Summary: * It's official. The unthinkable, according to the status quo earlier in the campaign, Donald Trump is the Republican Nominee * Although many wrote him off as a candidate, I never did; I always said he was being underestimated * I believed his message would resonate given how horrible the economy actually is and what is really happening beneath the headlines * Everybody was proclaiming recovery and that we're on the right track and I knew that that wasn't the case * I knew there would be a lot of dissatisfaction among the electorate on both sides of the aisle * Even after Donald Trump locked up the Republican nomination, everybody was still writing him off * The idea was, "He's going to lose in a landslide" * Republican establishment said, "Abandon ship!", distancing themselves from Trump to maintain the House and the Senate, writing off the White House * Maybe run against Hillary in 4 years * That was the general consensus * Again, I kept saying the the media and the political establishment on both sides were underestimating Donald Trump and the potential appeal of a Trump presidency * I think that the speech he gave at the convention really proves that point * I thought his speech was brilliant. * When I say brilliant, I don't necessarily agree with everything he said; I clearly don't * I'm talking about the political perspective * Was this an effective speech to set the tone of the campaign? * In that respect, I think he hit the ball out of the park * The most clever thing about his speech is he didn't go after the Republicans * He went after the Democrats * He went after their base; their core constituency * He is bringing the fight to their turf * He went for the women, he went for the minorities * Not just African Americans and Latinos, but the LGBTQ and the blue collar workers * Donald Trump did not go after the entrepreneur * He didn't promise to get government off your back and free up the businessman from red tape * That's a typical Republican acceptance speech * He said, "I'm going to be the champion of the little guy." * The downtrodden, the forgotten voter * "I'm your guy! The system has been rigged against you and because I have been part of the problem, I'm the only one who can deliver the solution" * I think this is a very powerful strategy * Because the Democrats have been taking their constituency for granted * What Donald Trump says is, "Why are you blindly supporting the Democratic nominee?" * What have they done for you? Nothing. * He will bring up the shocking statistics that have been getting worse under 7 years of Barack Obama * The horrible unemployment in the African American community * The inner city crime * The government dependency. The despair. * Why are African Americans handing their votes to a Democrat? * The Democrats have let them down and failed them * Donald Trump will say, "I won't do that. Trust me." * "I will deliver on the broken promises of generations of Democrats." * What about women? * Instead of denying the gender gap, he just accepted it.
