"I'm not a member of an organized party.  I'm a Democrat." 

If Will Rogers had said this today he would be describing the Republican convention in Cleveland, or at least the preconvention meetings.  Unlike the Democrats, the Republicans hold their Committee meetings the week before the actual convention.  There, important decisions are made about the platform, rules and credentials.  It's a good place to see the internal dynamics of the GOP in action.

A photograph from a Donald J. Trump's site Gallery taken at a March 9th Fayetteville, NC rally

Although organizing for these meetings starts long before the actual convention, the lack of organization, multiple mistakes and repeated shifts of direction was unlike the traditional Republican style of being well put together. 

Once SeniorWomen.com  was officially credentialed for the Republican convention we received e-mails from GOP media operations telling us that we had to apply for separate credentials to cover the Rules and Platform Committees.  And, we also had to apply to cover the Republican National Committee's summer meeting.  And we had to apply for pre-convention credentials.  We did, via e-mail, as requested.

We soon got emails from Eventbrite to print out tickets for the first two.  The third request bounced.  Three times.  A few more e-mails to GOP media operations disclosed a one character mistake in the e-mail address we had been sent.  These days that's enough to send a request into never-never land.  Our next request for pre-convention credentials didn't bounce, but we never got a reply.  Ditto for our 2nd and 3rd attempts.

Once in Cleveland, we took our printed tickets to the building where the Committee hearings were being held.  Sorry, we were told, there's no room at the inn.  Too many press; too few seats.  Come back later.  We did.  Several times.  We never got in.

Probably to get rid of us, we were told to go to the media filing center at the Cleveland Convention Center (CCC) to watch the Rules Committee debates on a screen.  There, security wouldn't let us in because we didn't have pre-convention passes.  We were told to write and/or call Brigit Visconti who was at the Quicken Loans Arena ("Q") where the actual Republican Convention would be held. Never got a reply.

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