DID HILLARY DO WHAT SHE NEEDED TO IN HER SPEECH?

Khizr Khan captured the hearts of listeners as well as the
spotlight out of other speakers at the DNC,
photo courtesy of Slate.com

Although the Democrats had an overall better convention (in my opinion, as well as others) the night of Hillary Clinton's speech was a different story. According to Nielsen data, the Democratic convention had more viewers during the entirety of the week with the exception of Thursday when Clinton spoke this week and Donald Trump spoke week.

According to NJ.com, there were multiple 'political pros' that they interviewed about Clinton's speech; all of the political experts featured in the article shared similar conclusions such as this was Clinton's best speech probably ever. Although she didn't "wow!" anybody like Barack Obama or Michelle Obama can with their speech abilities, she did humanize herself and rebuild a sense of trustworthiness and (probably most importantly) she strategically attacked Trump and did well at luring undecided voters as well as 'Never-Trump' Republicans - these are the voters she will need for a decisive victory in November.

Furthermore, the Washington Post conducted a fact-check of Clinton's acceptance speech: there were very few statements featured in the article, especially compared to Trump's acceptance speech last week. In most cases in the article she had simply cherry-picked data or looked at data out of context.

Something probably few expected is that the most-talked about speaker in the media so far was Khizr Khan, the father of an American Muslim Army captain that was killed in Iraq in 2006. Khan asked some serious questions to Donald Trump during his speech such as: "Let me ask you, have you even read the Constitution," eventually heightening his 'interrogation' asking, "Have you ever been to Arlington Cemetery? To look at the graves of brave patriots who died defending the United States of America?...You have sacrificed nothing!"

Of course no inspirational and truly thought-provoking speech is complete in America nowadays without an incredibly offensive statement to be broadcasted in response as Ann Coulter took to Twitter tweeting: "You know what this convention really needed? An angry Muslim with a thick accent like Fareed Zacaria."

If you want to get that bad taste out of your mouth just from reading that then check out this video of Jon Stewart taking over Colbert's late show this past week to do what he's always done best: blast Fox News and hateful Republicans.

And for fans of Stephen Colbert, although his late show has not been doing as well as many may have hoped, the RNC and DNC have offered Colbert's show new life with Jon Stewart's segment as well as an appearance from Elizabeth Warren whom many deem as the person to most easily incite Trump. As a long-time fan of Colbert I hope he can continue to breathe a little bit of his 'Comedy Central Colbert persona' into his more serious late show as I feel, and the views seem to evidence, he is much more effective when he does put his traditional comedic twist onto serious issues.

I think Matt Wilstein at The Daily Beast summed it up just as well as I could: "More than the ignorant, America-obsessed conservative pundit, this was the Stephen Colbert that we truly missed. The man who is willing to take big swings in the name of comedy and refuses to toe the line for the sake of being liked."

Although the RNC and DNC have officially wrapped up and coverage of both will begin to wane from the headlines I will be posting a final edition of my media analysis comparing the coverage of the police and security threats in Cleveland during the 2016 RNC with the coverage of the police and security threats in Chicago in 1968, as well as (most likely) the same coverage surrounding the 2000 RNC in Philadelphia.

References

Brodesser-Akner, Claude. (2016) What political pros thought of Clinton's historic DNC 2016 speech. NJ.com. Retrieved from http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/07/what_the_pros_thought_of_clintons_historic_dnc_spe.html.

Frostenson, Sarah. (2016) Hillary Clinton's convention had higher ratings than Trump's - except for the one night it mattered most. Vox. Retrieved from http://www.vox.com/2016/7/29/12324800/trump-big-ratings-convention-speech-beat-hillary-clinton/in/11938179.

Kessler, Glenn and Michelle Ye Hee Lee. (2016) Fact-checking Hillary Clinton's acceptance speech at the 2016 DNC. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2016/07/29/fact-checking-hillary-clintons-acceptance-speech-at-the-2016-dnc/.

