Republican Convention: Best and Worst Moments From Night 1

Welcome to Opinion’s commentary for Night 1 of the Republican National Convention. In this special feature, Times Opinion writers rate the evening on a scale of 0 to 10: 0 means the night was a disaster for Donald Trump and his party; 10 means it could lead to a big polling bump. Here’s what our columnists and contributors thought of the event, which included speeches from Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Senator Tim Scott and Sean O’Brien, the president of the Teamsters, who was given a prime slot.

Best Moment

Kristen Soltis Anderson Donald Trump appearing in public was powerful. Smart to follow it with two good, very unconventional Republican convention speakers — Amber Rose and Sean O’Brien — who demonstrated how Trump is trying to reshape the G.O.P. coalition with voters Democrats have taken for granted.

Binyamin Appelbaum President Biden’s interview on NBC on Monday night, which aired while the convention was in progress, probably helped Trump more than anything that was said on a sleepy first night in Milwaukee.

Charles M. Blow It was the night of Black people (all but one of them men), Hispanics (mostly women) and white women — groups that Republicans are trying to increase their percentages among. Sean O’Brien probably had the most impact, even though his speech tried to walk the middle of the road. At times it felt as though he was speaking at the wrong convention. Trump’s presence electrified the crowd. But there was a bit of strain and fatigue in his face, sometimes looking as if he might be on the verge of tears, which I guess is understandable under the circumstances.

Jamelle Bouie This was a perfectly average night at a political convention. I suppose you could say, however, that it was helpful for the president of the Teamsters to be onstage.