In this election cycle, Woodpecker doesn’t sound nearly as angry or outrageous as I’d expected. The tone of conversation has definitely shifted, and maybe its drift.

For perspective, remember that the infamous Chicago convention of ’68 took place nearly a month later, in late August. This is going to be a long and brutal battle.

The national government’s been gridlocked, thanks to a Republican vow to oppose and undercut anything President Obama has desired.  They have no basis for blaming him or his administration for anything, then. The failures really fall back on their own shoulders.

The challenge now is to elect officials who will work together to solve problems on behalf of all Americans.

Trump and his party have, in practice, already excluded all but older white males of a nominally Christian persuasion. As a white male, and as a radical Christian, I’m deeply offended by their arrogance and presumption.

The alternative of either the nation’s first woman president or first Jewish president has been far more welcoming in the primary season. Now, if Democrats and Independent voters stay united, the reality of an inclusive White House that serves all Americans is in reach.

So here we go.

With all of the hoopla surrounding vice presidential picks, I can’t help but wonder where the scrutiny was when John McCain pulled Sarah Palin out of the hat.

His lapse in judgment there may well have cost him the White House.

Quite simply, we dodged the bullet.

Let’s not underestimate the importance of this half of the ticket.

I, for one, am grateful for Joe Biden’s service the past eight years.

Simply wondering. Does anyone remember:

• Jeb Bush
• Ben Carson
• Chris Christie
• Ted Cruz
• Carly Fiorina
• Jim Gilmore
• Lindsey Graham
• Mike Huckabee
• Bobby Jindal
• John Kasich
• George Pataki
• Rick Perry
• Marco Rubio
• Rick Santorum
• Scott Walker

More specifically, just what do you remember? Anything about their agenda? Or their record? Or has it come down to hair style and bluster?

Miss any of them?

Simply wondering. Just for perspective.

We knew it was coming, but it still comes as a shock. As one conservative tweeted last night, the Republican Party has lost its mind. Or another, more bluntly, “voted to die.” Some said the GOP has even endorsed Putin or at least invited him to speak. And those were the ones who were seeing more or less clearly. Compare that to, say, Chris Christie, who’s still lusting after some crumbs from the table. Is it purely pathetic or worse, tragic? Time will tell.

This is nothing like the party I grew up in, where reason and civility were honored and respected. At least on the surface, in our small part of the world, when Dwight D. Eisenhower was in command. But now?

Donald Trump has had pretty much of a free ride up to this point, but now he’ll finally have to start facing the facts, which aren’t adding up to his boasts. Just how much is he really worth? How bad has his business leadership been? Why is he afraid to release his income-tax statements — or, for that matter, how soon before the public demands to see his emails, too? As for his claims to the Art of the Deal? His co-author’s outing him as a phony.

As I’ve previously explained, the experience of living in New Hampshire, with its test-market role in the presidential campaign season, instills an alertness for the unexpected trip-up that fatally rips through a candidate’s mask. Trump evaded that possibility by largely refusing to engage in the face-to-face encounters with everyday voters here. His not-too-frequent events were largely stage-managed shows, rather than the two-way conversations of Granite State tradition. He never exposed himself to anyone to any significant degree.

His big trip-up — the one that somehow unpredictably takes hold or, as we say in the news business, “has legs” — may be emerging from his staff’s attempt to paint him as a compassionate and caring person. The notion of currying sympathy by having his (third) wife come out from her wall of privacy to say something that would soften his image might have worked. Who knows, maybe the thick accent would have been seen as charming and counter his stream of blasts at immigrants and their American-born children. Or maybe it would harden the perception of hypocrisy. That part was a risk, and it’s hard to tell how it functioned. Instead, the discovery of the lines brazenly stolen from Michelle Obama’s 2008 address in what Melania insisted was a speech she wrote herself now casts questions on all of the positive attributes she tried in invoke. After the cruelty of Trump’s attacks on Ted Cruz’ wife and family, few are likely to show mercy on Trump’s, no matter how much privacy she expects. Remember, this Republican crowd hates President Obama and the First Lady, yet Mrs. Trump turned to them as models to emulate. You can’t have it both ways. Let’s be honest, Michelle Obama is a paragon of intelligence, decency, and tasteful style, hardly what’s come out after Melania’s speech on the opening night in Cleveland as it points to organizational dysfunction in her husband’s campaign staff — his blaming Hillary Clinton’s camp for uncovering the plagiarism rather than his own failures is all too telling in its own way. You’re letting Melania go prime-time without the standard safeguards? From there it’s a short leap to falsehoods about her own accomplishments, from the failure to complete college, as she’s claimed, to the success of her modeling career before Donald came along. Oh, how long before the flood of questions of whether she’s fit to be First Lady, especially in comparison with Hillary’s success there.

It will be fascinating, maybe even painful, to watch Melania’s role in the coming months. Her absence from his side will be noted, as will her silence when she’s in public in his presence. And then if she opens her mouth?

This will not be pretty. But then neither is the nomination.