Grateful for my decision to attend the Republican Convention

Tomorrow or Friday my most recent column will arrive to supermarkets everywhere and report a positive part of my recent convention attendance – seeing three old buddies of mine. Today I began writing about the dark side of the convention which was not positive. It is the likely beginning of a number of columns about the current state of the GOP today.

By chance I was invited to have coffee today by one of the convention’s delegates. It was also a very cordial meeting and the two of us made the discussions light and pulled back after making our different points of view evident without bothering to argue over them. I am grateful I was at the convention which did not in any way surprise me. It was not unlike a visiting general invited to survey a real battlefield to see how some other army operated under battlefield conditions. It gave me useful intelligence for my own campaigns in the future.

I was assured that my views were not welcome by the other delegates who know where I stood on issues. I learned that Donald Trump is called an “asshole” by some Republicans who no doubt do not use that word among other Republicans. I learned that the Republicans do indeed see the Democrats as being as crazy or crazier on their lunatic fringe than the lunatic fringe of the Republicans. I disagree with this assessment completely but its important to recognize the perceptions of the Republicans.

Any efforts on my part to challenge Pete Stauber were shrugged off. To that I say good. And the Russian military will make short work of the Ukrainians too.

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