Republicans leave convention facing challenge of expanding base
Contingent of the party still hasn't completely unified around its presidential candidate
Conventions weren't meant for television, says Joe Scarborough, theformer Florida Republican congressman and currentMSNBC host, because they're usually boring, calculatedand bloodless.
But the 2016 Republican National Convention at Cleveland's Quicken Loans Arena that handed thethe party's presidential nomination to Donald Trump?Now that was an event made for the small screen.
"It's incredible. Every night you didn't know what's going to happen," he said.
Beginning with the roll-call rules kerfuffle, followed by the Melania Trump speech flap and culminating with the Texas SenatorTed Cruz non-endorsement controversy it all made for great political drama, particularly for an event that has been so reliably scripted in recent years.
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Those controversies, however,mayhave also fuelled questions about the competency ofDonald Trump's political organization before theparty launches into a national campaign andhow big achallenge it still faces in expanding its base and unifying its members.
"I think progress has been made,I think more progress does need to be made," saidJohnBolton, aformer U.S. ambassador to the UN. "It's been a very contentious nomination process."
More conservative platform
But Republicansalso headinto a campaignhaving passed, by their own admission, the most conservative platform in party's history.
Trump is not boundby its principlesand he played little role in its creation, possibly in an attempt to curry favour withthose within the party still unsure abouthis candidacy and conservative credentials.
Itmay, however,pose challengesin bringingin more supporters from key demographics the Republicansneed in order to win in November.
One of the main purposes of a convention isto serve as an opportunityto unify the party following a competitive andfractious primary season. Thesepast four days revealed there is a contingent of the party that still hasn't completely unified around its candidate and that wounds continue to fester among some of the delegates.
Just days before the convention officially kicked off, those opposed to Trump's candidacy had attempted toamend convention rules in an attempt to thwart Trump'snomination.
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When those efforts failed, delegates attempting to vote on the convention rules on the first daywere interrupted by a rogue group calling for a state by state "roll call" vote. This, too, could have opened the possibility however slim of denying Trump the nomination.
Anti-Trump delegates became raucous and started chanting, "Call the roll!" Others drowned them out with chants of "USA!" In the end, there was no roll call.
Conflict not going away
"The conflict between the grassroots of the party and the RNC is not going to go away," said Jim Carson, a delegate from Minnesota.
But Bolton said he believed those still skeptical of Trumpwillunite with the party when theyfocus on the alternative.
Thatalternative is Hillary Clinton, and the convention may have given the public a hintof how the Republicans will lead the fight against the Democratic presumptive nominee in the coming months.
On Monday,former New York mayorRudyGiuliannidelivered a stinging rebuke of Clinton, almost blaming her for the deaths offour Americans in the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi.
The next night,New Jersey Gov.Chris Christie, a former prosecutor, followedwith his own indictment of Clinton.
Heconducteda mock trialthat ruled she was guilty of poor judgement andincompetencein foreign affairsand a liar in connection with theemailscandal. It may have played well to the crowd, who repeatedly chanted"lock her up,"but the angry tone may have been too off-putting to some.
However, the headlines, for a couple days at least, were dominated by the Melania Trump flap, in which lines from a Michelle Obama Democratic speech in 2008 found their way into hers.While it may not be the greatest political scandal ever, it was an unwanted distraction for the campaign and put the Republicans off-message.
Cruz fails to endorse Trump
Yet it was Cruz and his speech thatstole theshow, as it were, by his failureto endorse Trump.
His silence turnedacrowd that was initially welcoming into ahostile one and he wasbooed off the stage. What lasting effect that has is unclear.But it overshadowed the speech by Trump's pick for vice-president, Indiana Gov.Mike Pence, who was making his national debut.
Bolton, however, stressed that the lastimpression people generally have of a conventionis the candidate's acceptance speech. And Trump's address,one of the longest in recent history, coming in at more than an hour,showed a candidate moredisciplined than he often is
Known to go off on rambling tangents, Trump stuck to the script. But while it may have appealed to the base, the reviews that it offered a dark vision of America could be off-putting to a swath of voters. And for electoral success, the party needs to be able to grow its base.
"Trumpwinsif he brings in more Hispanics than he has right now,"Scarboroughsaid. "Trump wins if he does better with suburban moms."
A political post-mortem following the loss of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney to Barack Obama in 2012recommended a better outreach to non-white voters and women.
The autopsy of the party revealed that political victory dependedupon Republicans' ability tocourt more of those voters.
Yet the candidate the Republicans have chosen seems to have ignored that reportandhas made a series of controversial remarks that have offended those very groups.
Ivanka to the rescue?
That may have been why it was left to his daughter Ivanka to helpdefend her father in that regard and reach out to women.
In her speechThursday night, she promised affordable daycare and attempted to alterthe narrative that her father is hostile to women.
She said that he has made wage equality apractice in his businessandthat there are more women executives in his companies than males.
Republican strategistKaitiePacker saidthe party still faces a daunting task in expanding its membership.
"Show me the suburban women that we are going to pick up. Show me the Hispanic voters," she said. "This isn't currently a party that people beyond our base want to join.
"We've rejected virtually every recommendations that came out of that autopsy."
With files from Sylvia Thomson, The Associated Press
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