Day One of the Republican National Convention

"Make America Safe Again"

Just one of the themes from the first night of the Republican National Convention. At the start of the prime time broadcast Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York, gave one of the most uplifting speeches of the night praising Donald Trump and his efforts to make America safer than it has been in the last few months. Giuliani said that "Donald Trump will do for America what I did for New York City," referencing the work Giuliani put in as mayor to make New York City America's safest large city. 

According to the NBC broadcasters Giuliani's speech is the first of the night to truly praise Trump and the work that he intends to put in as president to "Make America Great Again." This is an important note to make especially as many former Republican nominees and prominent members of the Republican party have decided not to attend the convention in Cleveland in protest of Trump's nomination. It has been mentioned that former Republican Nominee Bob Dole is the only former nominee to attend. Neither previous presidential Republican Nominees John McCain and Mitt Romney, nor presidents George Bush and George W. Bush are planning to attend the convention. As an outside observer of the Republican Party, what does it say when the most prominent and successful members of your party do not want to attend your party convention to nominate the next leader of your party? And if these members do not want to attend, what if anything could Trump do to convert these leaders to Trump supporters?

"Hillary Clinton Cannot Be Our Next President"

Honestly, this was expected. This week is the Republican's chance to condemn all of Hillary Clinton's actions as a candidate and as the former Secretary of State. If you thought that they might devote more time to focus on proposing policies to fix the problems in our country you thought wrong. (But the Democrats will do the exact same thing next week during their convention so it will all be balanced in the political world.) 

"Melania Trump"

To quote my mom "I guess she's the only immigrant he likes." Oh the irony. But aside from that fact, I personally had doubts about how Mrs. Trump's speech would go tonight. Would her speech become a series of hilarious clips and memes or would there be some substance in what she had to say? After delivering a short series of facts about her own life, Melania began to praise her husband's love and kindness as a father, his experience and success as a businessman, his dedication to promoting veterans, and his "big thinking" which will help America progress as a nation. Melania also praised the volunteers and supporters of the Trump campaign stating that "You have turned this campaign into a movement that has begun to grow in strength and in number." She even foreshadowed what her role as First Lady might look like with a focus on helping women and children. A rather unexpected speech by the next possible first lady was rather warmly welcomed and exceeded my personal expectations. It seems likely that the world will see more from Melania Trump as the general election draws closer in order to improve Trump's polling numbers among women as well as showcase his support for immigrants when they enter this country legally.

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So, what's next? As the week progresses there will surely be more rousing speeches about the great president Donald Trump would be leading up to his acceptance speech on Thursday night of the convention. But who will these speeches come from? Obviously Trump's Vice Presidential pick Governor Mike Pence will speak but will we hear from former Governor Sarah Palin or former Republican Nominee Bob Dole? Will any of the prominent Republicans not attending the convention make any statements trying to divide their party? Ohio's own Governor John Kasich is not attending the convention on the basis that Donald Trump is not one who unifies and that Kasich does not support someone who would try to divide people rather than unite them. And how will Hillary Clinton and her campaign respond to this week's convention both in the media and during their campaign next week? Tune in tomorrow to find out more from Day Two of the Republican National Convention. 

Strategies for the Democratic Candidate for the General Election

It's been almost three months since the first presidential primary votes were cast in Iowa and New Hampshire and millions of people across the country have cast their votes for who they think should be the next President of the United States. The field of candidates has narrowed from almost 20 contenders at the start of the year to just 5 candidates between the two parties: Businessman Donald Trump, Senator Ted Cruz, Governor John Kasich, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Senator Bernie Sanders. As the party conventions and the general election draw near, candidates will begin to think about the strategies they will need to use in order to win the White House. Because of the traditional demographics that make up each respective party the strategies that candidates use will vary significantly, especially depending on the platform that they have created throughout the election so far. Since I have been following the Democratic Primary, specifically Hillary Clinton, throughout this primary season here are my top five strategy suggestions for her, or Bernie Sanders, for the general election.

1. Focus on the Issues
The point of elections, especially for the presidency, are more than publicly beating up on your opponents and seeing who is leading in the polls, although that is what the media tends to focus on with their "horse-race politics." The issues that candidates talk about on the campaign trail are often the policies that they will try to pass as legislation once they are elected President, so it is important for the Democratic Candidate to clearly state their views on the salient issues of this election. That means stating their stance on income inequality, immigration, gun control, women's rights, LGBT rights, and the economy. These issues have become the most debated topics of this year's election on the Democratic side and are the one's that the American people care about the most thanks to candidates like Sanders and Trump who focus solely on some of these issues at times. Not only would the Democratic Nominee need to talk about their opinions on these issues, but their opinions need to align with the Democratic Party's overall platform as well so that elections held at the state and local level can build off of what the national candidates are doing. Focusing on the issues also helps voters distinguish between the two parties and know which candidates would work on fixing areas that concern them the most.

2. Work on Image and Leadership Qualities
With the New York State Primary held earlier this week, the issue of leadership was a frequent topic of debate among the Democratic Candidates. Accusations that Sanders said Clinton was not qualified to be President of the United States not only hurts that candidate specifically, but the party in general. In comparison to the Republican Party Primaries this year, the Democratic ones have been extremely peaceful and polite and this atmosphere cannot change if the Democrats hope to win the general election in November. Whoever becomes the Democratic Nominee will need to focus on their record of experience and how that will prepare them for the White House whether that is the time they have spent in the Senate or time as the Secreatary of State. The Democratic Nominee will also need to work on their image and potentially continue the image that President Obama has created for the party as one that helps people who are disadvantaged get the rights that they deserve.

