9 a.m. Wednesday night of convention week is supposed to be all about the Veep nominee. It's usually called "Veep Day." But instead the campaign of Donald J. Trump decided to take a massive gamble by giving a prime time speaking spot to the nominee's most bitter primary opponent.
This was the ultimate rookie mistake in a week full of rookie mistakes. Why on Earth would Trump give Ted Cruz the spotlight like this? Ted Cruz, who Trump maligned as "Lyin' Ted" all spring long. Ted Cruz, whose wife Trump attacked in violation of one of the very few rules of campaign decorum – don't get personal with family members. Ted Cruz, whose father Trump implied had something to do with the Kennedy assassination.
Can you imagine the glee Cruz felt when he realized the Trump campaign was going to give him a prime time spot on Veep night? Can you imagine how stupid he must've felt they were? Can you imagine Ted Cruz rubbing his hands together and plotting a massive embarrassment for the Trump campaign? Can you fathom why the Trump campaign didn't see this coming?
The one thing you can count on with Ted Cruz is that at any given time he will be shrewdly plotting to best serve the interests of Ted Cruz. How could the Trump people be so naive?
So what does Cruz do? Being the political animal that he is, he goes up to the podium and preys on every division between Trump and people who consider themselves "real conservatives" and don't believe Trump is one of them.
He goes through a whole litany of "love of freedom" rhetoric on guns, on taxes, on "religious freedom" on ISIS, on Iran, on education, on healthcare.
And then, at the very end, during a pitch in a convention where Republicans have been striving so hard to at least appear as united as possible behind their nominee, Ted Cruz throws a brick through the Trump Campaign's storefront window.
"Don't stay home in November," Cruz told the raucous arena. "If you love our country and love your children as much as I know that you do, stand and speak, and vote your conscience."
Every evening, I get an email with transcripts for all the speeches. The text of Cruz' speech transcript did not have this line in it.
Trump obviously panicked, and came creeping out of some random corner to try to steal Cruz' spotlight and stomp on the moment, but he was too late. The damage had already been done. The crowd was divided. There was booing. There was applause. The brick had done the dirty.
This is pure conjecture, but I hope the Trump people did ask Cruz if he was going to endorse Trump and I hope Cruz said yes, smirking his Ted Cruz smirk, thinking to himself, "Well, after all, I'm 'Lyin' Ted.'"
To be perfectly honest, as a spectator, I couldn't stop laughing. And now Ted Cruz has won the news cycle, and everybody is talking about him this morning. And whatever happened to Vice Presidential Nominee Mike Pence?
Source: Live-blogging the Republican National Convention: The last day
No comments:
Post a Comment