Nelson, Libby. (2016) The DNC's most powerful anti-Trump message came from the father of a fallen Muslim soldier. Vox. Retrieved from http://www.vox.com/2016/7/28/12319658/democratic-convention-khizr-khan.

Wilstein, Matt. (2016) How Stephen Colbert got his groove back at RNC and DNC 2016. The Daily Beast. Retrieved from http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/07/29/how-stephen-colbert-got-his-groove-back-at-rnc-and-dnc-2016.html.

THE 2016 PARTY CONVENTIONS COME TO AN END AFTER A LONG TWO WEEKS

Clinton is joined by her running mate Tim Kaine on stage
as the balloons drop on the Democratic convention,
photo courtesy of NBCPhiladelphia.com

The Democratic National Convention came to a close last night as Hillary Clinton made history when she became the first woman presidential nominee for a major political party in the United States.

The week began with multiple variables working against the Democratic Party; the first being the heat wave that hit Philadelphia which many feared would cause tension and hostility among protesters and police to increase, especially after the riots during the 2000 RNC in Philadelphia. Additionally, Team Hillary and the Democrats were still confronting the aggressive campaign the Republicans had employed against Hillary and the Democrats last week including the sound bite: "Lock her [Hillary] up!"

Aside from outside forces, the Democratic Party had to deal with the DWS email scandal that pissed a lot of Sander's supporters off and gave Republicans more ammunition to shoot off about the lack of trustworthiness in the Democratic Party.

Despite of all of these obstacles Team Hillary and the Democratic Party pulled off a very positive convention for the image of the party and Clinton herself. Ron Elving of NPR observed that, "In fact, much of the program on stage this week in Philly was clearly meant to appeal to disaffected Republicans left feeling a chill last week in Cleveland. A basic element of this appeal was the robust embrace of traditional patriotism, its rhetoric and symbols."

Examples of this tactic were evident with speakers like retired Marine Gen. John Allen, longtime Republican operative Rick Galen tweeting that the Democrat's convention looked more like his traditional party than anything he saw in Cleveland last week, longtime GOP strategist Stuart Stevens tweeting that the Democrat's convention looked more like the 2004 RNC (the last time the Republicans won the presidency) than the RNC held in Cleveland last week, in addition to many other Republicans that shared similar sentiments.

Despite the success of the DNC, Politico reported that according to Nielsen data the final night of the DNC drew in 28 million viewers, while the final night of the RNC last week received 30 million viewers - people seem to feel the need to watch Donald Trump live.

However it was not only the speech itself that journalists were paying attention to last night: the New York Times reported the significance of the clothing choices that Hillary made last night. As Vanessa Friedman puts it, "In her white suit, with her white crew neck underneath, Mrs. Clinton looked extremely unflappable: perfectly tailored and in control. Not a hair out of place (but some hair nicely waived). The kind of person who could carry the nuclear codes with aplomb."

This quote truly does sum up the aesthetic statement that Clinton intended on making - the white suit representing the official color of the National Women's Party and the suffragist movement amplified her message of a strong woman leader. Fun fact: Clinton is not the first female candidate running for a high-position office to utilize the 'white suit statement'; Geraldine Ferraro sported a similar outfit during the 1984 Democratic convention when she accepted her nomination for vice president.

The Washington Post published an article analyzing the winners and losers of the last night of the convention. Winners included Khizer Khan, the father of an Army captain who was killed in Iraq in 2004, Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton (although I'm not sure I agree, I did not feel the sincerity in her statements humanizing her mother), and Emanuel Cleaver, the passionate Missouri congressman that preached Mrs. Clinton "wouldn't stay throwed!"

Overall I think the Democrats leaving Philadelphia today will be very happy with the way the convention turned out: Hillary finished the convention with a strong moment, Bernie supporters did not cause a major problem, and there were very few mistakes made throughout the week that would have taken focus away from the convention itself.

