Republican National Convention **live commentary thread**

[Lyin' Steve]

Can someone please sum up what happened ?

I just woke up and didn't watch anything.

NeverTrump failed hard early in the morning.  Got 10-11 state delegations to sign a petition to have a roll-call vote on the rules, which would have been ugly and chaotic, chair said three states took their names off after the fact so they didn't have enough signatories, drowned out a voice vote, Colorado and one other state (Rhode Island?) walk out in protest.  That dominated the early coverage.  Mike Lee and Ken Cuccinelli got a lot of attention for their fit on the floor.

Peter King opened the convention by talking about how the last time they were there was 1936 and the country was in turmoil, just like today!  Except that 1936 was FDR's re-election and he was digging the country out of the ditch the GOP had put it in under Harding/Coolidge/Hoover, so the analogy is perhaps more apt than King wanted it to be.  FDR won in a landslide of course.

Early speeches were pretty standard.  Celebrities with nothing in particular to say, minor RNC officials or congressmen.  Benghazi mama was the first big speech, she was completely over-the-top, choking back tears on stage as she screamed about how Hillary was a liar and a murderer and personally responsible for the death of her son.  There's a good indictment of Hillary for the video thing in there, if anyone still cares about that, but the theatrics and hyperbole completely drowned it out.

Some retired marine gave a good speech, was pretty non-partisan and just talking about how proud he was to serve his country.  The two guys from the Benghazi movie gave a bizarre speech.  Apparently Sheriff Clarke gave an excellent speech.  Flynn was solid but went on for way too long.

Highlight of the night was undoubtedly Giuliani, he spoke with great enthusiasm about how BLM is racist and democrats are responsible for dead cops, Trump is a good man who's done wonderful charitable things for the families of New York, and Hillary Clinton is a threat to our national security.  It's probably his last big moment and unfortunately he'll get lost in the Melania shuffle.

Melania's speech was about what you'd expect, kind of awkwardly reading the teleprompter but doing her best to sell it.  Talked about how nice Trump was, how strong he is and good for America he'll be.  Unfortunately it turns out she plagiarized a solid sixty seconds of it, and that's now the big story coming out of Monday.

Completely wasted:  Joni Ernst, Tom Cotton, Willie Robertson, Rick Perry (whose speech was actually quite good), Jeff Sessions.  Ernst's speech may have been the most awkward, boring thing I've ever seen.

[i4indyguy]

Can someone please sum up what happened ?

I just woke up and didn't watch anything.

In short.... The theme was 'Make America safe again'. Consisted of a bunch of people with complaints about the threats to our country that currently exist. Everyone from the Fmr. Mayor of NY to people nobody knows.  Some speakers were better than others (duh), but Sen Earnst from Iowa got shuffled to 11pm, even though she out-performed almost all the other speakers. (oops)

But the only thing people are going to remember is that the headline speaker, Melania, plagiarized a small section of her speech from someone.   A section about integrity, hard work, and self-sufficiency  no less.   From a DEMOCRAT.   Actually, from a democrat who her husband has spent years making personalized, partisan attacks against.

Yeah... trumps wife gave a speech with a plagiarized section from the sitting FLOTUS.
Who he is running against.    

Optics =  BAD

[Ebsy]

The highlight of Rick Perry's speech was that he confessed to a secret homosexual relationship with a "tall drink of water" Navy Seal in while he was in the governor's mansion. No confirmation on if he topped or bottomed.

[Tender Branson]

Thx. Sounds horrible.

[freedomburns]

Well, this happened.  Melania Trump plagiarized her speech from Michelle Obama's 2008 DNC speech.

https://youtu.be/IPk65bOTYbk

One of her sentences contains 22 words that match exactly with Michelle's.

[ElectionsGuy]

Can someone please sum up what happened ?

I just woke up and didn't watch anything.

NeverTrump failed hard early in the morning.  Got 10-11 state delegations to sign a petition to have a roll-call vote on the rules, which would have been ugly and chaotic, chair said three states took their names off after the fact so they didn't have enough signatories, drowned out a voice vote, Colorado and one other state (Rhode Island?) walk out in protest.  That dominated the early coverage.  Mike Lee and Ken Cuccinelli got a lot of attention for their fit on the floor.

Peter King opened the convention by talking about how the last time they were there was 1936 and the country was in turmoil, just like today!  Except that 1936 was FDR's re-election and he was digging the country out of the ditch the GOP had put it in under Harding/Coolidge/Hoover, so the analogy is perhaps more apt than King wanted it to be.  FDR won in a landslide of course.

Early speeches were pretty standard.  Celebrities with nothing in particular to say, minor RNC officials or congressmen.  Benghazi mama was the first big speech, she was completely over-the-top, choking back tears on stage as she screamed about how Hillary was a liar and a murderer and personally responsible for the death of her son.  There's a good indictment of Hillary for the video thing in there, if anyone still cares about that, but the theatrics and hyperbole completely drowned it out.

