I remember watching the 1992 Republican Convention in my parents’ living room. I was back on the East Coast for a summer visit, and I was completely horrified by what I witnessed. The whole thing was deplorable, but what I mainly remember twenty years later is Pat Buchanan’s frightening culture war speech and the crowd’s enthusiastic hee-haw response. The Texas delegation was front and center, wearing ten-gallon hats and celebrating their hatred of multiculturalism (indeed, biodiversity) with an ardor that made my blood run cold. I figured I wasn’t alone. Pat Buchanan scared the crap out of people with that speech and did wonders for Bill Clinton’s campaign. But, even then, Bush got a bit of a bounce out of his convention. Not so, for Mitt Romney. Mr. Romney received a negative bounce, which is unprecedented. Barely over a third (36%) of the people who watched the convention reported that it made them more likely to vote for Romney/Ryan, while just under a half (46%) said it made them less likely to vote for them.

You can chalk that up to a variety of factors, but the most important one was that Paul Ryan gave a terrible speech that was immediately flagged by the media as being totally dishonest. That’s not how you make a first impression.

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