10: 20 PM: Trump seems like he has his demeanor in check. But if he gives the speech that was released in advance it’s going to be a jarring contrast with the one Ivanka just gave.
10:21 PM: He’s already departing from the prepared speech. Now he’s back.
10:26 PM: Here’s the transcript so you can follow along.
10:29 PM: Coming off Ivanka’s speech, which was basically a Democratic speech, I kind of thought it this would have a different feeling. But we’re back to a pretty dark vision.
10:31 PM: “One international humiliation after another.” … this is a Trump speech.
10:32 PM: Humiliation is the thoroughgoing theme.
10:33 PM: Resisted the “lock her up” chant!
10:37 PM “The most important difference between our plan and that of our opponents, is that our plan will put America First. Americanism, not globalism, will be our credo. As long as we are led by politicians who will not put America First, then we can be assured that other nations will not treat America with respect. This will all change in 2017.”
I don’t know if you’re having the same feeling. But listening to Ivanka Trump, I’d genuinely like to hear more about this man she’s talking about. Seriously. Unfortunately, I’ve already seen a lot about the malignant narcissist Donald Trump actually is.
10:15 PM: I’m thinking a lot conventioneers are saying, “Wait, what?” when they hear about the pay equality and subsidized childcare agenda.
Trump advisor still saying Hillary Clinton should be executed by firing squad, now willing to allow for trial.
Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort is now accusing the FBI of falsifying national crime data.
A must-read TPM interview of former NATO Ambassador Nicholas Burns on why Donald Trump’s comments on NATO were such a disaster.
There have been so many times through the on-going Trump spectacle where any observer could credibly say, ‘This would never be credible in fiction.’ Undoubtedly true and there will certainly be more of those times – probably more than we can imagine. But there is a particular way that is true about this convention that may not be entirely obvious. Good, credible storytelling is seldom so obviously, even woodenly didactic. Just as the paradigmatic American political convention devotes one night each to four of the candidate’s essential campaign themes or personal traits, each night of Trump’s debacle has been dedicated to graphically exploding one of his myths about himself.
One of the emerging themes of the 2016 campaign on the GOP side is flying below the radar right now but will be incredibly important down the road: Social conservatives are taking advantage of Donald Trump’s relative indifference to their issues to drive the party farther right and lock it in there. This piece from Cleveland by Tierney Sneed and Lauren Fox provides a good window into that dynamic via the pro-life movement.
Trump’s destabilizing comments about NATO prompted a Sen. Lindsey Graham tweetstorm and are giving even the John Boltons of the world heartburn. But Bolton will still support him.
So much fallout from Ted Cruz’s non-endorsement speech last night. Some of the choice moments:
Sen. Dan Coats (R-IN) calls Cruz a “wrecking ball” who is “the most self-centered, narcissistic, pathological liar I’ve ever seen.”
Cruz’s own Texas delegation ripped him a new one at a breakfast meeting appearance this morning.
I don’t have the patience anymore to watch most convention speeches or to listen to the chatter on television. What struck me the most about this convention — other than the sheer disorganization of the event and the parade of speakers, especially on Monday night, who looked like comic book villains from the ’50s — was the debased quality of the opposition within the convention to Trump’s nomination. It was led by former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, who headed Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign, and led the “stop Trump” effort on the convention floor, and Cruz himself, who boldly refused to endorse Trump in his convention speech last night.