What Went Down During President Trump’s Closing Speech At The RNC

This speech formally kicks off the final stretch of the campaign. While we are all intently focused on Trump’s arguments tonight, it’s important to remember that a lot is going to happen over the 10 weeks between now and Election Day.

Fourth-wall moment: I’m having a little bit of trouble coming up with pithy things to say here. This speech is trying to cover a lot of ground, and a lot of it is sort of Incumbent Party Nominee Acceptance Speech 101. But I’m not sure that it’s really working out to be more than the sum of its parts or what it will be remembered for apart from the controversial setting. Nor is the delivery especially good — it’s clear that he’s reading off a prompter. Though the bar for Trump-speeches-off-a-prompter is fairly low.

I’m trying to watch this speech with one eye on this Pew Research Center chart. It’s telling where Trump is and isn’t hitting the issues that voters say they care most about.