RNC - 2016 - Brief Impressions & Conclusions

For those who would rather not read a longwinded rant, I am summarizing my overall observations and impressions of the RNC in order to get to the heart of the matter. After all, this is just my opinion and you can take it or leave it. I don’t feel a need to justify anything. I realize that most who read this will not agree with my impressions and conclusions including my kids.

• Overall, attending the RNC was a marvelous experience, a once in a lifetime occurrence. Thank you Miriam Hellreich for inviting me as a guest to the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio.  And thanks Phil for baby-sitting me during the week. It was truly a memorable event. Overall, I would give the event a B+ for organization, execution and performance based on my observations and those of other attendees who have much more experience attending these types of political events.
• Visibly absent from this RNC were many prominent leaders of the Republican Party including past presidents. This significantly muted the historical connection and significance of the proceedings, as well limited the selection of potential speakers available for prime time slots.  Thus, many presentations were relegated to much less well-known politicians and extraneous speakers whose presentations were passible at best.
• As a result of the above, the week was characterized by shifting highs and lows in presentation quality, significance, enthusiasm and spawned crowd electricity.  Nevertheless, it ended on the strong words of Donald J Trump to a receptive audience.  But there was a moderate amount of tiring redundancy in the presentations across speakers during the week’s event.  How many times do I need to hear the same criticisms of HRC?
• A significant effort was made with considerable time spent exposing HRC’s past missteps, bad judgment, dishonesty and outright criminal actions, particularly but not exclusively during her time as Secretary of State. The case against HRC was compelling, especially to the audience of Republicans eagerly buying into the arguments presented. Nevertheless, very little information was presented that was new. Kudos to Chris Christie for doing an excellent job in “holding court” against HRC, and calling upon the delegates in the audience to determine innocence or guilt for the multiple “crimes” she committed.  
• There were several inspiring and heartfelt presentations by mothers of fallen soldiers and police officers including one mother of a Bengasi soldier killed by terrorists attacking the American Embassy on that fateful day when no one came to them rescue thanks in part to HRC.  But the best presentations (that I heard) were made by Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump Jr, Chris Christie, Mike Pence, David Clarke, Laura Ingraham, Linda Lingle, Ivanka Trump, Newt Gingrich, and despite the lack of endorsement for Donald Trump, Ted Cruz’s presentation was also excellent. Donald J Trump also gave the best speech of his life.  It was written and vetted, rehearsed and re-rehearsed. He used a teleprompter to read it, but it did not fall flat.  Basically, Donald offered himself as the solution to what ails America’s, which he described in detail. Much of the media interpreted his presentation as dark but those attending the RNC that I canvassed emphatically did not! With almost one terrorist attack occurring at least weekly, who can say that they feel more safe now than before BHO took office eight years ago. Certainly not I. And with HRC, we would get more of the same for the next four years. 
• Donald Trump’s family was skilled, professional, and exemplary in their behavior and attendance throughout the week.  They all presented outstanding personal testimonials, portraying their father in a positive light. They emphasized the opportunities given to minorities and women that he has provided, working in his real estate empire. The truth is that the children's presentations were all outstanding, so much so that Donald Sr’s acceptance speech fell short of his children.  Again, Donald Trump Jr was particularly skilled and delivered a truly presidential speech.  Indeed, some of us wished Jr and Sr would switch roles at the convention. And of course, Ivanka’s performance was also compelling and delivered with style and grace. 
• The media did little to accurately portray the events of the RNC, concentrating their time and effort on whatever negative moments they could dwell on, rather than providing a balanced viewpoint. This applies not only to the cable news networks, but also many newspapers.  The NYT typically showed its truly disgraceful biases against Republicans with their coverage.  The media no longer reports the news, it makes and shapes the news with its egregious biases and predispositions that, to me, are so far removed from reality and the life of typical Americans. But they are no longer listening or trusting their words.  This is especially true of words that are focused on Donald Trump.  How wrong can you be about predicting Donald’s demise? Despite the most disparaging of commentaries throughout the last year from just about every media outlet, the Donald’s ratings and successes have continued to progressively increase. To be sure, this has defied the pundits and expert commentators who have been all to ready to ignore and forgive their previous failed predictions about the Donald but do not hesitate to hoist their next vitriolic diatribe against him. Well guess what MEDIA, your words are landing on the deaf ears of the mainstream American public.  Maybe this is what really hurts!

Well, I think I will stop there.  But I think I will compose one last blog about the RNC.  The last composition will stem from a more personal nature, not totally relevant to the theme and purpose of the RNC, but rather from my mini recollections that have stuck to my brain this last week in Cleveland. 

Miriam Hellreich presiding over the Hawaii Delegation at the hotel

back at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame - two ladies dancing freestyle

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame seen near the end of the day

not a very good picture but what the heck

quite the crowd

The Donald at the Helm