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RNC Tag

A little levity to kick off your evening -- yesterday, the good folks of Bad Lip Reading released an abbreviated and hilarious rendition of Senator Cruz's controversial RNC speech. If you're not familiar with Bad Lip Reading, they dub over clips of all kinds (not just political) with nonsensical garble.

Welcome to our live coverage of the final night of this year's Republican National Convention! Primetime speeches kick off at 7:10 EST. Watch speakers live and see real time commentary from political media and LI authors. I'll be updating throughout the evening as the situation warrants. Full speeches can be found beneath the Twitter feeds as they're available.

The lineup:

This is now one of my top five favorite moments in convention speeches. Senator Cruz was given a prime time slot in Wednesday's Republican National Convention lineup. Cruz didn't encourage convention goers and watchers to vote Trump, rather to vote their conscience. When delegates realized he wasn't going to explicitly endorse Donald Trump, they began booing and jeering. Then, Donald Trump made an entrance before Cruz had finished his speech. That moment in all its glorious awkwardness:

Welcome to our live coverage of the third night of this year's Republican National Convention! Primetime speeches kick off at 7:30 EST. Watch speakers live and see real time commentary from political media and LI authors. I'll be updating throughout the evening as the situation warrants. Full speeches can be found beneath the Twitter feeds as they're available.

The lineup:

With all the money, all the resources, and all the graphic design talent at their disposal, the Trump campaign, in conjunction with the RNC's joint fundraising committee, decided to roll with TP2016. T.P. Which, given how the 2016 cycle has gone, I suppose is par for the course. Shortly after Trump tweeted confirmation he'd selected Indiana's Governor Pence as his running mate, the new logo graced a fundraising email and was slapped across the internet for all to see (and mock). The logo is rather...suggestive. At least to many a politico and casual observer.

John Heilemann, co-host of Bloomberg TV's With All Due Respect, surely leans left, but is generally a savvy political analyst in my book. But Heilemann went haywire with his prediction today. He suggested that violence in the streets of Cleveland would hurt Donald Trump's chances of being elected president. Really? If there are, as Heilemann said,"images of chaos and disorder" in the streets, wouldn't Americans tend to turn to Trump, who has cast himself as "the law and order candidate?" And violent anti-Trump protesters, whether or not they expressly say so, would be in essence urging people to support Hillary, not Trump. Are Americans likely to reward Hillary for the violent actions of her, at the very least, tacit supporters? Just as Trump's numbers went up when unruly protests shut down his rally in Chicago during the primaries, violence at the RNC would likely benefit Trump, in this Insurrectionist's opinion.

Following the horrific violence and murder of police officers in Dallas this week, conservative talk host Rush Limbaugh made a disturbingly plausible prediction on his show. Rush suggested that Dallas might just be the beginning of something and that the next targets could be the Republican National Convention and the Democratic Convention after that. The Washington Free Beacon reported:
After Dallas, Rush Limbaugh Predicts Republican and Democratic Conventions Will Be Attacked Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh predicted Friday that both the Republican and Democratic National Conventions later this month will be the next targets of an attack after the police killings Thursday night in Dallas.

I fully appreciate that support for Trump has become a cult of personality. Nothing can sway those who refuse to see that Trump is conning them. He doesn't respect you. He doesn't like you. He is manipulating you to get what he wants. It's all a show. And his new convention manager (and de facto campaign manager) Paul Manafort just admitted to the con in a closed door meeting with the RNC. The Associated Press obtained a recording, and reports, Trump team tells GOP he has been 'projecting an image' (emphasis added):
Trump's newly hired senior aide, Paul Manafort, made the case to Republican National Committee members that Trump has two personalities: one in private and one onstage. "When he's out on the stage, when he's talking about the kinds of things he's talking about on the stump, he's projecting an image that's for that purpose," Manafort said in a private briefing. "You'll start to see more depth of the person, the real person. You'll see a real different guy," he said.

