Grade the first night of the RNC

[evergreenarbor]

F for fascism

[Fargobison]

Awful... but, I'm biased, so take that with a grain of salt.

Also, seems like Melania (or whoever wrote her speech) plagiarized a bit?

http://www.vox.com/2016/7/19/12221566/melania-trump-michelle-obama

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Just when I think this night couldn't get worse it does...what a flaming dumpster fire.

[Hammy]

If nothing else it provided some entertainment on the forum after a boring last few days.

[Nyvin]

Did anything constructive actually get said besides "BENGHAZI!"

[Ronnie]

"We believe in our dear leader Donald J. Trump to solve our nation's complex problems because reasons!"

[Green Line]

Awful.  Could've passed for a 1930's Nazi rally, actually, except much more low energy

[Xing]

Giving it an F wouldn't do it justice.

[Catholics vs. Convicts]

Obviously it was a disgusting sign of where our country is, but I was going to gig it a passing C grade politically, UNTIL melania plagerized her speech. Cmon liberal media we can't let them get away with this!

[swf541]

Well was a D, however the Melania bit puts this at F-, actually, can i give it a Z for the lowest possible alphabetically?

[Lief 🗽]

Would have been a solid C if Melania didn't plagiarize her speech. But now it's a total disaster.

[Badger]

A disaster.

If you need to feed your base red-meat during the first day of the convention, then you're almost at failure.

Let's see who the Democrats have slotted to speak at their convention on the first day so far:
First Lady Michelle Obama, Senator Bernie Sanders and DREAMer Astrid Silva.

Yup.  Red meat for the party's African-American, progressive and Latino base.

All the parties do this at their heavily scripted convention borefests.

Umm, you really think the point of the First Lady speaking is red meat for black voters??

It what universe would the strong runner up in the race NOT speak at the convention.

A Dreamer, meh, ok. But let's compare how divisive vs. inclusive, how angry driven rather than hope driven, her speech is vs. the "illegals are all rapists" screed we repeatedly heard tonight.

False equivalency 101.

[i4indyguy]

I voted D, but really wanted to give a grade of C-. But this was  before the Melania plagarism story.  In light of that earth shattering report, D is the best i could give.

Have alot of sympathy for the woman whos so died in Benghazi, but i was incredibly disappointed that they even let someone like that on stage.  Seriously, since when do we let the grieving parents of soldiers have speaking slots at national conventions?  Especially when they sound unhinged.

[Virginiá]

Have alot of sympathy for the woman whos so died in Benghazi, but i was incredibly disappointed that they even let someone like that on stage.  Seriously, since when do we let the grieving parents of soldiers have speaking slots at national conventions?  Especially when they sound unhinged.

Because Republicans want to soften Hillary up as much as possible. They stopped caring about what is in good taste or proper a long time ago.

..Or, they were starved for speakers and that led to them thinking she would be a good addition for the point I made above.

Not exactly sure which, but leaning towards the former.

[swf541]

I voted D, but really wanted to give a grade of C-. But this was  before the Melania plagarism story.  In light of that earth shattering report, D is the best i could give.

Have alot of sympathy for the woman whos so died in Benghazi, but i was incredibly disappointed that they even let someone like that on stage.  Seriously, since when do we let the grieving parents of soldiers have speaking slots at national conventions?  Especially when they sound unhinged.

Agreed on the Benghazi bit, that should not have been allowed, it was too wrong on so many levels.

[cinyc]

A disaster.

If you need to feed your base red-meat during the first day of the convention, then you're almost at failure.

Let's see who the Democrats have slotted to speak at their convention on the first day so far:
First Lady Michelle Obama, Senator Bernie Sanders and DREAMer Astrid Silva.

Yup.  Red meat for the party's African-American, progressive and Latino base.

All the parties do this at their heavily scripted convention borefests.

Umm, you really think the point of the First Lady speaking is red meat for black voters??

It what universe would the strong runner up in the race NOT speak at the convention.

