So much for that national unity thing
Axelrod: "The best thing that's happened to Democrats in three weeks."
In case you gave up and went to bed last night, or perhaps didn’t tune in at all, Donald Trump gave a truly remarkable convention speech. At least it started out that way.
Never before has a major party candidate stood before a convention and recounted in detail the attempt on his life less than a week ago. In a subdued voice, Trump gave a blow-by-blow account of what happened Saturday night in Pennsylvania. The audience listened raptly. TV cameras showed many convention delegates with tears streaming down their faces. It was moving.
With the now-iconic photographs of blood streaming down his face being displayed behind him, Trump said, “I’m not supposed to be here tonight.” The crowd chanted in response, “Yes, you are.” Trump continued, “I felt very safe because I had God on my side.”
Before the speech, aides had signaled that Trump was a changed man because of the shooting and that he would tone down his speech and call for reduced political rhetoric by both sides that has ratcheted up the tensions in our country.
Well, he may have started out down that road when he said, “I’m running to be president for all of America, not half of America.”
But he just couldn’t help himself, and soon veered off the peace and love road and into the ditch filled with his usual exaggerations and over-promises.
Typical Trump
Watching it, it appeared to me that when he was reading off the teleprompter – what his speechwriters wanted him to say – it was a message appealing across party lines. For example, he said, “At a time when politics too often divide us, now is the time to remember we are all fellow citizens.”
When he ventured away from the prepared remarks, it was typical Trump.
He claimed inflation is crushing Americans like never before in history. That’s simply not true. Inflation is currently at about 3%. Inflation has been significantly higher than that a number of times during Trump’s lifetime, more than 13% in 1980. It was 11% in 1974.
He promised the moon and the stars. “Under my plan, incomes will skyrocket, inflation will vanish completely, jobs will come roaring back and the middle class will prosper like never ever before. And we’re going to do it rapidly.” Do people really buy this stuff?
What was NOT mentioned? Climate change, for one. He brought out his “drill baby, drill” line with not a care in the world about rising temperatures caused by fossil fuels. It’s as if the heat wave torturing Americans this summer, the fires out west, and the floods swamping northwest Iowa don’t even exist.
Also not mentioned – guns. One might hope that a leader who came within a whisker of being shot to death might mention the fact that we have too many guns in this country.
As the speech dragged on, Trump couldn’t resist falling back on his favorites, referring to “crazy Nancy Pelosi” and how Democrats used Covid to cheat him out of his victory in 2020. He again accused the Biden administration of weaponizing the Justice Department.
It was a long speech – more than an hour-and-a-half, ending after 11:00 pm central time. I suspect many people turned it off and went to bed, particularly in the eastern time zone when it was after midnight. That’s a wasted opportunity.
“Democrats dodged a bullet…”
CNN analyst David Axelrod, citing the length and rambling nature of the speech, said, “This is the best thing that’s happened to Democrats in three weeks.” Fellow CNN analyst Van Jones said, “Trump dodged a bullet Saturday. Democrats dodged a bullet tonight.”
Maybe so, but Democrats have a huge mess of their own on their hands. The pressure on Joe Biden to withdraw from the race has a drip-drip-drip quality to it that it seems to me will eventually turn into a flood that will flush Biden out of the contest. If Biden gets out, which I suspect he will, the party really has no choice other than to nominate Vice-president Kamala Harris. It would be unseemly to bypass the first female vice-president.
If that happens, today’s view that Trump is on a roll and about to steam right into the White House could change dramatically. Stay tuned.
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The Statue of Liberty looks out and sees her dim unity
I'm suggesting, tongue-in-cheek, that the United States imposes a mandatory new high school class - Propaganda Analysis. There are apparently tens of millions of us walking the streets who's BS detectors are broken. I shouldn't be shocked but I continue to be. And with this new class, allow me to also force the Fox News' of the world to occasionally help the uninformed electorate by clearly calling out falsehoods during prime time viewing hours. There is a difference between spin - used by all pols - and outright lies - patented by Dear Leader.