Till his nomination as Trump’s Vice President choice there wasn’t a major policy position that he agreed on with the Republican frontrunner. In fact he endorsed Ted Cruz for President. That is the cast and the mediocrity stood out.
The only effective surrogates Trump has had thus far are his wife and his children. They are polished, intelligent and articulate. They have forced everyone who regard him as a narcissist opportunistic sociopath who cares for no - one but himself, to think again. The picture they paint of him is unrecognizable as the pubic persona of The Donald. The policies enunciated by the family differ vastly from the Trump agenda and Melania sounded literally like Michelle Obama while Ivanka aped Hillary Clinton’s female agenda. The two sons spouted traditional Conservative Republican Policy rather than their father’s individualistic xenophobic populism. So between all the Trumps you had something for everyone and family values chucked in as a bonus.
TRUMP TRUMPETS HIS SUCCESS AND REPLAYS HIS NATIONALIST, ISOLATIONIST AND LAW AND ORDER AGENDA
Trump delivered his oration with his usual aplomb, confidence and clarity. Historically party conventions give candidates a bump and there is no reason to believe that this won’t apply here. He reminded candidates that he had received more votes in the Primary than any other Republican had. However in his acceptance speech there was absolutely nothing new. He relied heavily on his perception that America was in total chaos with murder and crime on the ascendancy especially perpetrated by illegal immigrants, that its citizenry were unemployed and suicidal, trade deficits were growing and foreign policy was in tatters, And it was all Hillary’s fault as he repeated the litany of disasters across the world that she was responsible for and that every other speaker had outlined again and again. She was corrupt and was bailed out by the Head of the FBI. She is a criminal he repeated.
His plan would put America first - Americanism not globalism. The time had come to discard the rigged system. He would defeat ISIS at home and abroad, single handed. He would provide a better life for those forgotten and ignored. He was the voice of the suffering and those who could not defend themselves. He reinforced his opposition to trade deals and the export of jobs by American companies - all incidentally contrary to the policies of the current GOP as are most of his populist positions.
All in all short on specifics but long on generalities. A rambling speech not nearly as well received as his stadium rants that centered mainly on building walls, the murderous Mexican immigrants, and excluding Muslims from America. Incidentally when these lines were mentioned they received the largest cheers of the evening. He certainly got the crowd going at the end with when echoing the Republican mantra on issues such as Obama Care, Supreme Court nominees, and guns.
WHERE TRUMP’S TACTICS MAY BE WRONG
Assuming that Trump is the major success he claims, which of course is contested up the ying yang, why can’t his skill set work as a politician? Why can’t Trump’s Primary success translate into the Presidential race? Trump’s art of the deal is about winning. There are only winners and losers. There is no such a concept as a win - win situation in his playbook. His objective, illustrated at this Convention, was to crush his internal opposition and not to unite the Party. It was not his aim in the Primary to find common cause with his opponents and he has not changed his m. o. Politics to a lesser or greater extent is about coalition and compromise and that is distinct from being the center of attraction or winning every argument and humiliating every opponent.
In order to mount a successful campaign you need a coalition at least of your party. He does not give a hoot at what normally is considered central to any campaign. This belief is epitomized by his excitement at the boos ending the divisive Cruz intervention and his response to the Melania Trump’s public relations disaster that dominated the waves for three of the four Convention days maintaining that any publicity is good publicity! Contrast this with the efforts of Hillary Clinton to get the irascible Bernie Sanders onsides. The latter kept on running for President even after Hillary had won the nomination to the frustration of Clinton supporters. Throughout Hillary, in the teeth of his obstinacy, acknowledged the contribution of The Berne, because she knew that she needed to unite the party.
Trump had a choice, on the one hand it was his way or the high way and hope that his Primary success would translate into an avalanche of citizens jumping on the bandwagon or on the other trying to be more inclusive by healing the wounds he has inflicted. There are the Bushes, Kasich the Governor of Ohio and all those legislators and state officials that stayed away, that he could need, that he made no effort to connect with. Jay H. Ell believes he did nothing to broaden his constituencies let alone unite his own party. He has obviously given up on the African and Latino minorities. He followed up his first night’s disregard for the sensitivities of the African American community, (Blog: Trump Flames a Racial War) by ignoring the Latinos and giving their most hated symbol Sheriff Arpaio a key speaking slot on acceptance night. The question really is can he attract enough white independents and Democrats to make up for his Republican losses and the no shows from the minorities. He really believes that those who voted for Bernie Sanders will back him!
Finally, it is scary that the Presidential candidate of one of the two major Parties maintained, in a New York Times interview, in response to the question as to what he hoped that people would take away from this Convention, “The fact that I am very well liked”.
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