Donald Trump has parlayed Joe Biden’s debate debacle and his own bravura response to a recent assassination attempt into an invaluable political asset: momentum. The Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, crackled over the last week with the energy, enthusiasm and confidence momentum provides. It was all so heady that some of Trump’s supporters and GOP strategists felt comfortable speculating that the former president might be re-elected in a landslide that could also deliver both chambers of Congress into their hands.

So when the festivities drew to a close Thursday night, the star of the show had an opportunity to deliver a keynote speech that would allow him to take a prime-time victory lap and his party to court independent and moderate voters alienated by the division Trump has stoked for nearly a decade. “Unity” was one of the GOP’s watchwords for the week.

Unity and strategy both fell by the wayside once Trump began orating, however. His speech was so somnambulant and self-absorbed that at times the convention floor felt like a seance guided by a medium speaking in tongues. Trump is 78 and sleepy, which may have brought the energy level down. Perhaps, more centrally, he might be grappling with physical or emotional trauma brought on by a shooting that he fortunately survived.