“You’re on fire, stupid.”
— Police officer, quoted by the Los Angeles Times, bringing a fire extinguisher to a flag-burning demonstrator outside the GOP convention.
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Cruz Campaign Manager Slams Christie
Sen. Ted Cruz’s campaign manager responded to Gov. Chris Christie’s criticism of Cruz’s convention speech, saying that the New Jersey governor had “turned over his political testicles long ago.”
Said Jeff Roe said on the Chris Stigall Show: “That guy turned over his political testicles long ago. So I don’t take what he has to say with any meaning. You know, he embarrassed himself pretty quickly in this.”
Dead Heat In Ohio
A new Suffolk University poll in Ohio finds Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump tied in Ohio at 44% each with 11% still undecided.
In a four-way scenario, with Green Party nominee Jill Stein and Libertarian Gary Johnson added into the mix, Clinton edges Trump 43% to 39%, with Johnson getting 5%, Stein 1% and 12% undecided.
Which Path Will the GOP Take?
Rick Klein: “The central, huge personality of the 2016 campaign has set up a larger-than-life contest for the future of the Republican Party, with battle lines etched long before Donald Trump’s fate is decided. Wednesday night laid out the future paths of the GOP in dramatic, boisterous fashion. If Trump wins, Trumpism, along with its angry populism and strains of nativism, prevails. If he doesn’t, the party will have Mike Pence, whose answer to Trump was to join him, while offering a twist of earnestness and conservative commitment. On the opposite side, there’s John Kasich, rejecting it all by not even showing up at the Trump convention in his home state. There’s Paul Ryan, seeking a middle path though leaning in enough to speak twice – and even wield the gavel – at the convention.”
“And then there’s Ted Cruz, who laid down unmistakable markers with three words: ‘vote your conscience.’ Cruz anticipated a backlash, but he couldn’t have anticipated angry delegates yelling ‘Goldman Sachs’ at his wife. However this breaks, Cruz’s gambit figures to have the longest tail. He will have either sounded conservative alarms about Trump – so much so that his wife and father were threatened with physical harm – or he will have rained on a parade that’s marching to a drummer that’s very much not like him. Cruz’s play may prove to be the boldest, since it’s predicated on the assumption that the Trump phenomenon hasn’t changed the Republican Party in any fundamental way.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“Corey Lewandowski is like Bob Haldeman without the charm. I mean, he’s an advance man. I’m a political strategist. I have elected other people to public office… He’s a pimple on the ass of history.”
— Ex-Trump adviser Roger Stone, quoted by Yahoo News.
Trump’s Speech Scrubbed for Potential Problems
New York Times: “By Tuesday morning, word had spread throughout his campaign that any language in Mr. Trump’s address even loosely inspired by speeches, essays, books or Twitter posts had to be either rewritten or attributed.”
“Mr. Trump’s chief speechwriter, Stephen Miller, reassured colleagues that the acceptance speech was wholly original, according to two staff members who spoke with him and described those conversations on the condition of anonymity. Mr. Miller also told campaign aides that he had looked closely at passages that Mr. Trump had contributed — handwritten on unlined white pages — and was confident they contained no problems. Even so, one of the staff members downloaded plagiarism-detection software and ran a draft of the speech through the program. No red flags came up.”
“The intense scrutiny of Mr. Trump’s words added new pressure to a speechwriting process that has been one of the most unpredictable and free-form in modern presidential campaigns.”
Cruz Makes Clear It’s Personal with Trump
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) “defended distancing himself from Donald Trump, refusing to say he’s voting for Trump and ripping the Republican National Convention’s response to his speech the night before,” The Hill reports.
Said Cruz: “I am not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my father… Neither he nor his campaign has taken back a word of what they said about my family.”
He added: “In that speech last night, I did not say a single negative word about Donald Trump. And I’ll tell you, this morning and going forward I don’t intend to say negative things about Donald Trump.”
Politico: 5 takeaways from Cruz’s convention stunner
Bill Clinton Prefers Kaine for Veep
“As Hillary Clinton prepares to make her choice for a vice-presidential candidate, Bill Clinton has privately expressed his support for Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Clinton believes that Mr. Kaine, 58, a former governor and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has the domestic and national security résumé that both appeals to voters and makes him prepared for the presidency. People close to Mr. Clinton, who could discuss private conversations only without attribution, said that the former president had left the decision entirely to his wife and that he also has close relationships with Mr. Vilsack and Mr. Perez.”
