She really made the case for Trump at a level of sacred values, loyalty, hard work, and patriotism. Too few of our candidates know how to do this. Trump, in his own rough way, does. It’s not about a laundry list of policies. Ingraham made the case for Trump and said that ”Donald Trump respects us enough to tell us the hard truths,” which is about the best framing I’ve seen for recasting Trump’s verbal gaffes. The campaign would be smart to pick up on it.
She talked about respect in the same way that Trump does, but without Trump’s harshness. She delivered her hardest hits with a smile. As Republican pollster Frank Luntz tweeted “Why isn’t @IngrahamAngle on the 2016 GOP ticket?” An exaggeration, perhaps, but when you see a gifted communicator like Ingraham, it’s a reminder of just how short our candidates generally fall in that department. Ingraham did a great job– as she’s done for many great grassroots conservative candidates in the past. I just wish she was selling a better product.