July 19, 2016 11:26 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Tuesday (July 19)

• 7 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

If you catch any phrases below that look familiar, it’s probably the fault of a rogue speechwriter. It’s time to Get More Smarter with Colorado Pols. If you think we missed something important, please include the link in the comments below (here’s a good example). If you are more of a visual learner, check out The Get More Smarter Show.

TOP OF MIND TODAY…

► If there is a ray of hope for Republicans after a disastrous first day of the Republican National Convention, it may be as simple as this: It (probably) can’t get any worse in Cleveland. As Ron Fournier reports for The Atlantic:

Trump and his four-day infomercial are about to become laughingstocks—unless he quickly figures how to manage an enterprise far smaller and less complicated than the U.S. government.

A divisive first day of the GOP presidential convention turned to disaster late Monday night when the denizens of social media discovered that the candidate’s wife, Melania Trump, had plagiarized Michelle Obama’s 2008 convention speech. As you can see here, large portions of the speeches overlap in a way that can’t be blamed on coincidence.

The Trump campaign, as if often does, disputed the indisputable.

It’s difficult to pick the biggest story from Day One of the RNC, but you could certainly cite charges of plagiarism in Melania Trump’s speech on Monday evening. The Trump campaign was spending much of the day on Tuesday working on damage control.

As disasters go, you could also point to an afternoon delegate challenge of Trump as the Republican Presidential nominee as the big story of the day. An effort to force a state-by-state roll call vote, which was driven in part by Colorado’s Republican delegation, was shut down when Rep. Steve Womack appeared on stage (twice) to declare the challenge a failure.

► John Frank of the Denver Post has more on Monday’s delegate revolt against Donald Trump that included significant involvement from Colorado’s GOP delegation:

Republican leaders moved quickly to silence the effort — eager to present an image of unity despite a fractured party — and approved the rules on a debatable voice-vote that sparked a shouting match on the floor…

…“We were just completely robbed,” said Kendal Unruh, a Colorado delegate and a leader in the “Free the Delegates” movement that is part of the Delegates Unbound coalition scheming to upset Trump.

► Colorado Republican Senate nominee Darryl Glenn had a prime-time speaking role during the RNC on Monday evening that fell completely flat. Glenn’s speech was going to be overshadowed by earlier events at the RNC — as well as Melania Trump’s plagiarized remarks later in the evening — but Glenn didn’t help himself by delivering the same red meat cliche-ridden speech that helped him capture top line at the Colorado Republican Convention in April.

Here’s what Chris Cillizza of “The Fix” had to say about Glenn’s remarks in calling the El Paso County Commissioners one of the “Losers” of Day One:

A series of hackneyed one-liners (Hillary in an orange jumpsuit etc.) and blatant appeals for applause (stand up and cheer for blue lives) were bad enough. But this Glenn line put me over the edge: “Someone with a nice tan needs to say this. All lives matter.”  Oomph.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► You can count HD-4 Republican candidate Ben “The Bachelor” Higgins among those in the GOP who would rather snort sand than publicly endorse Donald Trump for President.

► Rumors about Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper becoming the running mate for Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton increased over the weekend with news that Hick had a long meeting with Hillary at her home in Washington D.C. But as Politico reports today, Clinton’s short list may not include Hickenlooper:

Fast approaching her final decision on a running mate, Hillary Clinton appears to be looking closely at Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine and Labor Secretary Tom Perez, say multiple people who are in regular contact with her inner circle.

But it’s another member of President Barack Obama’s Cabinet whose stock has been steadily and notably rising in recent days, vaulting him into what close Clinton friends call the “top tier”: Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

The subject of increasing speculation within Clinton’s political orbit over the last two weeks, the former Iowa governor was also the talk of Democrats at the National Governors Association meeting in Des Moines over the weekend, said people familiar with the proceedings — especially after Donald Trump introduced another Midwestern state executive, Indiana’s Mike Pence, as his own running mate.

► You don’t have to wait quite so long to get through security at Denver International Airport; TSA checkpoint times are on the decline.

► An effort to reform campaign finance rules in Denver will not make it onto the November ballot.

► Yeah, right: It’s Hillary Clinton’s fault that Melania Trump plagiarized Michelle Obama in her RNC speech on Monday night.

► Kip Turner is the new chief of the Grand Junction Regional Airport.

► The Aurora City Council took another step forward in allowing the City of Aurora to continue expanding eastward.

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► Liz Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, is raising a ton of money in her bid to win an open Congressional seat in Wyoming.

ICYMI

► The Denver Post compared Donald Trump to a domestic abuser in a scathing editorial over the weekend.

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