* While Ted Cruz’s speech last night is garnering all of the attention today and Trump’s remarks about his lack of commitment to our NATO allies is soaking up whatever space is left, I’m still reeling a bit from what Laura Ingraham said last night. People have come up with a lot of ways to pitch support for Donald Trump. But the one thing I never thought I’d hear is that the bully who constantly eschews political correctness to justify his nasty comments about others will be the kind of president who will restore the proper role of respect in our culture. But yes, that is exactly where Ingraham went.
* Sean Davis has an interesting take on how Donald Trump blew an opportunity last night.
It didn’t have to be a complete disaster.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) didn’t say a negative thing about Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in Cleveland on Wednesday night. A savvy, disciplined campaign could have used the three words from Cruz that set off a political firestorm — “vote your conscience” — to the campaign’s advantage…
The only sensible Trump response to “vote your conscience” and “vote for freedom and candidates with principles” was to thank Cruz for the rousing speech and his commitment to conservative principles. Praise him for his defense of freedom, and then turn his call to “vote your conscience” into an endorsement of Trump’s agenda…
That’s all Trump’s team had to do…
But they didn’t. Instead of biting their tongues, they took the bait.
* A few months ago, if you were to have asked me to rank Donald Trump and John Bolton on a scale of whose foreign policy approach was more dangerous, I probably would have had a hard time deciding. As a testament to just how off the rails Trump has gone, I actually find myself agreeing with Bolton (and yes, I shuddered a bit as I wrote that).
“When an American leader says ‘I’ll look at what the situation is after the Russians attack,’ that is an open invitation to Vladimir Putin,” Bolton said.
“When he (Putin) reads this kind of statement, it’s an encouragement to him. We’re not deterring him, we’re in effect giving him a free hand. So I hope that whoever advised Mr. Trump on this rethinks it,” Bolton said.
* In case you need some good news today, I’ve got you covered:
The U.S. Department of Justice and attorneys general from multiple states and the District of Columbia sued today to block Anthem’s proposed acquisition of Cigna and Aetna’s proposed acquisition of Humana, alleging that the transactions would increase concentration and harm competition across the country, reducing from five to three the number of large, national health insurers in the nation…
“Competitive insurance markets are essential to providing Americans the affordable and high-quality healthcare they deserve,” said Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch. “These mergers would restrict competition for health insurance products sold in markets across the country and would give tremendous power over the nation’s health insurance industry to just three large companies. Our actions seek to preserve competition that keeps premiums down and drives insurers to collaborate with doctors and hospitals to provide better healthcare for all Americans.”
* Here is the line-up of speakers for the last night of the RNC:
Brock Mealer, Motivational Speaker
U.S Representative Marsha Blackburn (TN-7)
Governor Mary Fallin, Governor of Oklahoma
Dr. Lisa Shin, National Diversity Coalition for Trump
Reince Priebus, RNC Chairman
Jerry Falwell, Jr., President of Liberty University and evangelical leader
Peter Thiel, Venture Capitalist
Tom Barrack, CEO of Colony Capital
Ivanka Trump, Daughter of Donald Trump and EVP at the Trump Organization
Donald J. Trump, Republican presumptive candidate for President of the United States
The only real question for tonight is how ridiculously extravagant Trump will make his grand entrance.
* Finally, the “Thanks, Obama” today goes out to Michelle – who provided some much needed fun last night on Carpool Karaoke with James Corden.
