Finally, after a long wait, Republicans can non-sarcastically say they’re ‘tired of all the winning.’
Milwaukee — When you hear people in this convention city saying things like, “I haven’t seen Republicans this enthusiastic, optimistic, and fired up at a convention in decades,” it might be spin. But consider the circumstances.
The party’s nominee just survived an assassination attempt in circumstances that can fairly be labeled “miraculous.” His opponent is an 81-and-a-half-year-old unpopular incumbent, attempting to defend a record of runaway inflation and a rapidly rising cost of living, chaos at our southern border, and worsening wars and threats against democratic allies around the world. After Biden challenged Trump to the earliest general election debate ever, the president turned in the worst presidential debate performance of all time, one that left Democrats so shaken that they spent about three weeks furiously arguing whether their nominee should remain the nominee. Despite all the evidence that renominating Biden is a spectacularly risky bet, the Democratic National Committee is hell-bent on officially nominating him early.
The polls for Republicans look pretty darn good, although perhaps not as quite as good as you would hope after the disastrous few weeks Democrats have had. The electoral map is about as good as Republicans could possibly expect — Virginia is in play. Minnesota is surprisingly close. (No one has polled New Mexico in a while, and that might fit the profile of “usually blue states that could be much more competitive this year.”) Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, and Nevada do not appear all that close. Democratic pollsters are warning that they’re on track to lose the Senate and lose a slew of additional House seats.
As if all this wasn’t enough, Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the documents case against Trump.
Finally, after a long wait, Republicans can non-sarcastically say they’re “tired of all the winning.”
Beyond that, it’s been a long while since Republicans gathered for a national convention with this much momentum and good fortune. Four years ago, Covid canceled the regular convention and cast a pall over the remaining televised speeches.
In the summer of 2016, Republicans in Cleveland were still far from unified behind the idea of Trump being their nominee. Ted Cruz closed his convention speech, “Vote your conscience,” instead of offering an expected endorsement. Quite a few Republicans just didn’t go. The mood at that one was weird, like an awkward family reunion where the patriarch had gone on a screaming tirade the night before and everyone was forcing awkward smiles, hoping everything ran smoothly for the rest of the day.
In Tampa in 2012, the convention was cut short by a day because of a hurricane. Because who could have possibly foreseen a hurricane in Florida in the middle of the summer, right?
In 2008 in Saint Paul, at the height of Obamamania, the locals were really not all that enthused about welcoming Republicans to the Twin Cities, and until Sarah Palin went out on stage and served up a masterpiece, no one knew how she would handle the intense political spotlight. That’s the only time I’ve been tear-gassed, standing next to Mark Hemingway when the winds shifted.
In 2004, Republicans felt fairly optimistic about George W. Bush’s odds against John Kerry, but everyone believed that the Republican convention in New York City represented the biggest, juiciest target for al-Qaeda in years. Security was tight and ubiquitous.
So maybe you must go back to 2000 to find a convention where Republicans felt as ebullient about their prospects in November?