It Matters

The dust up over Melania's Trump's plagiarized paragraph in her opening night speech has been dismissed by Republicans and the Trump campaign on a variety of fronts.  Trump's campaign manager Paul Manafort denied the charge and then went on the offensive, claiming that, "This is once again an example of when a woman threatens Hillary Clinton she seeks out to demean her and take her down."  This clumsy denial and attack is exactly the kind of response that the Trump campaign is running AGAINST.  Manafort's response was, well, quite Clintonian.  Deny. Deny. Deny.  Even when the evidence is incontrovertible.  No literate person with even a third grade reading comprehension level can read those two paragraphs and come to the conclusion that they are not identical.  Melania made things even worse by claiming that she wrote the speech.  No one believes that either.  Other Republican commentators dismissed the unforced error by pointing to the incidents where Obama borrowed words and contrasted her mistake with Hillary's blatant falsehoods.  These are weak defenses and this incident is more important that Republicans want to admit.

First, Mrs. Trump's speech completely blew an opportunity to control the narrative and differentiate the Trump campaign from the Obamas.  Trump has run on a them of putting America first and the criticism from the right of Barack and Michelle is that the Obamas do not have the love of country that other first couples have had.   The president has consistently criticized America abroad and Michelle's infamous quote, "the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country," raised the ire of many Americans.  As an immigrant that is proud of the opportunity that America afforded her, Melania was in a position to make the case that America is ready for a first couple that understands the American narrative and is ready to move away from a couple that many believe carry an underlying resentment for this country.  The gaffe dilutes this message.

Second, this is a major gaffe and an indication of a system failure.  Somewhere in the system, quality control failed. Every person's message must be consistent with the themes of the campaign--especially one as close to Donald as his spouse.  A large proportion of the electorate still has misgivings about Trump.  He does not have a strong ground organization.  He has spent little money on advertising.  And he still has filled in few details about what his policy proposals will actually look like.  While it is true that this particular blunder will likely be forgotten as the campaign heats up, I believe that it is a sign of real weakness in his organization.  One of Trump's claims is that his is a businessman and knows how to run things.  But the ugly truth is that Trump's campaign organization failed his own wife and left her exposed to mocking and ridicule on her big opening night.

Republicans are like a football team playing on the road.  When a football team plays on the road, the crowd is against them, they are in an unfamiliar place, the refs are often against them--they are simply not going to get close calls.  Most of the time, they have to execute at a much higher level than they do at home and cannot afford major gaffes, especially early in the game.  The media will magnify them and, like home town refs, will make the call against the visiting team.

Many on the Republican side are dismissing this screw up as a one-off.   But the response of the campaign team and the fact that it left Melania exposed are indications that this was a bigger blunder out of the gate than Republicans assume.

Team Trump fumbled the opening kickoff.