President Trump's RNC was a knockout punch to the Biden Democrats and that's the subject of the riff. Besides Joe Biden's bad health, and his awful performance in the debate, and his bad polling numbers, I think the final knockout punch for Biden leaving the race was the incredibly successful Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. That's right, the RNC was the final knockout punch for Mr. Biden.
The convention was so positive, so optimistic, so united, so well-messaged, that leading Democrats took one look at that and decided they needed a new horse. I'm assuming that horse is Vice President Kamala Harris, but that's not my main point.
Two days after Donald Trump's near-fatal assassination attempt, saved by the grace of God, he appeared on the convention floor, rallying the troops once again and he bravely showed up each night to cheer on convention speakers, and the speakers themselves were fantastic – many of whom were not lawmakers or politicians, but ordinary folks talking about their curbside difficulties on the ground, chronicling how difficult life has been during the Biden years.
LARRY KUDLOW: THE WORLD WILL SEE TRUMP'S TOUGHNESS
Then came JD Vance, with his "up from poverty" speech, the ex-Marine, the Yale lawyer devoted to exactly the working-folks coalition that Donald Trump has put together in recent years and then came Trump's magnificent speech.
The first half-hour was an incredible heartrending narrative of the assassination attempt and his providential escape from it. Nothing like it has ever been told at a convention. Breathtaking and he said it calmly, but with energy and alertness. In other words, he was definitely OK..
Then came the rest of the speech, including his usual riffing for entertainment, and then of course his promise to close the border, stop the crime wave, end the far-left woke cancel culture, stop the assault on middle-class values, move America back to its historic meritocracy, "drill, baby, drill," and deregulate the economy. It was a growthier speech, a prosperity speech, an opportunity speech. Here's a brief line. Take a listen:
DONALD TRUMP: "We're going to reduce your taxes still further. We gave you the biggest one. As I said, we're going to give you more and it's going to lead to tremendous growth. We want growth in our country."
By the way, on Saturday, at a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, he kept up the growthier drumbeat. Take a listen:
DONALD TRUMP: "And I will cut taxes even further than we did before and that includes no tax on tips. // We gave you already the largest tax cut in the history of our country, larger than the Reagan cuts, but now we will give you an additional tax cut, a number of tax cuts... We took in more money after the tax cuts than we did prior. // We're going to slash regulations and we're going to bring down energy prices very rapidly."
In Grand Rapids, Mr. Trump also included this remarkable and truthful line:
DONALD TRUMP: "As you're seeing, the Democrat Party is not the party of democracy. They're really the enemies of democracy and they keep saying - he's a threat to democracy. I'm saying, what the hell did I do to democracy? Last week, I took a bullet for democracy."
Wow. "Last week I took a bullet for democracy" – how about that one? Then, concluding his convention speech on an optimistic unity note, Mr. Trump said this:
DONALD TRUMP: "You have been told to lower your expectations and to accept less for your families. I am here tonight with the opposite message. Your expectations are not big enough. It is time to start expecting and demanding the best leadership in the world. Leadership that is bold, dynamic, relentless and fearless. We can do that. We are Americans. Ambition is our heritage. Greatness is our birthright. // We will unite. We are going to come together and success will bring us together."
The Milwaukee convention was safe, secure, united, inspirational and growthier. It was, simply put, visionary. It was beautifully produced, and I don't believe the Democratic Party will be able to conjure up anything even remotely like the RNC and I do believe that convention will prove to have been the final knockout punch for Joe Biden and the entire Democratic Party. Think of it.
This article is adapted from Larry Kudlow’s opening commentary on the July 22, 2024, edition of "Kudlow."
