It’s the final day of what’s been a very unpredictable Republican National Convention. About the only thing that was predicted – formally nominating Donald Trump as the GOP’s presidential candidate. We’ll see what tonight has planned.
Tonight’s the night!
As the final speaker of the convention, Trump will address the crowd. What’s unknown is will Trump be Trump, or will he be the tamed version the party desires?
The New York Times writes:
Since effectively seizing the nomination in May, Mr. Trump has presided over dueling factions in his campaign orbit: those eager to “let Trump be Trump” and those pining for a general election “pivot” that never seemed to arrive.
On Thursday, the candidate will have a thematic choice to make. Despite the party’s push to professionalize Mr. Trump’s operation, bringing in more seasoned aides and nudging him toward using a teleprompter, he has remained a force that cannot be tamed.
After a speaking roster pitched squarely at the Republican base — punctuated by chants of “Lock her up!” amid a series of blistering attacks on Hillary Clinton — some veteran Republicans are hopeful that Mr. Trump might cast a wider net, courting independent voters with a populist message.
What will Trump say tonight?
The Washington Post has a look at what Trump might say tonight, versus what he should say. The Post quotes an interview earlier today by New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman with Donald Trump:
HABERMAN: What do you think people will take away from this convention? What are you hoping?
TRUMP: From the convention? The fact that I’m very well liked. Look, I got more votes than anybody in the history of the Republican Party. Almost 14 million votes. I got 37 states. Kasich has one. As an example, Ted had, you know, not many. Thirty-seven states. Now, with the roll call, I had 44 states. It was 44 to seven and the seven was everybody else: 44 to seven. It was 44 to six because we are including the different islands. And when you are in that hall and you see those people, like yesterday, my daughter called up, she said, “Dad, I’ve never seen it — it’s total love.”
The Washington Post added “as Bill Galston explains, conventions, and particularly acceptance speeches such as the one he’ll deliver tonight, are supposed to be about a lot more than that:
Successful acceptance speeches at national party conventions accomplish two tasks: They lay out what is at stake in the forthcoming election in clear, unmistakable terms; and they do what is necessary in the circumstances of the times to build majority support, not only for the nominee personally, but also for the nominee’s strategy for surmounting the most urgent and important problems of the day….
Trump faces a divided republican party and uncertain prospects for an electoral majority. His task is not to mobilize his core supporters, but to heal his party and to broaden his support beyond its usual ranks. He cannot do that by recycling the rhetoric of his primary campaign.
Cruz continues his refusal to endorse Trump
Following his speech Wednesday night when he was finally booed off the stage, Ted Cruz repeated his refusal to endorse Trump Thursday. Reuters reports:
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz staunchly defended his decision not to endorse Donald Trump, saying on Thursday he was not the Republican presidential candidate’s “servile puppy dog” in a damaging rift at the party’s convention ahead of the Nov. 8 election.
Cruz, who came in second to Trump in the race for the Republican nomination after a bitter and personal campaign, was booed by delegates at the gathering in Cleveland on Wednesday night when he stopped short of endorsing Trump in a high-profile speech.
The conservative senator from Texas stood his ground on Thursday. He refused to say whether he would vote for Trump, who during the primary battles insulted Cruz’s wife, Heidi, for her physical appearance and suggested that his father was linked to late President John F. Kennedy’s assassin.
“I am not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my father,” Cruz told a meeting of the Texas delegation in Cleveland.
Cyber security concerns
It’s not just the eyes of the world watching the Republican National Convention, it’s the eyes of hackers. With over 10,000 devices from smartphones to laptops in one location, hack attacks are a possibility.
According to CNET cyber security is tight. Hacktivist groups, like Anonymous, have already targeted Trump’s campaign. It would be embarrassing if they were to break in just as the event reaches its apex. CNET added:
In a nondescript network operations center, Vince Crisler, the CEO of security contractor Dark Cubed monitors screens displaying threat assessments.
The Washington-based company is no stranger to big assignments. It’s managed security and strategy for the White House, the Pentagon and the Secret Service, according to its website.
Dark Cubed’s assessments are calculated by the company’s information-sharing technology, which lets networks swap threat information with each other. The community approach allows members to see how the threats on their networks compare to the threats on others.
One display sets the threat level at 6 percent. Still, Crisler isn’t letting his guard down.
“We act as if the network is being targeted or threatened at any given moment in time,” he said.
To secure the conventions is an enormous task, said Katherine Gronberg, an executive for Silicon Valley security firm ForeScout Technologies. Malware and phishing attacks are the most common threats facing the RNC.
The rest of Thursdays speaker lineup:
As a regular viewer of the convention, I find the main message of the GOP to be confusing. Many speakers talked about Hillary Clinton, even going so far as New Jersey Governor Chris Christie putting her on trial. Others talked about Law and Order, no not the TV show. Few talked only about party unity.
Here are tonight’s speakers:
- Mary Fallin, Governor of Oklahoma
- Reince Priebus, chairman of the R.N.C.
- Jerry Falwell, Jr., president of Liberty University
- Peter Thiel, a co-founder of PayPal
- Ivanka Trump, one of Donald J. Trump’s daughters
- Donald J. Trump, Republican presidential nominee
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