Analysis: The Republican convention as reality TV. Not in a good way

CLEVELAND — Perhaps it shouldn't be a surprise that the Republican National Convention nominating Donald Trump for president would turn out to be less like the traditional glowing infomercial and more like a reality TV show. And not in a good way.

Instead of projecting party unity and reaching out to the undecided voters who will decide the winner in November, the conclave that launched the general election for the GOP has spotlighted splits and stumbles, chaos and conspiracies — a narrative that might be good for attracting ratings but bad for reassuring voters. A series of missteps left it to Trump himself to regain a sense of energy and momentum with a high-stakes, prime-time acceptance speech Thursday night.

In a final indignity, a Democratic super PAC called Correct the Record somehow obtained a draft of Trump's speech and blasted it out to reporters nearly four hours before he was to deliver it. The group's president, Brad Woodhouse, crowed on Twitter that the leak amounted to political "malpractice" by the Trump campaign.

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When Trump walked on stage, introduced by daughter Ivanka, the packed hall erupted in cheers.

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"I have joined the political arena so the powerful can no longer beat up on people who cannot defend themselves," Trump declared in a speech that portrayed the nation as under siege at home and abroad, his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton as corrupt and dangerous, and the answer to this dire state of affairs standing in front of them. "Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it."

While the reception in the hall was tumultuous for him, the four-day convention failed to capitalize in a coherent way on the biggest opportunity a presidential nominee has to present a relatively unfiltered message to a broader swath of voters. In some ways, it may have left GOP weaker than it was before the week began, including the prospects of carrying the crucial state of Ohio in the wake of an ongoing public feud with Gov. John Kasich.

"Conventions are precious, unique opportunities to go in living rooms with the candidate's appealing story," says Lawrence Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota. Instead, he calls the Cleveland conclave the most "consistently dysfunctional" convention of the past three decades. "Trump's convention has showcased division, discord and uncertainty. It reinforced all the questions about Trump rather than putting them to rest."

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Reassuring voters who are eager for change but anxious about Trump — unsure whether the blustery billionaire businessman and reality-TV star has the demeanor and depth of knowledge to be president — was the main goal of the week that convention manager Paul Manafort set on Monday morning.

"The key message for Trump is, can people see him as president?" Manafort had said at a breakfast with reporters hosted by Bloomberg Politics, likening it to the 1980 election. "The moment they see him like they did (Ronald) Reagan as president, I think the election is over. I think a floodgate will happen just like it did for Jimmy Carter and I think that it will be just finishing the race off. When will that moment happen? I don't know."

But the testimonials to Trump from the podium at the Quicken Arena here by his children, employees, conservative activists and others were overshadowed by a litany of damaging distractions.

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Consider Day One, when Manafort called Kasich, one of Trump's vanquished rivals from the Republican primaries, an "embarrassment" to his state. The popular governor was in Cleveland for convention-related events but didn't address the convention, nor has he endorsed the nominee. When the first session opened, a demand for a roll-call vote in a rules fight — a proxy battle between Trump delegates and #NeverTrump delegates — degenerated into angry name-calling on the convention floor.

Or Day Two, which began with the overnight revelation that the well-received speech Melania Trump had delivered the night before included language lifted from the convention speech Michelle Obama had delivered at the Democratic National Convention in 2008. The Trump campaign spent a day and half issuing a series of conflicting explanations, including a flat denial, before identifying a speechwriter as the culprit.

Or Day Three, when attention focused not on the intended centerpiece, a speech by running mate Mike Pence, but on the defiant remarks by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. Trump's final primary rival not only pointedly failed to endorse Trump but also urged Americans to "vote your conscience,"  interpreted as such a clarion call to vote for somebody else that Clinton quickly sent out a tweet repeating the three-word phrase. By the time Cruz finished speaking, the hall was filled with a chorus of boos — not exactly a picture of party unity.

"There is no doubt that this convention has been more chaotic than recent ones, and that there have been a series of process issues that have complicated the coverage, but there have also been many highlights as well," says Phil Musser, a senior Republican strategist whose clients have included Pence. He cautioned against assuming the worst in an unpredictable year. "The conventional wisdom about what constitutes 'success' in a traditional context has been upended again and again this cycle. Polling next week will assess the net benefit of the convention to the political forces of the campaign."

To be sure, other conventions have seen their share of discord.

"'92 was pretty bad, and '96 wasn't great," recalls veteran Republican strategist Frank Donatelli, citing two elections the GOP would end up losing. At the 1992 convention in Houston, for instance, insurgent challenger Pat Buchanan failed to wrest the nomination from then-president George H.W. Bush, but he did set a tone and steal the headlines with a call for a "culture war."

And this time?

Donatelli — who served in senior political roles for Reagan, the elder Bush, Bob Dole and John McCain — says a series of "unforced errors" by the Trump team signals "a thin campaign that was basically riding a wave and not controlling events." That raises questions about how well prepared it is to handle a general election that is guaranteed to be bruising. "I guess I would say they've had difficulty projecting a unified front and of crafting the larger message that could appeal to the American people."

Before the convention began, there were fears that protests in the street would create the sort of chaos that marked the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago. This time, the protests outside were kept under control. The chaos was inside the hall.