3. Unite the Party
Though the Democratic Party has appeared to be more presidential at times than the Republican Party, there is still a certain amount of division within the party. As with any race, supporters of particular candidates are often loyal to their candidate and have a hard time switching their support if their candidate does not win the nomination. However, a scenario where Sanders supports refuse to support Clinton as the nominee or vice versa could be detrimental to the party and potentially lose the White House to whoever the Republican Nominee turns out to be. In order to unite the party to defeat the Republicans, the Democratic Nominee will need to help fund raise for other candidates running on the Democratic ticket at both the local and state level and make appearances for these candidates at various campaign events. This would help create unity because it would show that all of the Democratic candidates have similar views on the issues and make everyone in the party feel like they are important and that their concerns were being heard.

4. Strengthen the Coalition
Every political party has a specific coalition that they depend on during elections to vote for their candidates. On the Democratic side their coalition, or base, consists of minorities including African Americans and Hispanics, younger voters, people who tend not to associate with a specific religion, members of the LGBT community, and people who live on the East or West coasts of the country. By focusing on issues that members of these communities care about such as immigration reform, decreasing the economic inequality among classes, and creating affordable college, the Democratic Nominee will know that on the first Tuesday in November when these groups go vote that they will be voting Democratic. However, the Democratic Nominee cannot depend solely on these people to win the election for them. The nominee will have to broaden their message to a certain degree so that Independents or other undecided voters will consider voting for the Democratic candidate rather than the Republican one.

5. Us vs. Them Mentality
Due to the extremely polarized political world that we currently live in, it is necessary for the Democratic Nominee to play into this mindset of Us vs. Them in order to win the general election. This strategy can work better than it may have in previous election cycles because this year's elections have seem some very nontraditional candidates on the Republican side. By exploiting these characteristics that show how unqualified and disrespectful some of the Republican candidates have been, it could show voters that the Democratic Nominee is much more qualified and trustful to be the next president than the Republican Nominee could ever be. However, the way in which the Democratic Nominee creates this image cannot be extremely explicit. Instead they would need to show their qualifications through campaign ads, speeches, and endorsements rather than simply stating that the Republicans are bad and the Democrats are good because this type of speech could backfire on the Democrats and make them seem greedy more than anything else.

Hillary Clinton's Univision Debate Performance

On March 9th, both of the Democratic candidates took the stage at Miami Dade College in Florida for their eighth debate. It was just one day after Senator Bernie Sanders upset win over Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the Michigan Primary. But while Sanders was able to eek out a win, Clinton was still able to gain a greater number of delegates that night, mostly from her large margin over Sanders in the Mississippi Primary. After all of the primaries prior to March 15th Clinton's delegate total is at 775 while Sanders has a total of 552.

From the beginning of this debate, the moderators immediately asked pressing questioning of the candidates, wasting no time in getting started. Clinton was asked where she failed with regards to her loss in the Michigan Primary and why she has started to sound more like the Democratic nomination is already hers rather than continue to battle for it in the primaries. She responded by saying that her campaign was focusing on her other wins from that night, not her one loss in Michigan, and that this entire process is a marathon where you need to look for positive solutions to get things done. As Sanders stated just a few minutes later when asked about how his delegate count was far less than Clinton's, he said that his win in the Michigan Primary could possibly be one of the greatest political upsets in modern times. This statement and many others throughout the debate from Sanders were aimed at convincing the American public that he is by no means out of the race for the Democratic nomination even though Clinton has begun to pander to a more general audience.

Pandering was also one of the next issues brought up by the moderators when discussing Clinton's stance on immigration. Had she been "His-pandering" when she changed her stance on illegal immigrants from stating that she was "adamantly against them" in a 2003 interview to today's stance where she plans on attacking immigration reform in her first 100 days in office? Clinton fired back saying that she had supported the Dreamer Act that was proposed to Congress in 2003 and in every Congress since then, as well as stating that she is a strong supported in immigration reform. Throughout the debate on immigration Clinton frequently brought up her record on various Senate votes that she had participated in during her time in Congress. She even attempted to discredit Senator Sanders stance on immigration when she mentioned that he had voted against the 2003 Dreamer Act whereas she had voted for it. Sanders was not taking the bait however and defended his vote on that bill as well explaining what he would do with immigration reform as President of the United States.

It was clear that Clinton was put on the defensive from the beginning of the debate as a way to test her and see how well she could hold up after a surprising loss in Michigan. Her strategy was to use her Senate voting record to show how she has been in favor of immigration reform for years as well as stating that she would build off of Obama's current plans if she were to be elected president. Another strategy was to attack Sanders in as many areas as she possibly could so she could call him out on anything he said that might appear out of line, a technique called "the spread" that many debate teams, use according to an article written by James Hohmann for the Washington Post. Hohmann's article had an educated critique of the debate in general and on Clinton's performance in particular which helped to put the Democratic race in perspective. While Clinton's debate performance seemed strong there was still room for improvement, especially when it comes to how her campaign strategy should evolve over the next few weeks. Sanders proved in this debate that he too was in the race for the long run and should not be overlooked by Clinton who was beginning to change her rhetoric to a wider base in the hopes that she could skip over the Democratic convention and go straight to November.