Republican National Convention **live commentary thread**

[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?

[ElectionsGuy]

"stolen jobs", ugh.

[ElectionsGuy]

Roll call finally?

[ElectionsGuy]

Trump: 328
Cruz: 28
Rubio: 1

[ElectionsGuy]

No seriously, can anyone explain what the deal was with Alaska?

Not sure, thought the guy said the votes would go exactly as the state voted, but before that the lady announced all 28 went to Trump, confusing.

[ElectionsGuy]

Trump: 494
Cruz: 59
Rubio: 1

[ElectionsGuy]

Trump: 709
Cruz: 113
Rubio: 18
Kasich: 6

[ElectionsGuy]

Trump: 835
Cruz: 183
Rubio: 40
Kasich: 23

Is this right? I apologize my computer froze for a minute.

[ElectionsGuy]

wtf?

[ElectionsGuy]

Trump: 843
Cruz: 196
Rubio: 58
Kasich: 23

[ElectionsGuy]

Trump: 1267
Cruz: 288
Kasich: 110
Rubio: 71
Carson: 4
Bush: 3

[ElectionsGuy]

Trump: 1358
Cruz: 290
Kasich: 115
Rubio: 71
Carson: 4
Bush: 3
Other: 2 (abstention, not counted in official count)

[ElectionsGuy]

Trump: 1439
Cruz: 410
Kasich: 115
Rubio: 83
Carson: 4
Bush: 3
Other: 2 (abstention, not counted in official count)

[ElectionsGuy]

Trump: 1561
Cruz: 418
Rubio: 122
Kasich: 121
Carson: 4
Bush: 3
Paul: 2 (lol)

[ElectionsGuy]

If Alaska gets their way, Rubio will beat Kasich in the count. Also don't know why the DC and Iowa counts were ignored, they might as well challenge too.

They should just give Alaska to what the count was (12 Cruz, 11 Trump, 5 Rubio), same with Iowa and DC if they challenge.

[ElectionsGuy]

Republican Nomination Roll Call - President 2016

Trump: 1725 (69.8%)✔
Cruz: 475 (19.2%)
Kasich: 120 (4.9%)
Rubio: 114 (4.6%)
Carson: 7 (0.3%)
Bush: 3 (0.1%)
Paul: 2 (0.1%)

[ElectionsGuy]

McConnell looks like such a geek right now.

[ElectionsGuy]

Dead man walking

Johnson propping Feingold as the best anti-war, pro-civil liberties senator Wisconsin had in recent memory.  Thanks, Ron!

^^^ Yep.

[ElectionsGuy]

"Alternative party" i.e. the party that says no all the time without proposing anything substantial.

You clearly haven't been paying attention then

I've been listening all day. I haven't heard anything of substance, because Donald Trump's campaign has no substance.

This.

[ElectionsGuy]

Why did the Utah delegation vote Drumpf?

They didn't, I think the RNC changed it to all Trump because under the rules in some states if a candidate with a suspended campaign got delegates then its invalid, meaning it would have to go to the only active campaign (Trump)

[ElectionsGuy]

Wasn't tonight supposed to be about the economy and jobs?

It's pretty fitting. Trump almost never talks about fiscal, monetary, or regulatory policy, and whenever jobs are mentioned its always about how trade deals and immigration steals jobs. That's what this convention seems to be like too, mostly focused on security and nationalism related issues (just a basic "USA USA USA!" will get the crowd riled up like no other).

[ElectionsGuy]

Rubio's "speech" will be an 85 second video message - MSNBC.

[ElectionsGuy]

Boehner on Cruz: 'Lucifer is back’

Oh wait, Boehner is relevant?