As I was reading through my newsfeeds, I kept seeing this story about "black staffers" leaving the RNC in droves.  It sounded ominous, like everything the mainstream media and progressive left have been saying was playing out in a mass exodus of black Republicans from the party. Here are some of the headlines: from NBCNews:

Yet Another Top African American Staffer Departs RNC

from the Sun Times:

RNC Losing Top Black Staffer

from Huffington Post:

Top Black Staffers Leave The Republican National Committee

However, once you follow the link and read the stories, these black staffers are simply moving on to new and greener pastures, often within the GOP or in more lucrative media roles.  For example, the subject of the stories above is  Kristal Quarker-Hartsfield, the national director of African-American Initiatives at the RNC, and she "is leaving the organization to work for Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) as his director of intergovernmental affairs."

RNC Chairman Reince Priebus joined Fox News Thursday night to discuss the state of the GOP presidential race. Though Trump is the only candidate to outright denounce the GOP loyalty pledge publicly, both Cruz and Kasich have danced around the issue, alluding to their waning support for the eventual Republican presidential nominee. When asked about candidates walking back their support for the soon to be determined nominee, Priebus repeatedly claimed candidate threats were nothing more than disingenuous "posturing." He went on to suggest that candidates are obliged to support the nominee because of the assistance they've received from the RNC throughout their campaigns.

Marco Rubio may have suspended his presidential campaign but he's still having an impact on the Republican primary process. He wants to hold onto his delegates for a contested convention and as usual, it's all about Trump. NBC News reports:
Rubio Makes Unprecedented Bid to Keep Delegates for Contested Convention Despite suspending his campaign, Sen. Marco Rubio is attempting to keep every delegate he won while running for president. The unusual move reflects preparations for a contested convention this summer — and comes as Donald Trump backed away from an earlier pledge to support the Republican party's nominee if he is treated unfairly after winning more delegates than his rivals.

Of course, it's mathematically possible that Donald Trump will obtain a majority of delegates through the primary and caucus process, in which case all the talk about an open or contested convention is moot. But the math is at least as likely to have Trump fall short, with only a plurality. And a plurality doesn't entitle Trump to anything other than a floor fight -- or cutting a deal with someone who has enough delegates to put him over the top. The RNC appears to be getting ready for an open convention (what I call a contested convention). Reince Preibus dispelled the notion that there would be something improper with new rules being adopted: https://www.youtube.com/embed/X0VXMYZ-G6k

I've been trying to design a good primary system. Or at least a better one. The more I think about it, though, the harder creating a good design seems to be. The Founders didn't offer much guidance, because they didn't envision the party system in its present form, and the nomination process slowly evolved to what it is today. These would be my suggestions for changes in the Republican primaries: (1) Only Republicans vote. A voter's party has to be declared some fixed amount of time before the primary in each state. Each state can set the amount of time, but there would be a minimum amount of time they could not shorten. I'm open to suggestions on what that amount of time would be.

Joining Chris Matthews' Hardball on MSNBC Monday night, Republican strategist Liz Mair sparred with columnist and purveyor of outrage, Ann Coulter, over Donald Trump's candidacy. Coulter, Mitt Romney fan girl and Chris Christie acolyte has been a champion of Trump's candidacy since he announced. Mair, who runs the PAC Trump Card LLC, the "guerrilla effort" to thwart Donald Trump's candidacy, is leading the charge to "Make America Awesome (America is Already Great!)." The result? A smackdown you won't want to miss:

Tone deaf? How does it work? This. This is how it works. Monday, the RNC sent a round of fundraising emails addressed from failed Presidential Candidate, Senator McCain. Screen Shot 2015-11-02 at 1.50.04 PM

Early Friday afternoon, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus sent a nastygram to NBC News, suspending the Republican Party's partnership with the network. After the third Republican presidential debate, which was hosted by CNBC, Priebus said he was "ashamed" of how the network handled the event.

The RNC is starting to treat conservatives the way the Chicago Cubs treats its fans. Long-suffering Cubs fans are sometimes referred to as the most loyal fans in baseball. Without a World Series win since 1908, and around 83% attendance rate, we are the "lovable losers"...

Today the RNC released a t.v. ad hitting Obama on his denials that Obamacare is a tax: Hot Air writes: This is probably the best attack that Republicans and Mitt Romney can muster from yesterday’s defeat — and it’s likely to be effective.  Whatever boost Obama gets...