References
Cillizza, Chris. (2016) Winners and losers from the final night of the Democratic convention. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/07/28/winners-and-losers-from-the-final-night-of-the-democratic-convention/.
Elving, Ron. (2016) Hillary Clinton and the DNC: a crisis not merely survived, but transcended. National Public Radio. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/2016/07/29/487889370/clinton-makes-history-clearing-multiple-hurdles-at-philly-convention.
Friedman, Vanessa. (2016) Hillary Clinton makes history, and wears it, too. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/30/fashion/hillary-clinton-democratic-national-convention.html.
Weprin, Alex. (2016) TV ratings: 28 million watch final night of DNC. Politico. Retrieved from http://www.politico.com/blogs/on-media/2016/07/tv-ratings-dnc-hillary-clinton-226441.

MELANIA SCANDAL EPITOMIZES THE PROBLEMS WITH TRUMP CAMPAIGN

Melania Trump was accused of plagiarizing parts of her
convention speech from Michelle Obama's 2008 speech
at the Democratic national convention,
photo courtesy of CNN.com

Of the many questions asked last week after Melania Trump gave a speech that included plagiarized portions of a speech Michelle Obama gave in 2008, the most fundamental was: why did this "scandal" last for as long as it did? Is it new for politicians or public speakers to draw inspiration, or reiterate sections of somebody else's words? Absolutely not; so what made this small mistake so prominent?

Well, the main reason is that the Trump campaign did NOTHING to try and rectify the situation, nor did anybody other than a background 'ghost-writer' come forward to take responsibility for the speech despite the fact that Melania had insisted days earlier that she had written the entire speech herself.

One might ask, why was Melania Trump writing her own speech for such a momentous event in the campaign? Melania originally did have a speech written for her by Matthew Scully and John McConnell, two proficient speechwriters that have written signature political speeches such as George W. Bush's speech to the nation on Sept. 11, 2001.

Instead the Trump campaign decided to take it upon themselves to write a speech that, rather than disappearing from news hours after it's completion, lingered in the media for days - perfectly embodying the Trump campaign's eagerness to decide and act based on instinct rather than sound, professional campaign advice from competent agents like Scully and McConnell. At an even more fundamental level, the decision to not use a plagiarism-detection software reveals the lack of competence and understanding of the political system.

Not only that, but the decision to go on the defensive rather than 'saving tail' further lingered this scandal from blowing over. While Trump's campaign team relentlessly defended the seemingly small amount of plagiarized words, compared to Obama's similar scandal in 2008 reveals how addressing the situation directly and not dodging responsibility allow for the perpetrator to save their image and quiet the controversy.

Rather than denying that the lifted words were significant or his intentions were wrong, Obama in 2008 owned up to the fact that Deval Patrick was a major influence on his beliefs at that time and that he was an inspired by Patrick, but that he should have made sure to give Patrick credit.

Even the DWS email scandal this week passed over relatively quickly with Donald Trump himself trying to keep it in headlines.

Sorry Donald, but when public relations is handled properly and professionally the blowback is very minimal; however, when an egotistic Washington "outsider" attempts to handle public relations without the proper team a small, nothing of a story turns into a media spectacle that both takes away from the focus Republicans wanted spotlighted with this convention as well as epitomizes the Trump campaign's unwillingness to consult and advise with informed and qualified political insiders.

References
Barbaro, Michael & Maggie Haberman. (2016) How Melania Trump's speech veered off course and caused uproar. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/20/us/politics/melania-trump-convention-speech.html.
Martin, Jonathon & Alan Rappeport. (2016) Debbie Wasserman Schultz to resign D.N.C. post. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/19/us/politics/19campaign.html.
Zeleny, Jeff. (2016) Clinton camp says Obama plagiarized in speech. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/25/us/politics/debbie-wasserman-schultz-dnc-wikileaks-emails.html.

WHY CLEVELAND FOR THE 2016 RNC?

