In particular, the endorsements (full throated endorsements) were read word for word from a script. I don;t think he prepared the script. I think he offered to his critic/advisers that he would deliver to the public, whatever they told him to say in that regard. Unlike most of what he says, the endorsements came off as perfunctory, but no transcript will show that.
On the bombast scale, he was much lower. Fewer "hot applause lines," but not none. He reamed Hillary, as usual, hitting all the points and some new ones. The crowd was energized.
I watched and listened on C-SPAN, which, I understand, had a muted mic on the crowd. So, with that in mind, take the following observation with a grain of salt. I thought the crowd was not energized or impressed with the endorsements. Certainly the delivery was close to deadpan (for Trump), and my impression (again from C-SPAN) was that the crowd listened politely, showing neither strong pleasure (cheering, applause) nor disapproval (no boos).
I watched last night’s rally on cspan also.
When the speech was over, did you see the crowd get up to leave? They were waving their Trump/Pence signs at the cameras. Also, Mr. Trump was surrounded by the crowd at the end.
As for the tone of the speech, and the content, I was very impressed. Candidates in the past have their standard stump speeches and they have their more serious policy speeches. The latter was what Trump gave last night.
I imagine it to be like the reading of the script australia gave johnny depp about illegally bringing in those dogs.
I was very disappointed in last night’s speech. His heart wasn’t in the endorsements, and that was easy to see. It was like he was gagging on the words.
And we found out today that Ryan’s opponent, although invited to the rally by Trump, was intercepted by GOP at the beginning and escorted out. WTF anyhow?
I fear the real Donald Trump is missing and the basement should be checked for pods.