What Went Down On Night 1 Of The RNC

I think expectations for tonight (including mine) were pretty low. The plan for the RNC wasn’t clear even a few days ago. But they really pulled it off, at least in terms of the production values: It was polished, smooth, and really felt like a traditional convention. The other thing that really stood out to me was the effort by many of the speakers to talk about their personal interactions with Trump — to basically make him seem like a more empathetic figure. I wonder if we’ll see more of that this week?

Overall, this was a pretty slick production that moved at a fast clip. The monotony of having everyone speak at a podium without the sparkle of a live audience cheering and responding wasn’t quite as engaging as the DNC’s more creative take, but the GOP managed to keep things moving. It will be interesting to see if this is the plan for all four nights. (I feel like it will get tired quickly.)

I’ll be back tomorrow with my grades a little bit more fleshed out, but here’s where they currently stand.

Address important party groups – Proficient. I think there’s room for improvement here, especially in reaching out to evangelicals and other religious conservatives within the party.

Create party unity – Adequate. A big takeaway for me tonight is the balance between showcasing lots of minority voices, some of whom talked about race directly, and comments like Charlie Kirk’s about Trump as the “bodyguard of Western civilization.”

Reach beyond the party base – Inadequate. The convention featured one Democratic speaker, but lots of negative rhetoric about the other party — not great outreach if they want to pick up Democratic voters who are on the fence.

Command the news cycle – Too early to know. I’ll revisit this later. Putting “adequate” as a placeholder for now.

Rally sentiment against Democrats – Exemplary. There were classic critiques of Democrats, like accusations of socialism, and newer ones about “wokeness” and defunding the police.

Explain and publicize the party’s positions. – Proficient. The latter half of the night was pretty clear about some of Republicans’ policy stances – deregulation, lowering taxes, pulling out of foreign policy agreements like the Iran deal. Discussion of COVID-related policy was lacking, however.