Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will take the stage at the Republican National Convention and try to rev up the GOP base for a man he recently admitted doesn’t “know the issues.” Less than three weeks ago, McConnell said he believed Donald Trump needed to become a “more serious and credible candidate for the highest office in the land.” But none of McConnell’s reservations have kept him away from the limelight in Cleveland. He’s not a retired Republican dignitary who can skip out on Cleveland like George W. Bush and brother. McConnell has a job to do, keeping the Senate in Republican control. He needs to work with the situation on the ground, much as he wishes it were different.
McConnell, a political veteran, has some strategies to employ. He is set to attack Hillary Clinton — that won’t be hard for him. As for supporting Trump overtly, McConnell will say the right things, taking the wider perspective with his favorite kind of “old wisdom”-type statements. When McConnell faced the political battle of his life back in 2008, barely squeaking out a victory over Democrat Bruce Lunsford, he quoted Winston Churchill, who once said that “the most exhilarating feeling in life is to be shot at – and missed.” If you’re trying to judge how McConnell feels at the podium, that special brand of exhilarated might just explain it.
