Winners and losers in Republican Convention

That's a wrap. The most unpredictable and newsy political convention in at least four decades is in the books. Donald Trump's speech dominated the night, of course, but there was plenty of other fodder, too. Here is a take on the best and the worst from yesterday.

Winners

Ivanka Trump: Everyone expected Ivanka to be good. After all, she's spent most of her life in the spotlight and shown, time and again, that she is entirely comfortable there. But, even with those lofty expectations, Ivanka soared past them in her speech introducing her father. She was poised. She was confident. And, most of all, she was on message. Ivanka spent the bulk of her speech rebutting the idea that her father has a woman problem. She touted his "gender neutral" approach to hiring. She told stories of how he encouraged her, as a young girl, to think big. She recalled how he would send her sketches of buildings and tell her he couldn't wait until she would be building them alongside him. And, Ivanka did it all without savaging Hillary Clinton or Democrats. She simply painted an alternative - and far more appealing - picture of a man who everyone already thought they knew.

Donald Trump: The Republican nominee gave the crowd what it was looking for - a command performance of the tough-talking, details-free approach that won him the nomination in the first place. He promised to wipe out crime as soon as he took office. He promised to defeat Isis "fast". He promised a whole lot of things. What he didn't do was provide any meaningful specifics about how he might do it. The crowd in the room was with him for the whole address - cheering in the right moments, booing when it was required. Trump, too, seemed relatively dialled in - staying, generally, on the TelePrompTer and hitting his applause lines well. The speech itself was well crafted - if WAY too long. On the whole, the speech - I think - did Trump more good than harm, particularly at a convention in which his message had repeatedly been muddled by self-inflicted errors. But, is Trump's America a portrait that undecided voters recognise? And do they believe he is the only one who can truly fix it?

Loser

Paul Manafort: Manafort, Trump's campaign manager, stuck his foot in his mouth not once but twice. First, Manafort suggested that Trump would win over women voters because "women feel they can't afford their lives. Their husbands can't afford to pay for the family bills". Er. Then Manafort suggested that he didn't trust the FBI numbers on crime dropping in the country because of the way they handled the investigation into Hillary Clinton's email server. Double er. Manafort's job - especially on a night like this one - is to keep the focus on his boss, not distract with politically incorrect comments that create their own tempests in a teapot. He failed at that. Twice.