I was in a board meeting last night so I was unable to watch Donald Trump’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention live. I read the transcript before I had a chance to watch. It was long, 75 minutes long, waaaaay too long. The average acceptance speech length since 1972 has been 48 minutes and 15 seconds. It was even longer than Bill Clinton’s infamously long speech in 1996.
I didn’t think that was possible.
Per CSPAN, longest acceptance speech since 1972 was Bill (natch) in '96 at 64:44.
Trump has now surpassed that. pic.twitter.com/kcxu0YCeJB
— Carrie Dann (@CarrieNBCNews) July 22, 2016
I have to say that I was far more impressed with the text of speech than I was his delivery. You can write the best speech in the world and it will sound brash with Donald Trump reading it. He has one tone – anger.
Then again, that tone matches the electorate as anger is one of the primary characteristics of those who back Trump. His speech was red meat for supporters of Donald Trump. His focus on law and order, immigration, and national security are all concerns of not only the Trump electorate, but Republicans at large.
He was excellent at pointing out problems.
I watched the speech and reread the transcript for a glimmer of what we typically see in an acceptance speech. Granted, there is nothing typical about Donald Trump.
He was also strong on attacking Hillary Clinton, but there was a glaring omission.
His speech lacked an agenda, a positive agenda. It lacked solutions. It didn’t inspire. When talking about the economy he said he was going to lay out his reforms and then never did. Beyond building a wall on the southern border and ending the Johnson amendment his speech lacked specificity.
His speech was not constitutional. It wasn’t conservative.
It was about him. Donald Trump’s agenda is Donald Trump. The word used most in his speech was “I” which was used 85 times.
One of the lynchpins of his speech was this phrase – “I will be your voice.”
He ended his speech with this pledge:
My pledge reads: “I’M WITH YOU – THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.”
I am your voice.
So to every parent who dreams for their child, and every child who dreams for their future, I say these words to you tonight: I’m With You, and I will fight for you, and I will win for you.
To all Americans tonight, in all our cities and towns, I make this promise: We Will Make America Strong Again.
We Will Make America Proud Again.
We Will Make America Safe Again.
And We Will Make America Great Again.
But how? We have no idea other than Trump believes he is the only one who can do it.