Republican National Convention starts tonight, here's the agenda

Monday, August 24
Theme:  "Land of Promise"

Speakers

• A maximum of 336 delegates will meet in the morning from 9am to 1pm (13:00 - 17:00 GMT) before conducting a nighttime roll call in which Trump and Pence will officially be nominated.
• Senator Tim Scott
• House Republican Whip Steve Scalise
• Representative Matt Gaetz
• Representative Jim Jordan
• Former Ambassador to United Nations Nikki Haley
• Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel
• Georgia State Representative Vernon Jones
• Amy Johnson Ford
• Kimberly Guilfoyle
• Natalie Harp
• Charlie Kirk
• Kim Klacik
• Mark and Patricia McCloskey, St Louis couple who defended their property against threatening Black Lives Matter members
• Congressional candidate Sean Parnell
• Andrew Pollack, whose daughter Meadow was killed in the 2018 Parkland, Florida, school shooting
• Donald Trump Jr
• Tanya Weinreis, Montana coffee shop owner whose business and employee's livelihoods were saved by the federal virus relief Paycheck Protection Program

Tuesday, August 25
Theme:  "Land of Opportunity"

Speakers

• First Lady Melania Trump
• Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
• Senator Rand Paul
• Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds
• Florida Lieutenant Governor Jeanette Nunez
• Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron
• Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi
• Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood employee, now an anti-abortion activist.
• Jason Joyce
• Myron Lizer
• Mary Ann Mendoza
• Megan Pauley
• Cris Peterson
• John Peterson
• Nicholas Sandmann, Kentucky Catholic high school student who successfully sued a media organisation for not providing the true context to a confrontation with a Native American at Right to Life march that went viral
• Eric Trump
• Tiffany Trump

Wednesday, August 26
Theme:  "Land of Heroes"

Speakers

• Vice President Mike Pence
• Second Lady Karen Pence
• Senator Marsha Blackburn
• Senator Joni Ernst
• South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem
• Representative Dan Crenshaw
• Representative Elise Stefanik
• Representative Lee Zeldin
• Former Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell
• White counselor Kellyanne Conway
• Vice Presidential National Security Advisor Keith Kellogg
• Jack Brewer
• Sister Dede Byrne
• Madison Cawthorn
• Scott Dane
• Clarence Henderson
• Ryan Holets
• Michael McHale
• Congressional candidate Burgess Owens
• Lara Trump

Thursday, August 27, 2020
Theme:  "Land of Greatness"

Speakers

• President Donald Trump
• Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson
• Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell
• Senator Tom Cotton
• House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy
• Representative Jeff Van Drew
• Ivanka Trump
• White House Deputy Assistant Ja'Ron Smith
• Police Sergeant Ann Dorn, widow of retired police captain David Dorn who was killed during violent protests in St Louis in June
• Debbie Flood
• Former mayor of NYC Rudy Giuliani
• Franklin Graham
• Alice Johnson, a woman whose prison sentence was commuted by Trump
• Wade Mayfield
• Carl and Marsha Mueller, parents of Kayla Mueller, a humanitarian worker killed by ISIS
• Dana White, president of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)

Boycott CNN

CNN talking heads are talking incessantly about the Melania Trump speech that had a few lines that were a bit too reminiscent of a Michelle Obama convention speech. Yes, it's fair game.  But, I've heard in the last 5 minutes that if they'd apologized that everyone would have moved on (yeah right), that the campaign focus was on denial and doubling down on the fight and that is harmful to the campaign.  Of course Hillary doubling down on nothing to see around the email server scandal is within her prerogative. 

CNN also last night was quick to cut away from a number of the videos and speakers at seemingly opportune moments yesterday to nominally discuss important developments.  The news is the convention - speaker involvement should be minimal.  PBS did the same thing but at different points so following along across different stations was mostly possible.

In any case, tonight CNN will likely do no better and has been unimpressive so far during the GOP convention.  CNN talking heads to be fair, did mention a couple of times that Obama himself lifted a lot more of a Deval Patrick speech, and Joe Biden has had plagiarism issues. While I'm not at the boycott CNN stage quite yet, I'm close.

UPDATE: I accidentally forgot to post this on Tuesday but since then CNN has this morning put into high rotation clips of Trump and Cruz exchanging insults.  I get that the Cruz speech which was a non-endorsement of Trump, and that is news.  But CNN is going out of it's way to avoid the speeches by Gingrich and Pence and rather seek out cracks and divisive discussions.  It will be interesting too see if they do the same by seeking out disaffected Sanders supporters during the Democrat convention.

I expect that they will but in such a way as to find reconciled disagreements in an effort to contrast GOP division with Democratic unity.  I think CNN sees this as the issue that will help Hillary Clinton win.  Wait and see.

Republican? Must be racist.

The Democrats would have you believe anyone in the Republican party, anyone questioning the president, must be a racist - even this message of hope from the GOP convention opening day yesterday by Mayor Mia Love of Saratoga Springs, Utah.

Great speech, inspiring story. Yeah, must be racist.

GOP Convention Day 1 (or 1b)

I'm atypical.  For me the Republican convention is an event, like the SuperBowl.  I love politics - at least as a spectator and sideline commentator.   But to be honest, I'd love to be in the fray.  But as I said, I'm atypical. The level of interest I have is not representative of the average American voter.  They will vote (or not) this year, having not seen Kelly Ayotte's speech.  Wait who?  Ayotte's speech was not especially remarkable, but it wasn't bad.  The point though, is to look for the contrast with the coverage with the coverage of the Obama convention in 2008 or what it will be for 2012.  

As I'm writing this, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell is currently speaking.  The GOP convention so far has not been all that exciting.  In fact, it's been downright low key.  The energy level in Tampa Bay has been muted.  And for that reason, the low level of media coverage has not hurt.  The convention has been overshadowed by Hurricane Isaac.  It started a day late, and the opening has been truly underwhelming.  Sure, this is not the prime time portion of the line-up, and the high profile speakers like Chris Christie and Scott Walker have yet to speak.

Right now, I'm at the benefit-of-the-doubt stage.  I'm sure things will pick up.  They sure better, because so far I have one word - bland.  Bland will not start the momentum.  Coming out of this convention the GOP and Mitt Romney need momentum and a gripping narrative to move the needle on voters. That won't happen if the convention stays this bland.