Before last night’s RNC finale, there were reports that Donald Trump had mellowed as a result of the assassination attempt last weekend, and that he would sound a unifying note in his nomination acceptance speech. Unfortunately, those reports turned out to be correct.
The speakers who preceded Trump last night–Hulk Hogan, Eric Trump, Kid Rock, Dana White–were uniformly hard-hitting and high-energy, dialed up, in fact, to 11. That seemed to be the theme of the evening. But then came Donald.
As Scott wrote, Trump started strongly, with a riveting account of his experience being shot on Saturday. But from there, he meandered for well over an hour, musing and riffing as he would at a rally, only in more subdued fashion. There must have been, if not a script, at least a plan for the speech, since at one point the illegal immigration chart that Trump had been about to discuss when he was shot flashed up behind him, and he talked about it. But for the most part, Trump’s remarks were rambling, low-key, and plainly unscripted. The audience in the hall became increasingly listless.
That represented a missed opportunity. A nomination acceptance speech at a convention is very different from a freeform performance at a rally. Standards and expectations are higher, and the speech can reach a much larger audience than the faithful who attend campaign events. No doubt millions of people tuned in last night to see what Trump had to say in the aftermath of being shot. But most of them were long gone by the time Trump finally wrapped up his remarks with a conclusion that was more or less scripted.
I was. I found the speech boring, and went to bed well before it was over. You could hear the sound of television sets being switched off, across the country. And after the first half hour or so, the mockery on liberal twitter was merciless.
I don’t think Trump lost any votes last night; rather, as I said, it was a missed opportunity to connect effectively with new voters. If it is Kamala Harris who accepts the Democrats’ nomination in a few weeks, the level of interest in her acceptance speech will likewise be high. And her performance will be more disciplined and more effective than Trump’s was last night.
