Well, that got old rather quickly.
If Wednesday was your day for watching the Republican convention on TV, you picked the wrong day. It got so tedious mid-evening that on Fox News they started making fun of the protesters, especially their hair and clothes. Yes, on the convention floor there were outbursts of "Lock her up! Lock her up!" aimed at Hillary Clinton. But that was the previous day revisited.
There was a lot of natter, chatter and some yawning could be seen among the delegates. Fox News guy Shepard Smith announced at one point that he was going to "get hepped up on coffee" to "hang out" with correspondents and viewers later. Pour me a big mug of that, Shep, I said aloud. Because it's getting vital to get hepped up.
At the same time, one could conclude that the Trump/Republican playbook for this convention became clear – bore them and sedate with trite remarks and speeches at the level of high-school presentations and then – bazinga! – Donald Trump, and all the Trump family, will seem terrifically, electrifyingly exciting. Also, mention ISIS and get people scared. It's an odd ruse, but it gets more emphatic by the hour that everything is about making Trump look good and being afraid of terrorists.
For a while there was a minor hullabaloo about whether Ted Cruz would outright endorse Trump. On CNN it was revealed with some confidence that Cruz's speech would be given to the Trump camp before he delivered it. Over on Fox, they didn't seem to know about this. They were still attempting to build up some tension about Cruz's intentions. You'd think somebody at Fox would be watching CNN just to see if they had a scoop.
But Fox News by tradition doesn't touch some stories that CNN plays up big time. For instance, one knew that CNN's piece about Trump's adviser on veterans' matters was not going to get any play on Fox. According to CNN, the adviser had said, "Hillary Clinton should be put in the firing line and shot for treason." If Fox went near that one, it would a panel discussion about whether Hillary should be given a blindfold, or not, before being shot by the firing squad.
As prime time and the speeches and speakers came, Governor Rick Scott of Florida declared that Trump was needed as president to "destroy evil." Good line, and one expected the theme to continue. Destroying evil has a long history of making for excellent entertainment. No such luck. There were hints of "destroying evil" being a theme, but mostly it was all about being afraid of ISIS.
He's no orator, this Rick Scott. There was a line about "We are not at a crossroads, the Democrats have led us to a cliff," which was groan-inducing. Thankfully, CNN had a breaking story. A reporter had seen the Ted Cruz speech and she said he did not endorse Trump! "It's very awkward," said a generic CNN pundit, possibly attempting sly understatement.
Radio personality Laura Ingraham was giving what seemed to be a barn-burner of a speech that involved attacking the media, of which she is a part, lobbyists and every politician except Donald Trump. On live TV, she was mostly ignored. On Fox, Bill O'Reilly was jawing on about a new poll which, to his apparent shock, revealed that a lot of white guys would vote for Trump, but not many others.
There ensued a bizarre discussion between Mr. O'Reilly and a wary pundit about whether this meant the election was about white-versus-black. It didn't go anywhere. O'Reilly then switched into a side story about Montel Williams, who is black, walking off the set earlier. "It was some gay thing," O'Reilly said mysteriously. One longed for the details.
Nobody paid much attention to Eileen Collins, the first woman to lead a space shuttle mission. After a very nice, pretty-looking video about the moon and stars and stuff, Collins read what seemed to be a press release from NASA about needing more money. Then, Republican big-shot Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin tried to get the crowd riled with an "America deserves better" refrain. It worked for some of the crowd in the room but it was lousy television. He also sneered, "Hillary Clinton is the ultimate liberal Washington insider. If she were any more on the 'inside,' she'd be in prison." That, mind you, was yesterday's news to this crowd.
When Ted Cruz finally spoke, there was a distinct edge to his speech. After talking about the police officers slain in Dallas, he morphed his remarks into a warning about ISIS, and talks about refugees as "ISIS terrorists."
Read more: Boos for Cruz's views: How he snubbed Trump and trolled the GOP
Then it got awkward, as CNN promoted – the crowd grasped that Cruz was not going to outright endorse Trump, or even say much about him. There was jeering, the thumbs-down was used. Now that was a bit thrilling. Next stop, Ted Cruz 2020. And it was a warning to Trump and the convention that mindlessly glorifying Trump doesn't work for everyone, not even everyone at this convention.