“Nomination speeches at normal conventions are easy. Joe Biden even showed last week that nomination speeches given remotely during a pandemic aren’t that hard. Donald Trump flubbed his. To be clear: I doubt it will make any difference at all to the November results. No one remembers these things very long, and even bad reviews, if that’s what Trump gets, will be rapidly forgotten. That said, Trump is behind in the polls, and this was an opportunity to reach out beyond his strongest supporters. But there was nothing new here; even had it been well-written and well-delivered and well-staged, it was just a laundry list — a very long laundry list — of his usual lines” writes Jonathan Bernstein.

“Put it this way: If there were voters out there who were apt to support Donald Trump for defeating the pandemic with a travel ban back in January, or who were willing to pretend along with him that the VA Choice bill signed into law by Barack Obama was one of Trump’s big accomplishments in office, they were already on board the Trump train. But it was not the best version of that speech. It was one of the worst. Trump still hasn’t mastered the teleprompter, so he looks awkward while using it, delivers the lines in a dull monotone, and frequently botches words. It’s hard to know for sure, but part of his problem appears to be that he doesn’t bother to practice. It often seems as though he’s seeing the text for the first time. That means he swallows applause lines, has difficulties with words, and loses contact with both the live and the video audience.”