TRUMP ACCEPTS THE REPUBLICAN NOMINATION FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

Donald J. Trump accepts the Republican presidential nomination
 Thursday night in Cleveland's Quicken Loans Arena,
photo courtesy of businessinsider.com

I found this video on YouTube today that I think is definitely worth a watch. In this video Louis C.K. is being interviewed by Charlie Rose about his remarks calling Trump "Hitler" as well as insisting that he is dangerous to our political system. I think Louis' very articulate in expressing his perspective so I would suggest checking out that interview, here (7:30-9:42).

In my opinion this convention has epitomized Louis C.K.'s statements: this convention seems unconventional (although this is the first convention I was able to experience personally) and Trump's entrances have been so spectacular and expensive (helicopter landings, maximum transportation security, flights from New York every day). And this speech was no different, as he basked in his chants for minutes as well as beginning some chants before officially speaking; "But here, at our convention, there will be no lies. We will honor the American people with the truth, and nothing else."

Unfortunately for Trump, multiple media organizations analyzed his speech to fact-check and it was far from absent of lies. The New York Times, Fact Check, the Washington Post and PolitiFact among many, many others analyzed many of his statements and promises and found that he either distorted the truth, manipulated statistics or flat out lied.

Although the country may be at a volatile point in it's history, the ominous and grim picture that Donald Trump painted of America should be understood as HIS perspective of the country; a perspective that is, in my opinion, cynically twisted.

As the convention wrapped up, national polls from Real Clear Politics showed Trump holding an average of 41.3% while Hillary Clinton lead with an average of 44%. It is important to remember that historically conventions provide a boost for the hosting party's candidate in polling, so I would be willing to guess that the gap between the two will expand after the DNC next week in Philadelphia.

I'd like to wrap up this day's entry by saying: "wooooow!" to Ted Cruz. I retweeted some of the more interesting stories and perspectives on his decision to not endorse Trump on my Twitter @ChenkusNews but it will be fascinating to see how this decision unfolds for Ted Cruz as he approaches re-election for Senate as well as his speculative bid for president in 2020.

In my opinion I think as ballsy as that speech was for Ted Cruz he genuinely imagined a 'Ronald Reagan in 1980' scenario and Cruz's speech did not connect in that way; for somebody as disliked as Cruz, I think he may have just committed political suicide.

References
Corasaniti, Nick and Michael Shear. (2016) Fact-checking the truth that Trump promised. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/22/us/politics/donald-trump-fact-check.html
Robertson, Lori. (2016) Factchecking Trump's big speech. FactCheck.org. Retrieved from http://www.factcheck.org/2016/07/factchecking-trumps-big-speech/
Kessler, Glenn and Michelle Ye Hee Lee. (2016) Fact-checking Donald Trump's acceptance speech at the 2016 RNC convention. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2016/07/22/fact-checking-donald-trumps-acceptance-speech-at-the-2016-rnc/
Graves, Allison and Neelesh Moorthy. (2016) Fact-checking Donald Trump on the final night of the Republican convention. PolitiFact. Retrieve from http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2016/jul/21/fact-checking-final-night-rncincle/