SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:56 P.M. ET:

HILLARY'S CHOICE – She's picked Virginia Senator Tim Kaine for vice president.  Kaine previously served as governor of Virginia.  From Powerline:  "The mainstream media likes to portray Kaine as a 'centrist' and a 'bridge builder.' The reality is quite different.  In the Senate, Kaine almost always votes the liberal line. The American Conservative Union consistently gives him a zero rating. Same with the Eagle Forum. With Americans for Prosperity and Heritage Action, he’s in single digits.  Kaine is a practicing Catholic, but a reliable pro-abortion vote. He gets a zero from the Family Research Council and 100 percent from NARAL and Planned Parenthood.  Though at times he talked a good game on the problems with the Iran nuclear deal, in the end he voted for it, to no one’s surprise.  This is the New York Times’s idea of a moderate."   Compared to the new Democratic Party, he's Calvin Coolidge.  In the adult world he is just as Powerline describes him.

TRUMP DOES IT AGAIN – Fresh from a triumphant last night of his convention, Donald Trump couldn't resist the temptation to step all over his victory.  This morning he held a bizarre news conference in which he viciously attacked Ted Cruz, announcing that he didn't want Cruz's endorsement anyway.  I have no idea why Trump does that, detracting from his own victory and making himself look like a nut case.  I mean, he's not running against Cruz, he's running against Hillary.  Focus, focus, focus.  Trump can easily defeat himself, and often seems to be working at it, as if it's a sacred goal.  We assign his children to keep him on message and out of trouble.  Or...maybe he really is a nut case.  We'll soon find out.

BOUNCE – FROM THE HILL:   Donald Trump is within 3 percentage points of Hillary Clinton nationally, according to a new poll released Friday, showing a bounce from the Republican National Convention.  Clinton has 41 percent support among likely voters, and Trump has 38 percent, the Reuters/Ipsos poll found.  The former secretary of State was leading by 12 points in last week’s Reuters poll, released days before the GOP convention began in Cleveland on Monday.  Friday’s poll surveyed 1,036 likely voters July 18–22, and the convention ran July 18–21. It has a credibility interval of about 4 points.  The new poll mirrors other recent surveys. According to RealClearPolitics, Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, leads by an average of 2.7 points in the latest polls.  We'll see if the Dems get a bounce out of their convention.  I'm not sure they will.  Hillary is an old face who has little upside potential.  Kaine is dull.  And there'll be enough flashes of the party's hard left to turn many people off.  But the media will help whenever possible.

July 22, 2016