The Coronation

 Well, that was... interesting.  I do not think I ever would have imagined in my lifetime a GOP convention with Hulk Hogan, Kid Rock, and Dana White.  Actually, I thought they were pretty good; very rah-rah, slightly light on policy, but good on emotion and appealing to -- as the PBS commentariat aptly put it -- the less engaged voter.  For all the talk they gave about Trump 2.0 being Trump 1.0 (which I think is true) they seemed not to mention that Trump won in 2016 by running up the score among the less-engaged voters and breaking the blue wall -- and he will need to take one of MI, PA, and WI to win.  To be sure, I think he will win elsewhere if does that, but needs one of the big three.  Or, if he wins them, he is winning NV, AZ, and GA, and maybe MN, NH, and VA.  Running up the UFC vote and the blue-collar male vote might be the trick.

As for the Trump speech, it was (first, Eric's was sort of a downer; should have been shorter, too) long and rambly.  I am not sure we needed the blow-by-blow of the assassination attempt, and other tidbits could have been excised or compressed.  On the other hand, he is a funny guy; not sure if it is scripted, but it comes off as off-the-cuff, and while it is not exactly hilarious, it is there, if you will.  When he goes off script it can be quite problematic, but on the other hand, we all have these older relatives who are funny if a bit windy.  And, compared to Biden, at midnight was still going strong.  I suspect the Donald has plenty of long nights in him, if you get my drift, but if it works now...

Trump's VP Pick Won't Help Him Win Election | RealClearPolitics
Dare I say this is largely true?  Sort of like Trump's speech tonight, I am not sure it moves the needle, but it reminds everyone who he is, who he was, and what will he try to do again.  I have always said the 2020 election -- sans COVID -- was the 1996 one in reverse, where the Dems were running an old guy whose turn it was and the GOP a morally troubled guy who kept the economy humming.  Might there be that vibe now?

A new kind of Republican Party is forming at the RNC - POLITICO
Funny; we were live-texting (the Fun Run Bunch) during the RNC (I skipped tonight's fest to do some work and catch up on things) and one of the things we kept coming back to was the fact that the GOP is now (or rapidly becoming) a populist party, and by definition, the process is...messy?  People are driving it, not party insiders, and thus you get some interesting things, like a convention with Kid Rock.  But that's the point; people are messy; our lives are not scripted and polished.  This is the only way people can be heard.  I am not exactly embracing it but I will take it.

Team Biden Nukes Obama, Schumer, Pelosi: They Gave Us Trump in 2016! – HotAir
Snicker, snicker.