THE GOP HAD A TRAINWRECK IN CLEVELAND. IS THAT A GOOD THING?, asks Ed Morrissey:
Many have struggled to understand what exactly has voters acting outside of traditional bounds in 2016. One big reason is that voters felt disenfranchised and disengaged from the political process, not because of their own fault but because they believed the parties didn’t engage them at all. Both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders engaged voters in not just non-traditional ways but in messy ways, entertaining ways, and seemed far more authentic than the pre-programmed offerings that traditional politics had produced.
If that’s the case, then it puts the GOP convention in a different light. It was messy, aired dirty laundry, and provided its own fireworks without having a fake Greek colonnade built in a stadium. The convention became a reality show — engaging people in the same manner as a soap opera or The Apprentice might do. The GOP convention became relevant because it became real. And if that’s the case, then the pre-packaged display of what could be called fauxnity that Robinson prescribes might indeed be the worst possible prescription for Democrats.
Read the whole thing.
Speaking of boring, I was surprised that Hillary announced Kaine so late in the day yesterday, apparently as a result of the terrorist attack in Munich. It had the feeling of a typical Obama five o’clock Friday news dump. Is that any way to generate buzz? Or is Hillary so sure she’s got this one in the bag that she doesn’t think she needs it?