RNC Recap

Well, it certainly was an interesting week in Cleveland as the Republican National Convention officially make Donald Trump the party candidate for President. It was also a week that introduced many voters to the other half of the ticket as Governor Mike Pence took the stage for his first significant speech since being named as a Vice Presidential candidate on July 15^th. And, of course, there was the speech given by Senator Ted Cruz who spoke for many of us when we said to “vote your conscious” in November. Simply put, Trump was never my first, second, or third choice (which I have made clear over the past year on this blog) but he is the party nominee and I will be voting for him. After all, for all of his flaws, he is the best option on the table.

What was rather surprising was the lack of protesting surrounding the event and the whispers that Bernie Sanders supporters were saving their energy for next week in Philadelphia. Not surprisingly is the fact that Trump received a rather significant bump following the pomp and circumstance from the previous week. It will be interesting to see if the Democratic inmates in the Philadelphia asylum will have the same impact on the polls. However, given the WikiLeaks announcement yesterday, that is becoming less likely and will probably result in some significant changes in the race bating party.

One moment that stood out for me was the emotional speech given by Patricia Smith, the mother of Sean Smith, one of the four Americans killed in the 2012 Benghazi attack in Libya, who stated “I blame Hillary Clinton personally for the death of my son — personally." Some have criticized the organizers for allowing such an “emotional attack not rooted in fact” but, honestly, what do you think the Democrats have been doing every time there has been a shooting in this country? The other “controversial” speech was that of Melania Trump plagiarizing Michelle Obama’s speech from the DNC in 2008. The amount of media coverage on this was astounding especially when you consider the fact that the questionable section is generic political filler for any candidate and by no means a verbatim copy. If that is what you are looking for you must turn to the President himself during his 2007-08 campaign.

For all the ups and downs that are usually associated with political events of this sort, it was interesting overall to see the mix this time around of ardent supporters, those who are just going along for the ride, and others whom you could tell were really hoping to see someone else on stage accepting the nomination. Honestly, it didn’t seem like the rallying moment happened until late on Friday evening when the WikiLeaks announcement was made regarding DNC emails. Could have been better, could have been worse, but, in the end, I’ll take it. Now all we have to do is wait, vote, and hope that some common sense is realized in this country come November.