CLEVELAND, OHIO – This doesn’t feel like a normal major-party convention, because it isn’t. While flag gatherings are commonplace at these types of events, there’s a pervasive sense of unease in the air here. There are enthusiastic true believers, reluctant supporters, resigned, undecided, conflicted and disgruntled Never Trumpers – in addition to a few enraged ones. And then there are dozens of GOP elected officials who They don’t even show up not at all, on purpose. The extensive majority of Republican voters are dissatisfied with their candidate. With today’s “Let’s Make America Safe Again“Primetime programming is just a few hours away (special emphasis can be expected on “law and order“contrasts”), internal tensions continue to surface. Here’s Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, drawing audible groans from the crowd Good morning Joe crowd criticizing John Kasich for not attending the meeting in Cleveland, stating that popular Ohio governor ‘ashamed of his state’:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYZlyfEpw-g
The remark comes toward the end of the segment, after Manafort says he believes states like New Jersey and Connecticut are in Trump’s sights — repeating earlier, questionable claims about New York AND California from Trump’s allies. Kasich, for his part, has addressed NAACP Annual Conference (Trump rejected invitation) to another location in the state and just rejected demands that he try to unilaterally suspend Ohio’s right to openly carry weapons for the duration of the convention. Meanwhile, the party chairman Reince Priebus scolds the “Never Trump” crowd – whose parade of procedural and tactical failures did not deter them from trying to organize another doomed to failure, last effort — with support from Hillary Clinton:
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said Sunday that if the “Never Trump” movement disrupts the GOP convention, it will only support the presumptive Democratic nominee. “If [they] They want to delay the proceedings, all they’re doing is delaying the evening and helping Hillary Clinton,” Priebus said on ABC’s “This Week.” …He said opposing Trump is now tantamount to supporting Clinton.“It’s a binary choice,” Priebus said. “It’s Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton.”
In the face of troubled poll numbers, Priebus said the party’s eventual nominee has “a lot of room to grow.” That’s one way to put it. Trump has consistently polled between high 30s and low to mid 40s. On the other side of the fence, the Bush family is among the prominent senior party members who will not be present here – drawing the ire of Newt Gingrich, who has lambasted them for “behave childishly“on ABC News this morning:
Deal with it, This is Newt speaking. NOJeb responds by explaining his refusal to endorse the party’s nominee (something he promised to do back in the first debate here in Cleveland) in Washington Post op/ed on the weekend. He is not alone. Anti-Trump columns and exercise With center-right figures To have It has spread as his nomination draws near. Those in open rebellion are a relatively compact group here. Other party figures who fall into the “resigned voterless” camp described earlier are keeping their team’s flagship candidate at arm’s length. Marco Rubio won’t be in Cleveland this week to defend his Florida Senate seat against the man; he’ll address delegates via pre-recorded video(Speaking of Rubio, check out this article about how he and Ted Cruz are still they are not all in for Trump). And House Speaker Paul Ryan, who endorsed Trump, seems eager talk about almost everything except the man she’ll vote for in November:
Ryan did not mention Trump once in his speech to the Wisconsin delegation this morning. Instead, he promoted the House GOP agenda.
— Erica Werner (@ericawerner) July 18, 2016
Jonah Goldberg, a regular Trump critic National Review traditionhas his own column today presenting the case preventively that the 2016 Republican National Convention is already a failure:
The 2016 Republican convention was doomed before it even started. Oh, it could still be a good show. It could give Donald Trump a boost in the polls, long-lasting or not. Trump could even give a good speech from a prompter. But the purpose of the convention—or indeed the entire nominating process—is not to crown the vote-getter, like a gold medal for first place at the Olympics. The goal is to unite the party around the candidate. And that’s it…Literally and figuratively, the 2016 convention fell apart before the first gavel fell. Why? Because the party is so divided that many — and I mean many — top Republicans couldn’t meet face to face even if they wanted to. The convention is being held in Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s backyard, and he won’t be attending. Ohio Sen. Rob Portman won’t be either. No living GOP presidential candidate will attend, except Bob Dole. Many of the party’s best and brightest — Rep. Trey Gowdy, Sens. Ben Sasse, Kelly Ayotte, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul — also won’t be going. Those who are going, like Sen. Tim Scott and Gov. Nikki Haley, are not on the official speakers’ list. Trump himself acknowledged the problem Saturday, when he said, somewhat grumpily, that he chose Indiana Gov. Mike Pence for “party unity.” Trump supporters have every right to complain about such opposition. But there is no point in complaining. Regardless of who is right, the fact remains that the party is deeply divided.
Jonah goes on to note that while it is true that Trump got the most votes of all the Republican Party presidential primary candidates in history, it is equally true that he won by the narrowest margin participation votes in Republican primaries for any candidate since contemporary voting began in the 1972 cycle. His percentage of votes was even lower than John McCain’s 47 percent majority in 2008. In any case, the events of this week will generally present an outward appearance of unity and normalcy. But beneath the surface, this apparent unity is at best uneasy and troubled, and this normalcy is about as true as the “reality” of a reality show. And off we go…
UPDATE – It’s good that it’s not key swing stateamirite?
The Ohio GOP and the Trump campaign are now openly fighting. So as for this coordinated campaign… https://t.co/ktrHe0uz1i photo:twitter.com/eG5DYzZQVY
— Katie Glueck (@katieglueck) July 18, 2016
