On its face, it’s remarkable that the GOP convention is being held in battleground Ohio but will not feature a speech — or even be attended by — the GOP Governor of Ohio (Kasich). Trump was on TV this morning bashing Kasich for that. I’m not sure what the wisdom is in that — Kasich is popular among Republicans in Ohio and Ohio is a swing state. And the two Ohio polls out this month had Clinton up by 4 points and 3 points respectively. Trump has no path to victory without Ohio.
Another oddity: Front row delegations—AL, CT, NY, CA, PA—are all states Trump won. Back row—DC, MN, WY, TX, UT—has contests he lost.
Coming off a couple of weeks of police shootings, and a terrorist attack in Nice, the GOP convention is going to be white testosterone on fire. A lot of tough talk about “law and order”, a phrase used to get elected before he did all kinds of breaking the law and disorder.
Trump promises an “unconventional convention” which means…. well, I don’t know. The list of speakers contain no ex-presidents or ex-presidential nominees. Well, Speaker Paul Ryan, I guess, who was Romney’s VP choice — if you want to count that. But no heavyweights in the GOP — no Bushes, no Romney, no McCain, no Reagan, no Cheney. Dole will be there, but what be speaking.
He’s got celebrities — every convention does — but they are very C-list. Scott Baio, who has no relevance whatsoever. “Duck Dynasty” patriarch Willie Robertson, actor/model Antonio Sabato Jr. (Jagger on “General Hospital”) and former “Real World” star turned U.S. Congressman from Wisconsin Sean Duffy speak on Monday. Soap actress Kimberlin Brown (“The Bold and The Beautiful,” “The Young and the Restless”) and LPGA golfer Natalie Gulbis take the podium Tuesday.
As far as celebs go, that’s it.
No Eastwood. No Schwarzenegger. Tim Tebow couldn’t come, and although Trump reportedly wanted Don King, he was talked out of it since Don King (convicted of manslaughter for stomping a guy to death) didn’t quite mesh with the whole “law and order” thing. Transgender activist Caitlyn Jenner is scheduled to appear at an event hosted by a pro-LGBT conservative group, but has no plans to attend the convention (which opposes LGBT rights anyway).
The big concern, given recent events, is security. Ohio is an open-carry state. The Cleveland police chief has begged Governor Kasich to suspend open carry by declaring a state of emergency (given recent police shootings in Baton Rouge and Dallas), but Kasich says no.
You get the contradiction of the dynamics, right? The convention is, on the one hand, about unification — unifying the party and unifying the country behind Trump. In a room full of white people making incendiary comments while there are armed guards everywhere hoping there isn’t a shooting.
Let’s see how that flies.