Thousands of "Welcome" banners were displayed throughout
the city of Cleveland; this particular banner waved at
the entrance of Quicken Loans Arena (the convention arena),
photo courtesy of clevescene.com

Yesterday we learned a ton of background insight into why, and how, Cleveland was picked for the 2016 Republican National Convention. Our guest speaker Diane Downing, a Huntington bank executive and Chief Operating Officer for the Cleveland 2016 Host Committee, described the process that began back in 2012 that brought the national spotlight to Cleveland this year.

Something some Cleveland'ers might not realize is that Cleveland had actually put a bid on the 2012 RNC that ultimately took place in Tampa Bay, Florida. (The rest of this article will not be my opinion or thoughts but rather based on Dianne's lecture and experiences:) The main reason that Cleveland did not get the 2012 bid for the convention is that the city simply did not have the facilities or hotels to handle the needs of the convention; about 50,000 visitors (including 15,000 members of the media) come to a city during a convention so multiple improvements and expansions allowed for Cleveland to be on track for a 2016 bid.

For the 2016 conventions the city of Cleveland actually placed bids on both the RNC and the DNC, ultimately withdrawing the DNC bid after becoming a finalist city for the RNC. According to Downing Chris Connor and John Penny, among others, traveled through a snowstorm that most other prospective city representatives did not and really finalized Cleveland as the decided host city.

Before the decision was finalized RNC location selection members came to check out Cleveland twice to plan further expansion and after Cleveland was officially named the host city of the 2016 RNC (before LeBron decided to return to Cleveland I might add).

After Cleveland was officially chosen the city agreed to some stipulations that the RNC expects of the host city: the city pays $64 million, hotel rooms are provided for visitors, venues are provided for events, providing a main venue for the convention itself as well as the members of the press, as well as finding and scheduling about 8,000 volunteers - although only about 3,500 volunteers ended up working the RNC, with the volunteers taking on multiple shifts.

According to Downing, Cleveland relished at the opportunity to showcase the city, as well as Northeast Ohio, as more than just a 'Rust Belt' city and area; what better way to put not only the national, but international spotlight, on our city.

While there were concerns over security and safety with the volatile tensions between police and citizens as well as the divisive rhetoric and tone that accompanies Trump and his campaign, the police were not only readily trained in basic police tactics but also very attune to community policing allowing for unhindered free speech without triggering violence. Furthermore, the federal government felt there was a perceived national security threat, and supplied $50 million in gear and resources for police throughout the week.

Thanks to the incredible work of the police officers and the people that planned and organized the convention the peaceful week featured only 23 arrests throughout the entire week, while at the DNC in Philadelphia there were 50 arrests on the first day.

Economically, many in the Cleveland area expected a boost in the local economy similar to the $200 million bump Tampa received in 2012 - leading many to unrealistic expectations. Cleveland did not seem to get that same economic boost this year, according to Cleveland.com.

While, according to Downing, Cleveland's host committee did indeed raise the most money in Republican convention history, the city did not receive the traditional $20 million aid from the Republican Party to help fund the convention; not only that, but Downing hinted that there were some usual sponsors that did not participate in this year's Republican convention but most likely would be sponsoring the Democratic convention.

So Cleveland: I know that the convention may not have been everything we might have expected economically short-term, but the long-term effects of this convention will be that Cleveland has improved it's national and international image, fueling Cleveland's rising economy and culture.

DEMOCRATS FACE ANOTHER EMAIL SCANDAL

Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigned in the wake of
the email hack on DNC party insiders,
photo courtesy of the guardian.com

Well...if the Democrats hoped for a scandal-less convention that dream ended very early into the week: a hack of emails exchanged between Democratic National Committee members suggested that there was an attempt to try and undermine Bernie Sanders as a legitimate candidate, going as far as plans to attack his personal beliefs.

Bernie Sanders being the true team-player that he has been during this campaign attempted to address some of his most loyal supporters but had a reverse anti-Cruz moment in which he was boo'ed for trying to endorse and support the candidate that defeated him in the primaries: Hillary Clinton.

