The Republican National Convention had been a public relations masterpiece that could have all but locked up a victory in November if Donald Trump had stayed on script until the end. But Trump blew it up in vintage fashion on Thursday night as the closing act with a Jekyll-and-Hyde acceptance speech that had to be the worst of its kind in modern American history.
The most polarizing and divisive figure ever in the United States, Trump spent the first 20 minutes on the stage with a recital of lines from a prepared text that revolved a newfound quest for unity as a politician who'd ostensibly emerged from an assassination attempt a week ago as a statesman with a softer and pensive side. Trump's brush with death seemed to realize that the election was his to lose if he didn't play it smart and stick to the message on how his overriding priority would be to bring Americans togther as opposed to tearing the country apart.
But the new Trump theme proved to be hoax when the degenerated into a pity play with the same recycled grievances on stolen elections, the weaponization of government against and other ways that enemies are out to get him every day.
The longest political convention speech of all-time had delegates sleeping in their chairs at the RNC. Those who remained conscious throughout the speech's 93-minute entirety left the convention in various states of confusion on whether the former president was the same old guy who'd unraveled in the 2020 election that he fumbled away en route to the election challenge and insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 the following year.
Trump's speech was bad enough to prompt the largest bookmaker in Las Vegas to lower his odds for a victory in November by 6 percentage points on Friday in the RNC's immediate wake. William Hill - a British betting company that Caesars Entertainment controls now - slashed the chances of a Trump rematch win from 71.4 percent to 65.2 percent after a speech that was a godsend from desperate Democrats.
The Trump party faithful may find some consolation in the fact that the oddsmakers at William Hill give Biden a mere 7.7 percent chance of winning in November. But Trump's dismal performance in Milwaukee should give Republicans pause for concern on the threat that a Democratic replacement candidate who's substantially younger than Biden and the former president who's almost as old as the incumbent.
Sporting a white bandage on an ear that was wounded in a shooting at a campaign rally five days earlier, the former president stuck to message like a glove when he laid out his ostensible vision for a country that's been historically divided during his reign as the party ruler and lord.
"America's future will be bigger, better, bolder, brighter, happier, stronger, freer, greater and more united than ever before," Trump vowed. "Quite simply put, we will very quickly make America great again."
Trump rambled incoherently at times in his speech on the confab's fourth and final night at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee. The ex-president pouted and pontificated with a mix of mumbling and shouting that appeared to be half-hearted and contrived. The longer Trump droned on, the more he seemed to lie to an audience whose members had professed their unconditional love, loyalties and devotion to him before he spoke.
Trump bragged at one point on how the leader of the Taliban had referred to him as "your excellency" in the past. Trump shouted out a line on the "late, great Hannibal Lecter" to demonstrate his fascination with the cannibalistic serial killer from the novel and movie The Silence of the Lambs. The former president had fact-checkers working overtime with one inaccurate claim after another in the speech that ended after midnight in the eastern part of the U.S.
Trump falsely claimed that Biden had allowed millions of migrants into the country after they'd been released from mental hospitals and jails. Trump lied on almost every issue that he addressed in the seemingly-endless monologue at the RNC. CNN pointed out 20 false statements that Trump dished out in the speech that had a television audience of 25 million compared to 32 million that the GOP's national convention drew to TV sets in 2020 during the covid pandemic.
The delegates who didn't doze off during the final speech didn't seem to mind whether Trump was telling the truth to them or not. But the Trump bombing at the RNC was a godsend for Democrats at a time when President Joe Biden's days as the 2024 nominee could be numbered.
It's conceivable in the RNC's wake that a replacement candidate for the Democrats could win simply by virtue of the fact that he or she will be much younger than the 78-year-old former president. The fresh blood and face that a substitute nominee would bring to the race could be their leading asset with a man who's almost asz old as Biden as the foe.
more to come ...