A Dreamer, meh, ok. But let's compare how divisive vs. inclusive, how angry driven rather than hope driven, her speech is vs. the "illegals are all rapists" screed we repeatedly heard tonight.

False equivalency 101.

The point of the First Lady speaking is red meat for all Democratic voters, but will be most poignant for African American voters, I suppose.  Is Kasich speaking at the RNC?  Sanders doesn't have to speak at the DNC.  His speech will be meant to throw red meat to progressives.

We don't have a full list of the DNC speakers from day 1, yet, just 3 of them.  I am sure that there will be more speakers who throw out red meat to the Democratic base because, well, that's what both parties do at these scripted snoozefests.

We'll see how divisive, rather than inclusive the Black Lives Matters moms will be on Day 2 of the DNC, and how anger driven their anti-cop speeches are, too, I suppose.  No party has a monopoly on using fear or anger to get their base to the polls.

[Badger]

A disaster.

If you need to feed your base red-meat during the first day of the convention, then you're almost at failure.

Let's see who the Democrats have slotted to speak at their convention on the first day so far:
First Lady Michelle Obama, Senator Bernie Sanders and DREAMer Astrid Silva.

Yup.  Red meat for the party's African-American, progressive and Latino base.

All the parties do this at their heavily scripted convention borefests.

Umm, you really think the point of the First Lady speaking is red meat for black voters??

It what universe would the strong runner up in the race NOT speak at the convention.

A Dreamer, meh, ok. But let's compare how divisive vs. inclusive, how angry driven rather than hope driven, her speech is vs. the "illegals are all rapists" screed we repeatedly heard tonight.

False equivalency 101.

The point of the First Lady speaking is red meat for all Democratic voters, but will be most poignant for African American voters, I suppose.  Is Kasich speaking at the RNC?  Sanders doesn't have to speak at the DNC.  His speech will be meant to throw red meat to progressives.

We don't have a full list of the DNC speakers from day 1, yet, just 3 of them.  I am sure that there will be more speakers who throw out red meat to the Democratic base because, well, that's what both parties do at these scripted snoozefests.

We'll see how divisive, rather than inclusive the Black Lives Matters moms will be on Day 2 of the DNC, and how anger driven their anti-cop speeches are, too, I suppose.  No party has a monopoly on using fear or anger to get their base to the polls.

Are you kidding or delusional? Seriously, there's no option C here.

Besides all that, let's drop the cutesy terminology. There's a PROFOUND difference between "red meat" and "Numermburg Jr.", and it's clear which tonight's convention was closer too.

What remotely comparable "red meat" are you expecting in Philly? Let's raise taxes on the rich, expand health care coverage, and make the economy more equitable"? Even if you and I disagree with the Democrats' policies, we can't realistically lump that rhetoric in with "we have to get rid of the Browns and Muslims!!!!" we heard tonight. Sad, but true.

[IceSpear]

[Weiner/Holder]

Grading a paper before reading it?  Let's see how this influences the race in the long run.  So far all we have is a title for our paper.

[Sbane]

A+ but could've been better!

Haha such a Trump comment. I really think voting for Trump should be added to the DSM.

[cinyc]

A disaster.

If you need to feed your base red-meat during the first day of the convention, then you're almost at failure.

Let's see who the Democrats have slotted to speak at their convention on the first day so far:
First Lady Michelle Obama, Senator Bernie Sanders and DREAMer Astrid Silva.

Yup.  Red meat for the party's African-American, progressive and Latino base.

All the parties do this at their heavily scripted convention borefests.

Umm, you really think the point of the First Lady speaking is red meat for black voters??

It what universe would the strong runner up in the race NOT speak at the convention.

A Dreamer, meh, ok. But let's compare how divisive vs. inclusive, how angry driven rather than hope driven, her speech is vs. the "illegals are all rapists" screed we repeatedly heard tonight.

False equivalency 101.

