Did that just happen?
After Ted Cruz had finished his drop-the-mic Republican National Convention speech and been booed off the stage, historian Michael Beschloss posted the following tweet: “Never seen anything quite like this.” If a leading scholar of the presidency says we’re in uncharted waters, I have to agree.
That is how Eugene Robinson begins this column in today’s Washington Post. If you were listening to MS-NBC for the wrap-up after Pence spoke, you would have heard some of what appears in this column, especially the words about why, given how Trump had managed to personally attack those close to Cruz (wife and father) the Senator from Texas not endorsing is not that much of a surprise.
It is the latter part of the column that is key. The relevant portion begins like this:
So far, as conventions go, this one has been chaos. The Trump campaign would struggle to arrange a two-car funeral. How could organizers give Cruz such a prime speaking spot without a guarantee of an endorsement? What did they think when they read Cruz’s prepared remarks? How could they let him do his best to humiliate the party’s newly minted nominee?
During that wrap-up last night we were reminded that Bernie Sanders is speaking on Monday next week, not on Wednesday. So even if he were to give a speech not supportive of his party’s nominee, it is early enough not to do real damage. In this case, the Trump campaign succeeded in messing up the roll-out of their VP nominee for a 2nd time.
I am aware from other reporting that the Trump folks told the Cruz folks that if he were not going to endorse Trump they would make sure Cruz got booed. Trump and his family knew what was coming, both on the non-endorsement and the booing. That expression of displeasure towards the Texan may prove costly — there were a lot of Cruz supporters among the delegates, and they were furious. How many will refuse to vote for Trump now? How many will sit on their hands? Yes, there was anger towards Cruz, who was denied entrance to the box of Sheldon Adelson, and who experienced having another donor have to be restrained from attacking him, according to some reports.
The real damage was, of course, on messaging. For the third night in a row.
Which gets me to the penultimate paragraph:
This is yet another of those moments when we will see whether the normal rules of politics somehow don’t apply to Trump. Remember that chaos is his preferred environment. Remember how successful he was as a reality-television star – and then consider the extent to which last night’s events resembled a reality-show episode. Suspense was built. Shade was thrown. Overwrought emotion was put on garish display.
From a Democratic perspective, it was great TV and I am sure a lot of popcorn was consumed. From the perspective of persuading the American people that the team organizing this convention is prepared to run the country, it might well have been something else.
So Robinson concludes:
This is Trump’s world. His quest for the presidency may crash and burn, as it richly deserves to, but it will never be boring.
Never boring, but certainly not reassuring as to competence, is it?
And we still have the final night of the convention to go…...