Night one: Republicans slam Clinton but don't make the case for Trump

The biggest chal­lenge Re­pub­lic­ans faced en­ter­ing the con­ven­tion was con­vin­cing a skep­tic­al pub­lic that Trump can be pres­id­en­tial. In most polls, voters be­lieve Trump is bet­ter equipped than Clin­ton to handle the eco­nomy and fight ter­ror­ism—the two most press­ing is­sues fa­cing the coun­try. But over­whelm­ing those small ad­vant­ages is the fact that large ma­jor­it­ies doubt he is pre­pared to be com­mand­er in chief.

The night’s pro­ceed­ings made the case against Clin­ton, but did little to bol­ster Trump’s cre­den­tials.

Melania helped him the most in this re­gard, speak­ing to his love for Amer­ica, loy­alty to fam­ily and friends, and tenacity in busi­ness: “He will do it bet­ter than any­one else can, and it won’t even be close.” But the gen­er­ic en­dorse­ment from his ob­vi­ously biased wife won’t do much to al­le­vi­ate the real con­cern voters have over his read­i­ness for the pres­id­ency. In 2012, Mitt Rom­ney’s fam­ily and friends offered nu­mer­ous ex­amples to bol­ster their case for his char­ac­ter. Melania’s ar­gu­ment amoun­ted to: Trust me.