Despite this division between Sanders' supporters and Clinton, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the former chair of the DNC that resigned due to her involvement in the email scandal, was "picked up" by Clinton's campaign team - a move that I can only imagine will only further agitate angry Sanders' supporters.

Unfortunately for the Democratic Party this scandal was unraveling as polling data came in revealing that Donald Trump is leading in the national average poll. It's becoming an even more (scarily) realistic possibility that Trump may defeat Clinton in November; the main reasoning I have for this thinking is that it seems as though absolutely nothing can hurt Trump's image at this point.

After former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes resigned following a sexual harassment scandal Donald Trump defended him and his reputation, going as far to say that he would "think about" having Ailes join his campaign team.

WOW has it been a busy week and a half, with still another pivotal half of the convention left for the Democratic Party.

References
Kopan, Tal. (2016) The DNC email scandal explained. CNN. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/25/politics/dnc-email-scandal-explained/.
Los Angeles Times staff. (2016) Watch Bernie Sanders tells supporters from boos: 'We have got to elect Hillary Clinton'. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/trailguide/la-na-democratic-convention-2016-live-watch-live-as-bernie-sanders-addresses-1469467745-htmlstory.html.
Media Matters staff. (2016) Washington Post reports 25 women have come forward to accuse former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes to work on campaign. Media Matters. Retrieved from http://mediamatters.org/blog/2016/07/22/washington-post-reports-25-women-have-come-forward-accuse-former-fox-ceo-ailes-harassment/211847.
Media Matters staff. (2016) Trump says he "would thnik about" hiring disgraced former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes to work on campaign. Media Matters. Retrieved from https://mediamatters.org/blog/2016/07/26/trump-says-he-would-think-about-hiring-disgraced-former-fox-news-ceo-roger-ailes-work-campaign/211915.
Morton, Victor. (2016) Debbie Wasserman Schultz immediately joins Clinton campaign after resignation. Washington Times. Retrieved from http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/jul/24/debbie-wasserman-schultz-immediately-joins-hillary/.

(Trump's polling trends, real clear politics - Melania's speech)

CLEVELAND IMPRESSED THE NATION THIS WEEK

The beautiful city of Cleveland,
photo courtesy of flickr.com

What a great week for the national image and perspective of Cleveland! The city made an absolutely fantastic impression on the people that came from out of town.

Although there were many benefits to the convention being hosted in Cleveland, there were also downsides; according to John Petkovic at the Plain Dealer, many of the bars and restaurants further away from East 4th Street (one of the most active areas in Cleveland) had little to no business despite the projections for increased crowds. In some circumstances businesses actually did worse this week in business than during any other week of the year.

The most impressive aspect of the city hosting the convention was the huge variety of police and security officers from all around the country coming together to make the RNC run as smoothly and safely as possible. With tensions between the public and the police at a very volatile point I think the police handled situations very controlled and professionally. I retweeted a lot of videos from downtown throughout the week featuring positive encounters between police and the public @ChenkusNews.

One of the craziest events I got to see from a unique perspective was when Donald Trump arrived for the first time in Cleveland: my father works in the fourth tallest building in Cleveland and his boss captured a video of Trump's plane arriving at the private landing strip along Lake Erie.

What made Trump's entrance so, well, Trump? Along the entire coast line there were coast guard boats lining the entire view while no other boats could be found out on the water; after getting off the plane Trump's transportation team [of what looked like somewhere around fifteen cars] led Trump through a route that had police lined along the entire street route. My father said the only time he's ever seen that level of security control for an individual was when Barack Obama flew in while as president - so what would Trump's entrance look like if HE were president during his next trip??

References
Petkovic, John. (2016) RNC 2016: Downtown bar scene is a ghost town. Cleveland.com. Retrieved from http://www.cleveland.com/rnc-2016/index.ssf/2016/07/rnc_2016_downtown_bar_scene_is.html.

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/