CLEVELAND — Darkness fell in Cleveland.

Ronald Reagan, the candidate Donald Trump most aspires to be, cheerily conjured the image of "Morning in America" in both of his winning presidential campaigns, blunting the edge of the harder-edged conservatism of his earlier career. On the first night of Donald Trump's Republican National Convention — personally stage-managed by the nominee — a blackout curtain of unrelenting gloom was lowered on the Quicken Loans Center in service of his slogan "Make America Safe Again."

A majority of Americans see the country on the wrong track, for sure, but polls don't illustrate a population gripped by widespread death-metal doom. Yet for about two prime-time hours, viewers were hit with a relentless recitation of death, anger, danger, helplessness, blood, murder, fear and terror — graphic stories about Benghazi, crimes committed by illegal immigrants and out-of-control terrorism abetted by Hillary Clinton.

It was no surprise, given the country's-on-fire tone of Trump's primary message (his campaign book was titled "Crippled America," after all) and to some extent it was an unconventional rendition of a conventional convention tactic: vividly illustrating the perils so that the nominee, who speaks on Thursday, can offer his white-horse optimistic solution to the nation's problems.

Still, laying out the case for Trump in such stark terms illustrated the weakness of a campaign he calls "a movement" bigger than himself. There's a fragility to Trumpism in the absence of Trump's personal presence — what a bummer it was hearing all that lousy news without the leavening of the candidate's offbeat humor and the power of his personality.

Here are five takeaways from a first day filled with convention-floor conflict, poor stage management, flashes of powerful anti-Hillary messaging and Melaniagate.

1. Trump is an apprentice at running a convention. There were moments of clarity and power (Sheriff David Clarke delivered a clarion message for "Blue Lives Matters" — and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani talked about the candidate's "big heart"), but for the most part, the shaggy program wasn't up to the production standards of Trump's TV shows.

This is not a small matter.