Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - "I was struck by, not only the emotion of the crowd,
but what looked like the emotion of Donald Trump."
Republican strategist Carl Calabrese called Night 1 of the Republican National Convention a very emotional moment.
"He looked visibly moved, almost choked up at times, especially when Lee Greenwood was singing 'God Bless the USA'. Coming so quickly after the events of Saturday night, it was frankly, just what the Republican Party needed last night," Calabrese said on WBEN.
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He thinks Trump's VP choice of J.D. Vance is a strategic move.
"There are a lot of different maps that get Trump to 270 electoral votes. Almost every single map includes winning one of three rust belt, now called blue wall states. They are Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Calabrese expects Trump to put Vance in those states to talk to people in towns that experienced globalization, similar to what Ohio experienced with factories closing when Vance was growing up.
In Calabrese's words, it could be critical in delivering one of more of those states to Trump and getting Trump closer to 270 votes.
Vance is a 39-year-old Republican, in his first term in the Senate. As part of the Trump ticket, he is a potential successor to Trump, since Trump cannot run again in four years.
"He's a very smart guy and very articulate. He can debate with the best of them and I can't wait to see the debate between him and Kamala Harris."
On the Democrat side, all of the talk about replacing Joe Biden is suddenly off the radar.
Calabrese says many feel that the Trump assassination attempt probably scuttled that effort.
"Any type of coup against a sitting president is not going to sit well with the Democratic party or the American people. In kind of a strange way, Joe Biden is a benefactor of the attempt to take Trump out of the race as it appears to have saved his position as the party nominee."