11:42 PM: Good speech (if long). Congrats to Donald Trump and all of the folks who worked so hard to get him nominated.
Steve Albertson
9:21 PM: Eager to blunt Trump”s momentum, the Clinton campaign has leaked that they will announce tomorrow that Virginia Senator Tim Kaine will be their vice presidential pick. This, of course, has significant potential implications for Virginia that we’ll be analyzing in the coming days.
Steve Albertson
9:09 PM: I’m told by an RNC source that Trump’s speech will commence at 10:03 PM. Ordinarily these speaking slots would be filled by really top-shelf names. In this instance, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus is filling the empty space. Remaining speakers include businessmen Peter Thiel and Tom Barrack, and Ivanka Trump. There will also be live music during commercial breaks, and a video production from the Trump campaign.
Steve Albertson
9:04 PM: For those interested in a little behind the scenes coverage of the Free the Delegates movement that ended on Monday: How the Never Trump movement failed at the GOP convention.
Steve Albertson
8:49 PM: Here’s Geert Wilders (quite possibly the next Prime Minister of the Netherlands) signing the Virginia delegation’s placard:
Steve Albertson
8:27 PM: One of my friends in the Virginia delegation who was an early Trump supporter remarked to me that “you guys” (meaning the anti-establishment conservatives who had ended up coalescing behind Cruz during the primaries) just don’t get the Trump phenomenon. And it’s true. Most of us, including me, have been wrong over and over again this election cycle. We were observers of the conventional wisdom a year ago that said Trump had basically no chance of winning the nomination. We were wrong on that, obviously. I’m looking forward to that same conventional wisdom being wrong about Trump losing in November.
The outcome could be a harbinger for Geert Wilders, a former Dutch parliamentarian pilloried as a nativist by the left, but whose warnings years ago now seem prophetic. Wilders is hanging out with the Virginia delegation. (Will upload photos when I’ve got the bandwidth on my phone).
Steve Albertson
8:20 PM If you don’t want to wait for Trump’s speech, you can read it now thanks to an anti-Trump mole inside the RNC (h/t: Turbo Cohen).
Steve Albertson
8:08 PM: Pastor Mark Burns gives a firey oration addressing what’s happening outside the arena:
Pastor Burns just gave the most inspiring speech of the convention, ending with a call that, no matter the color you’re born with, in America the only colors that matter are red, white, and blue.
Steve Albertson
8:08 PM:
Steve Albertson
7:57 PM: Jerry Falwell, whose early endorsement of Trump perplexed hard core conservatives, made the case that all conservatives should back Trump. Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio strikes the very powerful chord among delegates of illegal immigration. This guy is a rock star to most in the room.
Steve Albertson
7:40 PM: We’re done with the preliminaries. What you’re not seeing at home is the live music: lots of popular rock favorites designed to enhance the excitement in the arena. One thing that you really can’t appreciate about these things unless you’re in the room is the endless attention to little details that give national Conventions a really unique production value. It’s slick without feeling fake, polished but still genuine. The producers and planners of the “show” portion of the Convention deserve great kudos.
Steve Albertson
7:20 PM: The gavel has come down. One of the chief aims of tonight will be to move the party past the divisions of the last year, culminating in last night’s speech by Ted Cruz in which he refrained from offering support for the nominee.
My take on this was summed up by Ken Cuccinelli at this morning’s Virginia Delegation breakfast. I completely understand why Ted Cruz wouldn’t endorse the man who personally insulted his wife, and who insinuated his father had something to do with the assassination of John Kennedy. I can also respect the steadfast adherence to principle. But the presidential nominating convention isn’t the place for that; if he couldn’t say anything supportive of Donald Trump, he probably shouldn’t have said anything at all.
Steve Albertson
7:14 PM: The room is filling up. The atmosphere tonight is decidedly more upbeat than prior nights. The Trump/RNC decision to conduct the nomination roll call on Tuesday, rather than the originally planned Wednesday, was a good one. It allowed the folks in attendance who haven’t been Trump fans a little more time to get used to the idea. While those folks aren’t yet in cheerleader mode, most appear to have made their peace with the inevitable.
