Republicans leave convention facing challenge of expanding base
Contingent of the party still hasn't completely unified around its presidential candidate
Conventions weren't meant for television, says Joe Scarborough, the former Florida Republican congressman and current MSNBC host, because they're usually boring, calculated and bloodless.
But the 2016 Republican National Convention at Cleveland's Quicken Loans Arena that handed the the party's presidential nomination to Donald Trump? Now that was an event made for the small screen.
"It's incredible. Every night you didn't know what's going to happen," he said.
Beginning with the roll-call rules kerfuffle, followed by the Melania Trump speech flap and culminating with the Texas Senator Ted Cruz non-endorsement controversy — it all made for great political drama, particularly for an event that has been so reliably scripted in recent years.
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Those controversies, however, may have also fuelled questions about the competency of Donald Trump's political organization before the party launches into a national campaign and how big a challenge it still faces in expanding its base and unifying its members.
"I think progress has been made, I think more progress does need to be made," said John Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the UN. "It's been a very contentious nomination process."
More conservative platform
But Republicans also head into a campaign having passed, by their own admission, the most conservative platform in party's history.
Trump is not bound by its principles and he played little role in its creation, possibly in an attempt to curry favour with those within the party still unsure about his candidacy and conservative credentials.
It may, however, pose challenges in bringing in more supporters from key demographics the Republicans need in order to win in November.
One of the main purposes of a convention is to serve as an opportunity to unify the party following a competitive and fractious primary season. These past four days revealed there is a contingent of the party that still hasn't completely unified around its candidate and that wounds continue to fester among some of the delegates.
Just days before the convention officially kicked off, those opposed to Trump's candidacy had attempted to amend convention rules in an attempt to thwart Trump's nomination.
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When those efforts failed, delegates attempting to vote on the convention rules on the first day were interrupted by a rogue group calling for a state by state "roll call" vote. This, too, could have opened the possibility — however slim — of denying Trump the nomination.
Anti-Trump delegates became raucous and started chanting, "Call the roll!" Others drowned them out with chants of "USA!" In the end, there was no roll call.
Conflict not going away
"The conflict between the grassroots of the party and the RNC is not going to go away," said Jim Carson, a delegate from Minnesota.
But Bolton said he believed those still skeptical of Trump will unite with the party when they focus on the alternative.
That alternative is Hillary Clinton, and the convention may have given the public a hint of how the Republicans will lead the fight against the Democratic presumptive nominee in the coming months.
On Monday, former New York mayor Rudy Giulianni delivered a stinging rebuke of Clinton, almost blaming her for the deaths of four Americans in the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi.
The next night, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a former prosecutor, followed with his own indictment of Clinton.
He conducted a mock trial that ruled she was guilty of poor judgement and incompetence in foreign affairs and a liar in connection with the email scandal. It may have played well to the crowd, who repeatedly chanted "lock her up," but the angry tone may have been too off-putting to some.
However, the headlines, for a couple days at least, were dominated by the Melania Trump flap, in which lines from a Michelle Obama Democratic speech in 2008 found their way into hers. While it may not be the greatest political scandal ever, it was an unwanted distraction for the campaign and put the Republicans off-message.
Cruz fails to endorse Trump
Yet it was Cruz and his speech that stole the show, as it were, by his failure to endorse Trump.
His silence turned a crowd that was initially welcoming into a hostile one and he was booed off the stage. What lasting effect that has is unclear. But it overshadowed the speech by Trump's pick for vice-president, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, who was making his national debut.
Bolton, however, stressed that the last impression people generally have of a convention is the candidate's acceptance speech. And Trump's address, one of the longest in recent history, coming in at more than an hour, showed a candidate more disciplined than he often is
Known to go off on rambling tangents, Trump stuck to the script. But while it may have appealed to the base, the reviews that it offered a dark vision of America could be off-putting to a swath of voters. And for electoral success, the party needs to be able to grow its base.
"Trump wins if he brings in more Hispanics than he has right now," Scarborough said. "Trump wins if he does better with suburban moms."
A political post-mortem following the loss of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney to Barack Obama in 2012 recommended a better outreach to non-white voters and women.
The autopsy of the party revealed that political victory depended upon Republicans' ability to court more of those voters.
Yet the candidate the Republicans have chosen seems to have ignored that report and has made a series of controversial remarks that have offended those very groups.
Ivanka to the rescue?
That may have been why it was left to his daughter Ivanka to help defend her father in that regard and reach out to women.
In her speech Thursday night, she promised affordable daycare and attempted to alter the narrative that her father is hostile to women.
She said that he has made wage equality a practice in his business and that there are more women executives in his companies than males.
Republican strategist Kaitie Packer said the party still faces a daunting task in expanding its membership.
"Show me the suburban women that we are going to pick up. Show me the Hispanic voters," she said. "This isn't currently a party that people beyond our base want to join.
"We've rejected virtually every recommendations that came out of that autopsy."
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With files from Sylvia Thomson, The Associated Press