Not at all. He earned votes and that's all that matters.
Trump was excellent yesterday. He showed up to a hostile crowd and basically called them losers to their faces. And then he did what he does best. He made deals. Trump makes deals. He wrote a book about making deals.
And, he was hilarious. Classic Trump! The crowd was booing and there's Trump, calling them a bunch of three percenters.
Did he win over the Libertarian Party? Nope. Did he win some of them? Undoubtedly. Trump is playing to win. He understands that a few thousand votes in some critical states might be all that matters.
So for the votes of a few folks in key states, he commutes the sentence of a drug dealer?
I think that his appearance in enemy territory, the liveliness of the crowd, the booing and Trump being strong voiced and unfazed all were a very effective demonstration of his being in reality about 20 years younger than Biden.
For the general public it is yet another look at the age contrast of the vigorous alert Trump versus the old man doddering around in short scripted campaign shadows.
That’s a good summary of what happened yesterday. I agree with your take. I commented yesterday that Trump didn’t pander to the Libertarians. He made the case that they agree on more than they disagree and that they have more to gain by voting for him than by not voting for him. The once exception to that might have been the Ulbricht pardon. But that’s a small price to pay if it can make the difference between winning a crucial state and losing it, and it’s worth noting that Trump spoke of commuting his sentence, not pardoning him. He said “He’s been in long enough”, which is not the same as saying he wasn’t guilty or should never have been locked up.