When we first heard that Republicans were going to hold a midterm convention, we thought it was a brilliant idea. Get media attention, and just hammer away at the insanity of the Democratic Socialists and make the case for why we should not revert back to the days of Joe Biden.
A scripted, disciplined convention, as was rolled out before the general election in 2024, could’ve done wonders. But leave it to the GOP to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
The first day of this convention was downright awful.
What should’ve been a structured, on-message one-hour speech from the president became one of his off-the-cuff two-hour rally speeches that placates his base already on board and basically writes off the independents in the middle who will make the difference this election.
It was tough enough for Trump to have scheduled this up against the first televised NFL game of the season. So Trump was going to have to keep it interesting and watchable. Unfortunately,
It was downright awful.
We are political junkies who need to stay on top of these types of speeches, but we must be honest — he was so long-winded, boring and off message that we had to flip channels at times to see what was happening during the game and, at times, keep others in the room engaged because they were so bored by Trump‘s speech.
After two hours of what seemed like just another one of his rambling rally speeches, we couldn’t believe how he had blown this opportunity. Much of the speech seemed to center on Trump‘s distaste for the wardrobe selection of Texas Senate candidate, Ken Paxton.
Trump is called by some of his sycophants as the greatest communicator in American political history. Yet, it was his poor communication skills that many believe cost him the election during Covid. His inability to articulate sound reasons for the Iran war, which is totally justifiable, is what has him underwater on that issue.
He’s best when he’s on message, such as a State of the Union, where a good speech can be written by professional speechwriters and he reads the Teleprompter. It keeps him focused on many of his policies — border enforcement, ending DEI, cutting taxes on tips, overtime and Social Security — that have been quite good for the American public.
That was just too much to ask for at this convention that became just another rally.
The second night, however, was a vast improvement. Vice President JD Vance showed us what a good speech sounds like. Crisp and on message, with a dead-on ad-lib in countering a protester waving a Mexican flag.
It’s already going to be difficult for Republicans to hold back a blue wave. It’s possible that the wave may ebb into a trickle because of the pushback against Democratic Socialist craziness, but only if Republicans are able to articulate that message.
Rallying the base with red meat is important, but so is reaching out and capturing middle America.