Four years ago, I regarded Ann Romney's RNC speech as what was the strongest attempt yet at humanising a man who was widely regarded by the electorate as an insensitive rich guy. As it turns out, that perception cemented itself into the American psyche, and is today regarded as a principal contributor towards Obama's November victory.

The Romneys are now boycotting the GOP convention in protest against Donald Trump's impending confirmation as nominee. Yet yesterday, I couldn't help but wonder whether Ann couldn't help but grimace and shudder as she watched her successor fail miserably at everything she had managed to accomplish four years ago: conveying her husband's clarity of vision for America, portraying the moment as a climactic distillation of his entire career, and perhaps most importantly of all, present a new, intimate, unseen facet to the politician's life story.

Despite the eventual electoral defeat, four years down the line, I still believe that Ann Romney, in her own way, roughly succeeded in all three aspects. Melania Trump failed miserably in all of them- and this is without considering the monstrosity of an error that was plagiarising from Michelle Obama. Yet, I don't attribute almost any of the blame on Melania. She just happened to be another victim of her husband's self-styled character as an anti-politician, as well as his bigotry, racism, sexism, and self-righteousness.

You see, the Trump campaign has spent the days leading up to the Convention stating over and over again that people should expect something completely different; that just like the Donald isn't a 'conventional politician', this won't be the 'conventional' political event we've grown accustomed to. Turns out that such 'unconventionality' stopped when it came to Melania Trump's speech. The format at its core was the traditional spousal address of a nominee's spouse, peppered with the glittering imagery and (insufferable) cliches which conservatives loves so much. None of this however could have possibly worked in relation to an individual whose political rise to glory has rested on the idea of American decline, and a deep-rooted distrust in the nation's people - a sort of 'patriotic pessimism', if you will.

The Trump vision for America we heard yesterday, just like so many other campaign statements was stale and anything but clear. A litany of campaign slogans were left unaccompanied by any policy statements or concrete plans. At a time when the campaign faces harsh criticism on Donald's unsuccessful ventures, countless lawsuits, fraud allegations, and questionable business practices, Melania had an opportunity to shed a light on her husband's entrepreneurial acumen and thought process. The speech was pretty much silent and vague in that respect as well. "No room for small thinking," it was stated, in a speech dominated by small talk.

Yet, the speech not only failed because it missed out on crucial opportunities, but also because far from humanising the man, she implicitly reinforced all that we already knew- and feared he embodied. In speaking about the opportunity for success and personal and professional development which her husband opened up to her, Melania exposed him as a person of two weights, two measures.  In celebrating her acquisition of US citizenship, calling it the "greatest privilege on planet Earth," we were reminded that if her husband has his way come November, millions of immigrants just like her would literally find a wall barring them from that same "privilege". In stating that President Trump would "[welcome] cooperation between peoples and nations," one couldn't help but question whether the person she was lauding was the same who revelled in division, offended nations and world leaders, and called for an entire religion to be profiled and banned.

From the palpable uneasiness of the crowd in Cleveland, it is amply clear that even the Republican base deemed the speech to present omens of disorganisation, carelessness, and blatant disrespect to the electorate's most basic intelligence, rather than the tidings of well-meaning change they were hoping for. For the rest of us, it served as definitive confirmation that the Donald Trump we thought we knew is indeed the person he really is.