The Donald Trump We Could Have Seen in Cleveland
By Bernard Goldberg July 23, 2016
http://bernardgoldberg.com/the-donald-trump-we-could-have-seen-in-cleveland/There’s nothing Donald Trump could do or say that would alienate his biggest fans. Nothing! He could be even more egotistical than he already is and it wouldn’t hurt him, not even a little. He could stretch the truth more than he does and it would have no effect. He could, as he himself once said, shoot someone on Fifth Avenue in New York and he wouldn’t lose any votes.
As for the GOP big shots, the Paul Ryans of the party, they’re not going anywhere either. Once they made the decision to jump on the Trump Express they knew they couldn’t get off until the last stop on November 9.
So here’s what I’m wondering: Why would Donald Trump deliver the speech he did at the GOP convention? The one that even the Wall Street Journal said was “dark.” “The outsider stuck to his dark, populist themes of an America under siege by crime, terrorism, corruption and illegal immigration,” as the Journal put it.
That kind of talk got him where he is today, which is farther than the pundits thought he’d ever get. But now that the “Dark Knight” as the Journal dubbed him, is auditioning to a bigger, more diverse audience, why didn’t he show America another Donald Trump – one who might have a better chance to pick up votes from people currently on the fence? Toning it down wouldn’t have hurt him with his fans – but at the same time it might have widened his appeal beyond his so-called angry mostly white base.
Here are a few snippets of the speech he might have delivered:
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