Some retired marine gave a good speech, was pretty non-partisan and just talking about how proud he was to serve his country.  The two guys from the Benghazi movie gave a bizarre speech.  Apparently Sheriff Clarke gave an excellent speech.  Flynn was solid but went on for way too long.

Highlight of the night was undoubtedly Giuliani, he spoke with great enthusiasm about how BLM is racist and democrats are responsible for dead cops, Trump is a good man who's done wonderful charitable things for the families of New York, and Hillary Clinton is a threat to our national security.  It's probably his last big moment and unfortunately he'll get lost in the Melania shuffle.

Melania's speech was about what you'd expect, kind of awkwardly reading the teleprompter but doing her best to sell it.  Talked about how nice Trump was, how strong he is and good for America he'll be.  Unfortunately it turns out she plagiarized a solid sixty seconds of it, and that's now the big story coming out of Monday.

Completely wasted:  Joni Ernst, Tom Cotton, Willie Robertson, Rick Perry (whose speech was actually quite good), Jeff Sessions.  Ernst's speech may have been the most awkward, boring thing I've ever seen.

Thank you. I was unable to see many of the speeches today and I was just watching reruns on CSPAN and catching up on news in the past hour or so.

[ElectionsGuy]

Is it fair to say the purpose of tonight's speeches was to sew up any doubts about the party's nationalistic and (perhaps) jingoistic attitudes on foreign policy?

[Gustaf]

Well, this was an embarrassing shtstorm. I don't know what I expected to be honest. But it was worse than that.

[Tender Branson]

So, Mr. Morden:

When does this roll-call thing happen today ?

You said the session "begins" at 5:30pm (I guess this is 23:30 here).

So, the roll call will likely be after midnight ?

[Mr. Morden]

So, Mr. Morden:

When does this roll-call thing happen today ?

You said the session "begins" at 5:30pm (I guess this is 23:30 here).

So, the roll call will likely be after midnight ?

I don't know exactly how it will work.  C-Span's schedule:

http://www.c-span.org/convention/?party=rnc&day=1468911600

has a list of speakers beginning at 5:30pm.  While the official website:

http://convention.gop/post/147558746375/2016-gop-convention-program-announced

says for Tuesday "The speakers below are part of the prime-time program, which will follow Tuesday’s Nomination Process."

So maybe the convention actually starts in the early afternoon again on Tuesday, and then the speakers begin at 5:30?  That's my best guess.  Or maybe the roll call itself is at 5:30?  Either way, it sounds like the official nomination is supposed to happen before the speakers go in the evening.

[Tender Branson]

Thx.

I'll probably switch to CNN at around 22:00-23:00 to see if they have anything going on.

[IceSpear]

I watched most of the speeches, but not Flynn's because it was obnoxiously long and he bored me too much after a single minute. Was anything about it noteworthy?

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

So night one was basically Two Minutes Hate stretched across an entire evening  

Giuliani and the Marcus Lutrell guy did a good job (the content of both their speeches – especially Giuliani's – was awful, but the delivery was pretty solid).  Everyone else was either mind-numbingly boring (Michael McCall, Willie Robertson, Tom Cotton, Joni Ernst, etc) or a complete cringe-fest (Melania Trump's plagiarism, General Flynn, Patricia Smith, David Clarke, etc).

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

""What I did for New York, Donald Trump will do for America."



Seems like a pretty likely prediction.

[Devout Centrist]

""What I did for New York, Donald Trump will do for America."



Seems like a pretty likely prediction.

Giuliani for President of 9/11!

[muon2]

WOW this hall is empty.  Was Seal Team Six the last speech?

I am finally catching up to this thread. For many the business of the party was this afternoon, and that's the part that interested me as my earlier posts suggested. The evening has speeches for the TV audience and parties for the delegates that typically start around 10 PM, so that's before prime time ends. For folks who come to multiple conventions the real work of the evening is networking with other party officials and sponsors. I spent much the evening first at a reception then at a steakhouse for dinner. The speeches were on TV in the background, but I was more interested in the dinner conversation about the party and down ballot races.

[Lyin' Steve]

""What I did for New York, Donald Trump will do for America."



Seems like a pretty likely prediction.

What the hell is wrong with you?

[libertpaulian]

I watched most of the speeches, but not Flynn's because it was obnoxiously long and he bored me too much after a single minute. Was anything about it noteworthy?

He would have been Admiral Stockdale: The Sequel if Trump would have picked him.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

I'm really pissed that my CSPAN is out. I can't stand these CNN panels.

[Classic Conservative]

I'm really pissed that my CSPAN is out. I can't stand these CNN panels.

Did you check on the C-SPAN live stream on their website.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

I'm really pissed that my CSPAN is out. I can't stand these CNN panels.

Did you check on the C-SPAN live stream on their website.

Nah, I just use the RNC official live stream.

[Joe Republic]

The RNC is literally a sh**tshow.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

[The Other Castro]

*Insert "Dis Gon B Gud" gif*

[Dr. Arch]

Go go go!

[/]

I don't even care what happens; I just want to be able to make a map of something.