Occasionally Right
Hillary Clinton’s campaign put out a new video on the final day of the Republican convention:
The Divided Party Always Loses
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An Unhinged Republican Party
Joe Klein: “I’m not sure I know how to write about this election anymore without seeming imprudent. I came into this year believing that our government was desperately in need of conservative reform and restraint. I came to those views watching the corroded incompetence of the Department of Veterans Affairs and also in the belief that Democrats had been too unwilling to look at and think clearly about the failures of the welfare state. I had some problems with Hillary Clinton too—from her support for the invasion of Libya to her foolish personal behavior, accepting big-money speeches from Goldman Sachs because, she said, she ‘wasn’t sure’ she was going to run for President. But I would never question her essential decency; indeed, she is one of the most thoughtful politicians I know. And the Democratic Party, for all its politically correct smugness and silliness, has never surrendered its soul to the extremists lurking on its left.”
“The Republican Party, by contrast, has become a national embarrassment. Donald Trump is a national embarrassment. This election will be the greatest test, in my lifetime, of the wisdom of our people and the strength of the democratic project.”
Headline of the Day
“Ted Cruz Buries the Hatchet — In Donald Trump’s Back”
Trump Has a Huge Challenge Tonight
“Donald Trump has left himself with a mighty challenge for the final day of the Republican National Convention. After three days of tumult and controversy, the success — or not — of the week now depends even more heavily than it should on his performance Thursday night,” the Washington Post reports.
“Trump might not have it any other way. Maybe this was always part of the plan, to create the drama and heighten the stakes ahead of his acceptance speech. After all, the campaign has always been about him. He’s the candidate, chief strategist, communications director and opposition researcher all wrapped up in one unlikely package. Thursday night, he must also be seen as a possible president.”
The Hill: “Trump still has a chance to score big with his address on Thursday night, which will close the convention. But hopes that his convention would be a major success and that the GOP presidential nominee would leave the city with maximum momentum look unlikely to be realized.”
Quote of the Day
“Hillary Clinton can lose Florida, Ohio and Virginia — and I think she’ll win all 3 — and still be president.”
— David Plouffe, quoted by Bloomberg.
Ted Cruz’s Big Gamble
Byron York: “By allowing Ted Cruz to speak without an assured endorsement, Donald Trump took a gamble with his convention. By refusing to endorse the nominee of his party, Cruz took a gamble with his political future.”
“Trump lost his gamble when Cruz’s speech ended with boos and bad feelings as the audience realized Cruz would do no more than urge them to ‘vote your conscience‘ and would not endorse the candidate who soundly defeated him for the Republican nomination.”
“Cruz’s gamble is longer term. No one will know whether he won or lost until a few years from now.”
Politico: “The act of defiance promises to be a defining moment in Cruz’s political career. He antagonized millions of voters who made Trump the nominee — whether the New Yorker wins or loses, the political cost of that move could be very steep indeed.”
Trump Sent Ghostwriter a ‘Cease and Desist’ Letter
Tony Schwartz, the ghost writer of Donald Trump’s book The Art of the Deal, told NBC News that he received a “cease and desist” letter after speaking out against Trump:
Said Schwartz: “Yes, it is true. I got almost immediately that cease and desist letter delivered to me by FedEx. And, you know, it’s nuts and completely indicative of who he is. There is no basis in anything legal.”
He added: “This notion that I didn’t write the book is so preposterous. You know, I am not — I am not certain that Donald Trump read every word, but I’m sure certain that I wrote every word. And he made a few red marks on the manuscript and sent it back to me, and the rest was history. The idea that he would dispute that is part of why I felt I had to come forward. The notion that if he could lie about that he could lie about anything.”
Money Always Adapts to Power
New York Times: “While some of the party’s elite donors have shunned Mr. Trump’s coronation this week, they are still paying for it. Roughly 500 wealthy Republicans poured close to $16 million into the Republican National Committee’s convention account leading up to this week, according to disclosures made to the Federal Election Commission through last Friday. The biggest donors, giving more than $100,000 each, are also a veritable roll call of the stop-Trump movement, among them the billionaire investor Paul E. Singer and Marlene Ricketts, who bankrolled early efforts to deny Mr. Trump the nomination.”
Trump Plays Down U.S. Role In World Crises
Donald Trump told the New York Times that he would not pressure Turkey about conducting huge purges of its military or cracking down on civil liberties.
Said Trump: “I don’t think we have a right to lecture. Look at what is happening in our country. How are we going to lecture when people are shooting policemen in cold blood?”
