“I’m not supposed to be here tonight,” Donald Trump exclaimed in his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention. On this and this alone, the audience disagreed. As Trump recounted the story of Saturday’s attempt on his life, someone pressed the mute button on the audience. Tears fell. Trump paid a dramatic tribute to his supporter Corey Comperatore, the fireman who lost his life at the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally. The president explained on Saturday, “I felt very safe because I had God on my side.” Calls for Unity Five days after escaping death by an inch, a solemn, subdued Donald Trump addressed the delegates in Milwaukee. The balance between scripted and extemporaneous, so often favoring the latter in rallies, leaned toward the former Thursday night. The president referred to Joe Biden by name during just one stanza. The conciliatory message aimed to unite and not divide. (READ MORE: Andrew Jackson, Donald Trump — and JD Vance) Yes, the former president spoke about “the green new scam,” “crazy Nancy Pelosi,” the CBS program “Deface the Nation,” and “the China virus.” But by Trump standards, the lengthy speech felt more Ambien than amphetamine — particularly given the finish occurring after midnight on the East Coast. The 45th president promised to “drill, baby, drill,” “end the electric vehicle mandate,” and “close our borders” on his first day in office. He pledged to slash both taxes and the national debt, and launch “the largest deportation operation in the history of our country.” Trump coaxed great applause by using “no tax on tips” almost as a mantra. “Under the current administration,” he declared, “we are a nation in decline.” The Republican nominee pointed to skyrocketing prices, illegal immigration, and wars in Europe and the Middle East to buttress that point. Trump listed Russia’s conquests under George W. Bush (Georgia), Barack Obama (Crimea), and Joe Biden (Ukraine). “Under President Trump,” he offered as a punchline, “Russia took nothing!” He labeled the Afghanistan withdrawal as the greatest humiliation in American history. “Our opponents inherited a world at peace,” he noted, “and turned it into a planet of war.” Trump’s Convention Speech Made Politics Boring Again Following a roller coaster of a month like no other in American political history, Trump’s calm speech, and the disciplined convention of which it placed a period rather than an exclamation point after, made politics boring again. Sure, Kid Rock, Hulk Hogan, Reverend Lorenzo Sewell, and those giant gold T-R-U-M-P letters, combined for a Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho feel. But the convention struck as one of the most forgettable in modern history. (READ MORE: Destiny’s Comments on Trump’s Attempted Assassination Reveal Liberalism’s Underlying Justifications of Violence) What conventions proved memorable? In 1964, when Sen. Bill Keating of New York led a walkout on the convention floor and Gov. Nelson Rockefeller of the same state delivered a taunt more than a speech in which he denounced his fellow Republicans as extremists — and the nominee took the bait in pronouncing that “extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice” and “moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue”; in 1968 when Democrats rioted outside the Chicago convention and roughed up newsmen inside; and in 1972 when Democrat delegates nominated the likes of Ralph Nader, Cesar Chavez, and Jerry Rubin for vice president (all wiser choices, in retrospect, than Thomas Eagleton) and pushed the start of George McGovern’s acceptance speech to 2:48 a.m. Eastern. These exciting conventions all prefaced losing general elections. After a manic month, America needed a mellow monologue. Donald Trump uncharacteristically delivered something approaching that. “For too long our nation has settled for too little,” a hopeful Trump declared. “We settled for too little. We have given everything to other nations, and to other people. 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, not big enough.” (READ MORE: Five Quick Things: They’ll Literally Say Anything, and They Just Proved It) After the last 42 months, this convention, the candidate’s dramatic escape from death, and the debate that sent the Democrats into disarray, few Republicans approach November with lowered expectations. The post Trump Accepts Republican Presidential Nomination appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.