You know, there’s an ebb and flow to every convention, by either party. The parties take their best shots, right out in the open, at their opponent. They hit at his record, they hit at his foibles, and they hit at his morals. It’s just the way that things go, after all, it’s a convention.
But these aren’t normal times, and this isn’t a normal convention. In this convention, the Democrats were up against an opponent with tissue feelings, unable and unwilling to absorb any blow or insult, and they made full use of it. For the entire week.
The Democrats had a stealth strategy, and one that they executed perfectly all week long. Even as they rallied the base, the Democrats also knew that they had an opponent that they could enrage with a word, and who was impulsive enough to implode via Twitter at a moments notice, and they played to that. And they played it perfectly. They got in under his skin.
They started on Monday, and they came out with all guns blazing. Michelle Obama was the perfect Ninja assassin. She threw shit all over Trump, but she threw it off of a gold Hermes shovel. She never once directly insulted Trump, either by name, or by aspersion. Instead, she related how she knew first hand, from being First Lady, just how hard the job of the presidency is, and what it takes to excel. And she seemed for all the world to be almost sorrowful, like a mother whose child almost made it to the potty, that Trump was not the man for the job. Her speech almost smacked of being condescending of Trump’s shortcomings, and was guaranteed to drive him insane.
And the surgical strikes just continued. I personally had no problem with traditional Republicans like Christine Todd and Meg Whitman, John Kasich, and Colin Powell coming on to speak, because I knew what the reason was. All of these people were the very establishment Republicans who fought Trump in 2016, and their slights this week could now go unanswered. And the abuse just went on. From Trump voters in 2016 swearing their allegiance to Biden in 2020, to the repeated appearances of gold star father Khizer Khan, the shots just kept coming.
And tonight came the coup de grace. Actress Julia Louise Dreyfus was the perfect executioner. She did tonight what then President Barack Obama did at the White House Correspondents Dinner in 2011. She humiliated him in public. She made him look small and petty. She used the Biden text number of 30330 as a prop, first saying that it would be the year in which Trump would finally release his tax returns, to saying that it was his golf score if he didn’t cheat. And she preempted him not once, but twice. First, she said that she was proud to be a nasty, nasty woman.  And then she predicted that he would say that she was a washed up, over the hill, horse faced loser, with bad legs, to which she replied, Yes Sir, but it takes one to know one! The effect was devastating.
But now, it’s on to the Republic an convention on Monday. One thing to remember, it took the Democrats almost 6 months of monolithic preparation to carry off this masterpiece of a digital convention. And thanks to Trump’s absolute insistence on a mass gathering acceptance speech, the GOP has had less than 1 month to duplicate it. But thanks to Trump’s instinctive, knee jerk reaction to respond to every slight, the vitriol of next week will be aimed at everybody who dared to insult Hair Furor. I can’t wait, if for no better reason than to be able to compare the two side to side. Don’t touch that dial.
I’m reminded of what Harry Truman said about Nixon in his biography Plain Speaking. To wit, he lamented that he never got to run against Nixon because he didn’t think he’d need to even get out of bed to beat him. Joe may be having similar feelings right now.
If the old saying imitation is the sincerest form of flattery then we are going to be awfully flattered next week by the GOP’s convention. Unlike you I don’t anticipate a disaster when it comes to the technical aspect of production. Yes, I know how challenging it is to pull off so much remote location stuff and do it well but I think the GOP will do a better job of it than too many of us think. There ARE people on that side who despite the rantings from their “Dear Leader” full of tantrums about having a regular convention with a big crowd packed into a tiny space that even before Charlotte put its foot down were considering how to do what they knew the Democrats were preparing for.
So let’s not go setting the bar down on the ground like we do with Trump himself. If I were part of the brain trust on our side I’d be out there starting this morning bragging about how it should be easy for the GOP to pull off their convention – the theme being “Hey – we showed them how it’s done and all they have to do is copy what we did with regular folks mixed in along with iconic, widely respected on both sides of the aisle Democrats talking about why they are all in for Trump!”
IOW make them afraid to copy what we did because Trump will pitch a fit!
But, if as I suspect they have quietly been pulling together a TV show that will have better production values than everyone expects they still have a problem. I”m sure they can find some regular folks who will, even if it takes paying them handsomely to do so lie about this or that thing Trump did that proves he’s lived a regular guy life, understands them and personally comforted them. Utter bullshit of course but if it takes hiring actors to make it seem credible they will have done it. They will still have two problems. First is matching the long lineup of well known Republicans who established significant credibility and trust with voters on both sides during their careers who will both trash Biden (and don’t have video clip after video clip of them working with and praising him up until THIS very moment!) and praise Trump – especially to the degree Trump himself will DEMAND for them to be given speaking time. Anything less than total praise of Himself will cause him to have their appearances banned from HIS TV show.
