Tuesday's Republican convention was supposed to be about jobs. Guess what was barely mentioned?

The Republican National Convention was lite on policy

(Image credit: Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images)

last updated 20 July 2016

The theme of Tuesday night's Republican National Convention was "Make America Work Again," but it might have more accurately been dubbed "Work to Make America Hate Hillary Clinton." According to a tally from FiveThirtyEight, speakers on Tuesday said "Hillary" 87 times, "Clinton" 70 times, and "jobs" just 24 times. "Donald" was said 59 times, as was "Trump" — and two of Trump's children were among the featured speakers. "Work" fared better than jobs, with 37 mentions, and "business" tied with "government" at 25 nods.

Donald Trump's son Don Jr. and daughter Tiffany probably account for the bulk of the business talk. Most of the night felt like a criminal trial for Clinton — in fact, Chris Christie literally laid out his case to the Republican delegate jury. Ben Carson went Biblical on Clinton, and House Speaker Paul Ryan dedicated much more of his speech to attacking Clinton that he did supporting Trump. Now, Trump leads a divided party, so it makes sense that the Republicans would unite around a common foe if they can't all rally around their nominee. It will be interesting to see how the Democrats handle Trump next week.

But it is also true that in a night billed as focused on the "need to get America's economy up and running ... and get Americans working again," Republicans had basically four policy prescriptions to make that happen: Repeal ObamaCare, dig more coal, rip up government regulations, and elect Donald Trump. Or, as Hillary Clinton put it:

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For what it's worth, Wednesday's theme is scheduled to be "Make America First Again."

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.