I was on vacation with my family this past week and so didn’t blog much, but it was a dizzying week in Trump Studies that had the whole family watching Morning Joe before heading to the beach. I feel like we dodged a bullet. Or at least two bullets. “We” being the Democratic Party and the country.  The GOP took both bullets square in the chest and jerked around like Sonny Corleone on the New York Causeway.

For a moment there, it looked like the effort to deny Trump the nomination in Cleveland was gaining some momentum. This was the first bullet.  That Republicans at the last minute might finally dump this creep and replace him with a candidate who could beat Hillary and help them retain the senate. It clearly had the Trump team rattled, and they responded like graduate students who blew off their seminar paper all semester and now had to finish it over the weekend.

For 36 hours the Trump campaign drank coffee, stayed up late, and tried to give the appearance of a functioning presidential campaign. They rapid responsed Hillary’s speech on the economy.  Not effectively, but there was some effort put forth. They dug up some c-list surrogates to appear on television. And, most notably, someone wrote a speech for Trump, and he delivered it off the teleprompter with a base level of competence.  These panicked efforts seem to have been enough to take the steam out of the latest and last stop Trump effort.

The second bullet was that Trump might actually start to turn into a better candidate. And, we’d have to endure weeks of stories about a more disciplined Trump and tightening poll numbers. There was a brief moment at the beginning of the speech.  Just brief.  Where Trump was almost dignified. Where he talked about building a great company. Building something he could share with his children. Talked about jobs. You could almost imagine that if someone like Peggy Noonan in her prime wrote him some speeches that were magnanimous and optimistic, he could be a serious contender.  But, it was just a moment. A few lines in a 45-minute speech that was nasty and exhausting.

One high-school debating tactic is to “run the spread”, to barrage the other side with so many arguments that they can’t rebut them all. The downside to running the spread is that you risk making your own argument so diffuse that it’s not effective. Trump’s speech surveyed the vast landscape, real and imaginary, of Hillary’s supposed ethical lapses in so much detail that reporters and pundits had no idea what to focus on.  Rather than build on any momentum that the speech may have generated, the Trump team did what every feckless student does after a brief dalliance with competence . . . Road Trip!

Scotland. Golf course! Just there to help the family. Stand by my kids. Family first. These suites! Wait until you see these suites! Scotland’s excited about Brexit (they aren’t). It will be great for my golf course (it won’t).

And now the run up to the convention. Laska, Mr. Jones, any predictions?  Who in their right mind delivers the key note address?  Will there be a key note address? Will there be any speakers other than Trump? Surely Ben Carson if Trump will have him. Jeff Sessions if anyone notices him. I’m becoming convinced that it will be Chis Christie for the V.P. spot, as the governor continues to play out his self-esteem issues in public. The Trump campaign claims that it will be a big show, but what entertainers would dare show up at this thing?  Pat Boone, sure, but then who?