The point of the First Lady speaking is red meat for all Democratic voters, but will be most poignant for African American voters, I suppose.  Is Kasich speaking at the RNC?  Sanders doesn't have to speak at the DNC.  His speech will be meant to throw red meat to progressives.

We don't have a full list of the DNC speakers from day 1, yet, just 3 of them.  I am sure that there will be more speakers who throw out red meat to the Democratic base because, well, that's what both parties do at these scripted snoozefests.

We'll see how divisive, rather than inclusive the Black Lives Matters moms will be on Day 2 of the DNC, and how anger driven their anti-cop speeches are, too, I suppose.  No party has a monopoly on using fear or anger to get their base to the polls.

Are you kidding or delusional? Seriously, there's no option C here.

Besides all that, let's drop the cutesy terminology. There's a PROFOUND difference between "red meat" and "Numermburg Jr.", and it's clear which tonight's convention was closer too.

What remotely comparable "red meat" are you expecting in Philly? Let's raise taxes on the rich, expand health care coverage, and make the economy more equitable"? Even if you and I disagree with the Democrats' policies, we can't realistically lump that rhetoric in with "we have to get rid of the Browns and Muslims!!!!" we heard tonight. Sad, but true.

As you can see from the message thread above, red meat wasn't my term.  It was Polnut's term.  All I pointed out was that both parties use these scripted snoozefests to feed red meat to their base.  After all, who is in the convention hall but the most stalwart party activists?  You play to your audience, at least during the non-prime time hour.

I tend not to watch much of either convention because canned, boring speeches don't interest me.  I didn't see much of it, but I doubt the Republican speakers said "we have to get rid of the Browns and Muslims!!" today, though.

Kasich is not scheduled to speak at the RNC.  Why does Sanders have to speak?  He doesn't have to.  His speech will be calculated to speak to the progressive base of the party.

As I said, I expect to hear a lot of divisive, anti-police, Black Lives Matters rhetoric at the DNC.  They are even inviting a bunch of Black Lives Matters mothers to speak to the convention.  Perhaps you think everyone agrees with the Black Lives Matters movement's rhetoric and tactics, but they don't.  I also expect to see a lot of fearmongering about Republicans generally and Trump specifically.  Neither party has a monopoly on using fear to motivate their base.

[Lyin' Steve]

C-.  Would have been a B- before the Melania plagiarism happened.
Giuliania killed it in his speech.  Benghazi mama was completely unhinged watching live, but the media can replay some snippets of her speech and it would be a decent enough airtime-filling Hillary attack.  #NeverTrump got stomped and the media narrative of "chaos and blood on the convention floor" only lasted for a few hours in the early afternoon before the headliners drowned it out.  Flynn was good enough.  That one SEAL gave an emotional and touching speech.

Cotton and especially Ernst were boring as can be, the two Benghazi guys were just kind of weird, Phil Robertson seemed to be talking more about himself than about Trump, Melania's speech wasn't exactly the hit she needed to make it a good night, and the much-ballyhooed Trump intro was thirty seconds long, plus general all-around weirdness throughout the speeches.  Why did King kick off the convention by comparing them to the FDR-opposing Republicans of 1936?

[Mike Thick]

They somehow combined the worst aspects of Trump with the worst aspects of normal conventions. F, teetering on the edge of a D

EDIT: Didn't see the plagiarism story -- F with as many minuses as that one A in "A Christmas Story" had pluses.

[JerryArkansas]

F because the only thing that everyone will remember is the plagiarism.  Even if that had not happened, still would be an F, but a higher one, lite at 55, not at the 0 it is now.

[Dr. Arch]

F because the only thing that everyone will remember is the plagiarism.  Even if that had not happened, still would be an F, but a higher one, lite at 55, not at the 0 it is now.

At least 20% for participation and effort, I'd say.

[Darthpi – Anti-Florida Activist]

Would have been a solid C if Melania didn't plagiarize her speech. But now it's a total disaster.