I didn’t think the GOP had a great virtual convention in it. But it did.
The elected officials were concise and focused on the achievements of the past four years. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) represented two very different generations of Republicans and, despite a big difference in age and life experiences — Cotton being the young Harvard lawyer turned combat veteran and McConnell the canny leader who always plays the long game and focuses like a laser on judicial confirmations — set up Trump’s “compare and contrast” speech.
By far, the most moving moments of all four nights of the convention were the remarks from Ann Dorn, the widow of retired St. Louis police officer David Dorn, murdered during looting there in June, and Marsha and Carl Mueller’s loving but firm remembrance of their daughter Kayla, a humanitarian relief worker captured, tortured, repeatedly raped by Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and eventually executed by the evil terrorists. The Muellers’ blunt condemnation of inaction by the Obama-Biden administration and praise for Trump, who brought vengeance down on Baghdadi, was tough to listen to but remarkably clarifying.
As with every night of the convention, Trump appealed through speakers and videos to a realigning America whose citizens want to be safe in their homes and live in a strong, fearless and well-defended country. Trump’s razor-sharp attacks on the Biden record and his ringing endorsement of law enforcement, as well as various endorsements from representatives of police and other members of the “blue family,” leaves no doubt as to which candidate is the candidate of order in the streets and the rule of law everywhere.
Again and again, Black Americans spoke to the president’s record and heart. Again and again, the convention called on small-business owners and working-class people to applaud the president’s record on job creation. The defense of the president’s response to the pandemic was direct and repeated, including the president’s travel restrictions on people coming from China and Europe and the mobilization of the private sector, culminating in Operation Warp Speed, which experts say could yield a vaccine this year. Again and again, the focus returned to criminal justice reform, which many have promised and Trump delivered.
The president’s speech capped four nights of tremendous production values. The president’s acceptance speech used the power of place to summon the memories of Presidents Andrew Jackson, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Franklin D. Roosevelt to remind America that it falls to the occupants of the White House to either begin or end wars. Trump’s direct claims that he has brought troops home, killed enemies such as Iran’s Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani and rebuilt a depleted military are true and powerful.
The president shellacked former vice president Joe Biden for his 47 years in D.C. Trump’s blistering assault on a failed political establishment is his core message, setting up the election as a choice between ordinary Americans and the cosseted elites of the Beltway.
The left embedded in the Manhattan-D.C. media pretty much whined through the whole week and did its best to “fact check” the president and every speaker. Here’s the key: The credibility of the media was shattered long ago, and the unbalanced panels, absurd tweets and hysteria over convention fireworks only confirmed for Trump voters that the president is running not just against Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), but also against a deeply biased and partisan media. Trump repeatedly defended freedom of speech Thursday night, but he used his own bully pulpit to assail speech bullies across the land, whether in movie studios or on university faculties.
Finally, there is no doubt in any fair observer’s mind where the president stands on law enforcement and where the vast majority of police, border patrol and other law enforcement personnel stand in this race. Trump and Biden are on the ballot, but so is the rule of law, and Trump’s claim to represent it will be tough for even the combined forces of the mainstream media and Democrats to rebut.
I didn’t think the GOP had a great virtual convention in it, but it did. Now on to the debates, which — even though they will inevitably be stacked against Trump — are something the president clearly looks forward to and Team Biden fears.
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