Sean Spicer is one of the most formidable GOP staffers in America.
And, on the Trump campaign's first day of their convention, a disaster ensued.
The second night was not much better. Empty seats and forced chants prevailed.
Dr. Ben Carson spoke for all of a few minutes.
New Jersey's governor was reminiscent of being in class too long for comfort.
And, as we have come to understand Trump's yearlong foray into politics -- when they make a mistake, they make it worse. The Trump effort is lacking and many people in the Republican Party have chosen flawed candidate vs country.
The RNC knows full well that Melania Trump's convention speech was intended to convey her husband's positive core values, but instead by plagiarizing key pieces almost directly from first lady Michelle Obama's historic 2008 convention speech, Melania demonstrated a different kind of value system that we do not want to teach the youth of our country.
The similarities of the two women speaking on their spouses' behalf was almost word for word.
Someone in the Trump campaign lifted those speech lines, very crucial words, without attribution or caring, from first lady Michelle Obama's speech.
Someone stole Melania's chance to have her voice heard and gave her the words of her husband's purported arch political enemy.
And Sean Spicer and friends knew and know all of this.
Yet he chose to argue something they he knew full well was not the truth.
This instead of taking a breath, taking responsibility and apologizing, the Trump campaign went on the attack.
Each passing hour the Trump campaign's explanations went from absurd to bizarre. Paul Manafort, Trump's Campaign Chairman said it was Hillary Clinton's fault because Clinton does not like other strong women.
What? SOP for GOP, blame the Clinton family when in trouble.
The Trump Standard Operating Procedure is that if you say something strange enough, folks will forget the original transgression. That will not happen here.
How do you top Paul Manafort?
You bring in Sean Spicer, the RNC's ace Communications Director.
In an interview with Wolf Blitzer, he called Melania's speech common and over used. He listed line after line of others who have used these ideas in their own songs, speeches or rhetoric. Sean argued that because these are ideas are used by everyone, Melania could not have plagiarized. They are in the public domain and unoriginal.
But, he did not stop there.
He then went on to compare Melania's speech to a My Little Pony toy.
Take a look for yourself. It was a complete farce.
Spicer said to Blitzer...
"Melania Trump said...'The Strength of your dreams and the willingness to work for them.'" Then Spicer added "Twilight Sparkle from My little Pony said, this is your dream, anything you can do in your dreams, you can do now."
Spicer concluded: "if we want to take a bunch of phrases and run them through a Google and say hey, who else has said them, I can come up with the list in five minutes."
Huh. Really?
Melania Trump's speech to the Republican National Convention is no better written or thought out or important than a My Little Pony toy?
Well, maybe that is true to Sean Spicer, in the My Little Pony world there are grown men who like to play with these toys and they are called "Bronies."
To each his or her own.
However, to remind Sean, please do not again deflect blame for the GOP nominee's incompetence, to never again compare a grown woman to a toy, to never again denigrate a spouses' presidential convention speech either by plagiarizing or lowering its worth. Who knows -- you may be sent back to the world of My Little Pony to learn the lessons of honesty and leave the grown up work to the grown-ups.
I do know, I look forward to shaking Sean's hand because he is a gentleman. Unfortunately for him as the Communications Director of the RNC, he just does not have the candidate to win the White House as the GOP searches for purpose and direction.
Michael Duga has served in political and strategic roles beginning in the Clinton Administration. This includes serving as Chief of Staff to Former Senator Max Cleland and as a Senior Policy Advisor to the Department of Defense. Mr. Duga is currently the Chief Executive Officer of the Say No To Trump political action committee, www.SayNoToTrumpPAC.com.