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Beating back the last-ditch efforts to sabotage 70-year-old real estate tycoon Donald Trump, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus delivered the final blow to the Stop Trump movement. Denied a vote by the Convention chair to get a roll call vote on future rules changes, the anti-Trump forces were stopped dead in their tracks. However slim their chances on the convention floor at Quicken Arena in Cleveland, Trump campaign Chairman Paul Manafort showed why he’s the steady hand moving toward Trump’s nomination. Winning victories in the Rules Committee July 16, Trump no longer had to worry about unbinding delegates or allowing delegates to voter their “conscience.” Once Trump prevailed in the Rules Committee, there was less drama on today’s convention floor, where anti-Trump forces lost any attempt to change Republican National Convention rules.

Hyping the showdown on the convention floor helped sagging daytime ratings for cable news networks but offered little drama with Trump’s weekend victories on the Rules Committee. Manafort’s strategy of picking 57-year-old conservative Indiana Gov. Mike Pence July 14 paid off, sucking the wind out of the Stop Trump movement. Stunning VP finalists New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former House Speaker New Gingrich (R-Ga.), Manafort’s gambit paid off beating back the anti-Trump crowd led at the convention led by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Ut.) and Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Az.), and convention boycotters former Florida Jeb Bush and 2012 GOP nominee former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney. While ruffling Christie and Gingrich, Manafort played his cards right pushing for Pence as Trump’s VP, at least for the convention. How that pays off in November is anyone’s guess.

Priebus has worked hard behind the scenes to make certain that Trump, the GOP’s biggest primary vote getter ever, wins the nomination on the first ballot. Since Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tx.) and Ohio Gov. John Kasich dropped out May 3 after Trump’s landslide win in the Indiana primary, anti-Trump delegates plotted convention strategy to block his nomination. Asking numerous times to vote their “conscience,” delegates were reading-and-willing to disenfranchise 14 million primary voters casting ballots for Trump. How any delegate thinks that’s a vote of “conscience” is a mystery. Priebus believed it was the RNC’s job to guarantee to the rights of GOP primary voters. Trump’s opponents practically stood on their heads to get the RNC to change the rules to unbind votes on the first ballot. With 1,543 bound delegates, Manafort and Priebus found it outrageous that delegates sought to change the rules to disenfranchise Trump.

Gingrich told former President George W. Bush to “get over it,” calling the Bush clan childish for not going to the convention to back Trump. All GOP presidential candidates signed an RNC pledge to back the eventual nominee. Bush and Ohio Gov. John Kasich backed out the pledge. Both hoped if the Stop Trump movement succeeded they has a puncher’s chance of getting nominated in a contested convention. Kasich still insists national polss show him running better than Trump in November against Democratic presumptive nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Kasich amassed 161 delegates in 56 primaries and caucuses, not winning a single state. Trump’s overwhelming appeal was dismissed by the group of 16 other defeated GOP candidates as a 2016 voter rebellion, showing no real backing from conservatives and party elites.

Manafort succeeded in getting enough party unity to help Trump win the nomination on the first ballot. Picking Pence was a calculated move designed to appeal to conservatives and party elites, compromising Trump’s outsider appeal to independents and crossover Democrats. Signing the anti-LBGT Religious Freedom Reform Act March 26 in Indiana, Pence cemented his conservative credentials but hurts Trump in the general election. Many disgruntled voters for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) wished Trump would have picked a moderate, especially without a voting against the LGBT community. Once the convention’s over, Trump’s got a lot of damage control to do with his VP pick. Trump had only bad choices when it came to his VP. Making amends, Trump and Pence will have to reassure independents and crossovers that they won’t mess with abortion or gay marriage.

With Melania Trump due to take the stage tonight with Iowa’s 46-year-old Gov. Joni Ernst, Manafort hopes to highlight the nation’s next First Lady. While still in New York, Trump plans to fly to Cleveland to introduce his wife, highlighting Manafort’s narrative that Turmp’s, first-and-foremost a family man. Before Trump delivers his acceptance speech Thursday night, Manafort hopes to continue the Trump family-man narrative, listening to speeches by Trump’s daughter Ivanka and two sons, Eric and Donald. Because the 2016 GOP race was so bruising, it’s taken time to mend fences with conservatives and part elites. Watching Jeb and Mitt boycott the convention shows the continued bitterness. Winning over delegates and unifying the party, Trump and Pence hope to hit-the-ground-running after the convention. Pence showed already he’s ready to follow Trump’s lead.