“One thing is missing from President Trump’s midterm gathering for Republicans this week: any semblance of official party business that forms the backbone of traditional quadrennial conventions,” the New York Times reports.“Essentially, Mr. Trump has stripped out all the perfunctory, yet necessary, parts of a typical presidential convention and kept the made-for-TV elements.”“Only once before in modern political history, in 1982, has a national party held a midterm-year gathering in advance of the midterm elections. That event, held by Democrats, went so poorly that the next party chairman called such events ‘places for mischief’ and canceled plans to do it again in 1986.”Reuters: What to know about Trump’s unusual midterm convention.