The second is Trump himself. The media has been too complicit in complimenting him for being able to read a speech from a teleprompter and not go riffing into his word salad rally shit. But even then it’s noted that he doesn’t bring the same energy to such speeches as he does to his rally appearances. Trump is, and will be mightily pissed that he doesn’t have thousands of goobers packed into an arena screaming the shit that’s where their brains should be out! It will show. He will be MAD about not having a “bigly” HUGE audience and it will show through if they cover him in orange armor. His handlers are shitting bricks about him going off script and starting to riff like he would at a rally. Especially if as seems will happen he gives his speech on the WH lawn.
An EMPTY WH lawn. Oh, there will be some folks there. Probably paid actors since while Trump (and Pence) aren’t bound by the Hatch Act anyone else on the govt. payroll is at a campaign speech that will be held on WH grounds. Trump himself doesn’t give a shit about that, but it MIGHT get through to him that if that particular law is broken again the news will be dominated for a couple of days about all those folks who violated the Hatch Act just to please their boss – ad NOT about how “awesome” he was. Then there’s the overall visual. That’s a big ass lawn, and while the campaign will pull their usual shit and refuse to allow the media to place cameras far enough back (or behind Trump) to show all that empty space they can’t control all of the surroundings. The Secret Service will of course have people in every potential “overwatch” location for obvious security reasons but someone will manage to have a camera somewhere that shows Trump speaking and all that empty space. Hell, even if networks are too afraid of Trump to get the footage how many web-based folks will be competing to get it?
The Rose Garden might work for preventing images of a vast, mostly empty lawn. That is it will if “Melanie’s” renovation project is done in time. But that venue is and will remain wired with multiple camera angles and maybe one of the major outlets will be out of fucks to give and show a socially distanced Rose Garden. And let’s face it. Even if packed Trump simply doesn’t do well reading a speech from a podium in an intimate setting. Like many performing artists he only really “comes alive” in front of a big, roaring crowd.
He will look every inch the small and weak man that he is, even if the GOP manages (as I expect they will do) to overcome the bulk of the challenges of putting on the kind of remote TV show we just pulled off. Trump has to, and personally (for his own needs) rev up his base so they can rev up him. He will be denied that mutual feedback loop when he needs it most, and no matter how high the production value of the show the one thing it will NOT be is one of his rally style performances. I just hope the media plans ahead, because whether on the south lawn or in the Rose Garden when Trump is done he’s got a fair number of steps to make before getting back inside the WH and away from the cameras. And I suspect that if you thought he looked deflated (which he clearly was) on the walk from Marine One back into the WH after Tulsa, he will be far more so next Thursday night.
But I’ll make the warning one last time. Don’t assume the GOP’s convention will be a technical disaster. Don’t set the bar that way. Instead say we showed them how to do it, and make no other predictions. Trump’s base, at least before Thursday night will be fine with what’s on TV and eagerly anticipating the “big moment” when Trump gets out there and serves up supertanker’s worth of red meat to them. But the rest of the country including the few true undecides, and people who might not have thought it was worth bothering to vote will, having compared this week and the people they saw to what’s coming next week be motivated to get their vote cast. FOR Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. And better yet, a small and possibly more than small slice of Trump voters will become discouraged and sit this one out. That’s why I don’t want the bar set low. I don’t want anyone on the other side to have ANY positive feelings such as not only meeting expectations from what they view as the fake news media, but exceeding them. And even blogs like this can provide the fodder that could allow them to meet or exceed expectations and feel like they “owned the liberals.”
It’s Friday, and they still haven’t released a schedule of any kind for their convention. Which starts Monday.
Any bets on them winging it and it going horribly wrong?
Because the only one Trump cares about is himself. Everyone else’s job is to praise him, not talk abut issues.
I’m a Carolina grad, having lived in the wild west of eringhaus in the early 70s. So I’m a rabid Michael Jordan fan ,(get real Labron fans, we have a slew of former players with 3rings). Anyway MJ never never let up, no matter what. Who gives a damn what they do. Keep slamming them thru THE HOOP OF TRUTH!!!!
I was at Carolina in the late 70’s, Go Heels! 🙂
I look forward to clips of the low lights from this clown show. There will be no highlights, lol!