Devils and Copycats on Day Two

From Gage Skidmore, Wikimedia Commons

The revelation that Melania Trump's speech Monday night was in part plagarized from Michelle Obama's 2008 DNC speech deepened into a full force political scandal during day two of the convention. Speechwriter Meredith McIver took blame for the blunder and offered her resignation, but Donald Trump reportedly refused. The Trump campaign vigorously attempted to downplay the disclosure, yet the media ensured it got the attention it merited, in a surprisingly honorable turn in a campaign that has been otherwise lacking a fourth estate. The plagiarism does not simply represent a slight hiccup for the Trump campaign, but it is indicitive of a group in which an attitude of apathy, disorganization, and entitlement stems from the top down. The notion that the entire campaign missed such an egregious oversight on a potential First Lady's speech introducing her husband, a pivotal moment in the convention, shows blatant lack of regard for both the intelligence of the audience and the media. But, the campaign doubling down on their error by refusing to admit guilt, then asserting it was guilty, but that voters don't really care, took their sense of untouchability to a new level. While the Trump campaign has time and time again proven that the normal rules of campaigns do not apply to them, I believe that their overt laziness and lack of leadership will come back to haunt them. It is already showing at this convention.

The other truly bizarre moment from day two of the convention came when Dr. Ben Carson went onstage to denounce Hillary Clinton. During Carson's speech, he linked Mrs. Clinton to activist Saul Alinksy, who once invoked Lucifer as an object of praise in his book. The connection was dubious and cheap, and continued the RNC's theme of unapologetic ruthless bashing of Mrs. Clinton in front of a backdrop of a clearly broken and severed Republican Party. She continues to be the only thing all Republicans can unite around, and Dr. Carson tried to exploit that. But instead of coming off as sincere and eloquent, he sounded crazed. The speech continued his fall from grace as a figure that was once universally revered as a medical prodigy.