Bad Day for the GOP Convention

[Sandy]

A floor fight over rules. Petitioners brought the required signatures, and expected the rules to be followed. Several state delegations walked out. Not a good start, and now tonight is an absolute disaster. Pandering to fear, they made some disastrous moves in the speakers they invited, Rudy Giuliani perhaps the worst of the bigots. Can't wait for the highlight of the evening, the former stripper, third wife of Trump, Melania. Camera pans the room, it's old white people. Haven't seen a single African American, except a couple of the invited speakers, no Latinos, no Asians, and it doesn't look like there's anyone under 50 in the room.

[Tim Bonney]

I am not watching this year. Most years I'd watch something from both conventions. But I don't need to hear these people.

[Sandy]

And the hits just keep on coming. I thought Melania did a good job, of course, in front of that crowd the devil could have come in a not so obvious disguise and gotten several standing ovations for parroting conspiracy theories. Then I wake up this morning, and find out that Melania did such a good job because she plagiarized Michelle Obama! For a good portion of her speech, word for word, when played back to back Melania even did a good job of imitating Michelle's inflections and tone.

Well, that's one way to get attention in the media.

[Tim Bonney]

[Sandy]

I had no idea, until last night, what a shrill, whiny, cranky, bigot your Senator Ernst is. She was the capper on the whole circus freak show that started out with Duck Dynasty, and ended with Trump making an entrance in the same fog and shadow format from his reality TV show. Essentially, the GOP told the American people "Don't take us seriously!!!" With the exception of an ex-Navy seal, who never really said anything about Trump, and Giuliani's revivalist sermon, it was a night of fantasyland reality television.

I was a little bit surprised at Giuliani, who is usually not inclined toward conspiracy theories and demagoguery, but I think his speech was a clear announcement of his desire to find his way to a cabinet appointment in a Trump administration. There were a few glimpses of Chris Christie walking around behind Trump with toilet paper and tissues, too.

A lot of Republican leaders are staying away. It's pretty clear that a lot of Republican support that Trump will need to win isn't going to materialize for him. I hear speculation that they are waiting to see whether the Never Trump folks can bring him down during the convention, and if that doesn't succeed, a third party candidate will emerge from the GOP Establishment. I'm not sure about that, but it does seem that many of the mainstream GOP leaders like the Bushes, Kasich, Romney, and the host of Senators who are staying away feel that Trump needs to lose so they can get their party back.

It kind of makes the Democrats look tame this time around. For all the criticism of their "superdelegate" involvement in the process, they are far more dependent on the "will of the people" in selecting delegates than the GOP. And far more willing to be open to the voice of the people.

[Sandy]

Two bad days in a row. Watching some of the coverage tonight, some outright and easily provable lies, all along the lines of Donald Trump's information and parroting his themes. Poor Melania. Someone will have their head roll for that. Apparently she didn't deliver the speech that was prepared for her by the speechwriters. Shouldn't someone have checked to see what some of those state delegations might do in rebellion, like, say, Colorado, or Alaska.

Now Chris Christie is really making himself look like the guy walking behind Trump wiping his rear and blowing his nose. Great surrogate, the governor of a state who now has a 25% job approval rating, who is about to be indicted for a scandal, and whose corruption makes Hillary look like a Sunday School teacher.

The GOP is clearly a party of the past. Look at its delegates. I'd guess the median age to be somewhere around 58 or 59, 97% white, 65% men. And in the year that the Democrats nominate a candidate that almost any other Republican could likely defeat, they choose the one Republican who doesn't stand even the remotest chance of even getting close.

[Ed Pettibone]

Ed And nex week the democrats will provide more of the same . Just different names and Different faces. The real politics are not played out in front of the TV cameras.

[Tim Bonney]

[Sandy]

Oh, I think there will be some big contrasts. The Democrats will be a much younger and more vibrant convention, there won't be empty seats when hundreds of delegates simply walk out and go home after the nominee vote takes place, and I doubt that the convention leadership will be caught off guard by state delegations making motions to challenge rulings and contesting the votes. Virtually all of the Democrats who serve in the Senate, House, and governorships will show up, the governor of Pennsylvania will open the convention and be present and visible, as will its Democratic Senator Bob Casey, and its Democrat congressmen, and the Democrat who is running against Pat Toomey (who is far, far, far away from Cleveland) will be on the speaker's platform. It's always a clear sign where the insider polls are pointing when the Republican candidates for Congress are trying to get as far away, as fast as they can, from Trump's campaign, especially those who are in danger of losing their Senate seats, while the Democrats don't have enough room for all of their candidates who want to be seen with Hillary and associated with the Obama administration.

The majority of Democrat delegates will be Latino, African American, Asian, Native American, and there will be a much larger and more vocal Jewish presence. I also anticipate that the speaker lineup will be much more focused on issues of relevance to the voters, and will likely not include reality television stars and second rate soap opera actors and actresses. I'm not happy with having Trayvon Martin's mom, or Michael Brown's mom as a speaker, which is just as bad as the Republicans dragging out Pam Smith, though she was emotional and incoherent, and her baseless accusations got a negative reaction from just about everyone except hard core Trump supporters. I guess that's about all they have, though, since the Gowdy report came out, and was hidden so quickly from view because it exhonorates Mrs. Clinton, and proves that most of the baseless accusations were false, and not consistent with the testimony of eyewitnesses.

And I'll bet that the speechwriters are going to be a lot more careful. The Republicans now have two keynote speeches that were plagiarized, both by someone with the last name Trump. Wonder how much of what Donald has to say is real? Or who he will borrow his words from?

[Haruo]

And one of the Democrat delegates from Washington State will speak Esperanto on demand. I haven't heard of any Esperantists at the GOP shindig this year, though Esperanto-speaking Republicans do exist, locally and anecdotally.