The problem with that approach will be getting the MSM to discuss policy differences–
over that days’ rendition of Trump The Insult Comic Candidate.
jw1
11 Likes
jeb is a wimp. jeb is out of touch. jeb is a bush. hrc is none of the above.
5 Likes
I think what everyone is missing and this article doesn’t say is that although the campaign won’t engage I have a feeling you will see a lot of insults and same kind of things dragged into the discussion about Trump by the surrogates in the Democratic Party. You saw the preview with Senator Warren.
Good plan.
8 Likes
The problem with that strategy for Trump is, its merely preaching to the choir. And there are some stark realities that make today’s electorate different from 2004.
Namely, we start with a big electoral college advantage and significant demographic advantages over Trump. His task is not to turn out the same people that voted for Romney, who lost, but to expand upon that campaign significantly. He has to GROW the number of Hispanics that vote for a republican president; he has to GROW the number of women that vote republican president, and yes…Trump has to even grow the number of white males that vote for a republican president.
Right now, the early state by state polling shows them losing battleground states from 2008/2012 (VA and FL) outright, and new battleground states emerging that were solidly republican (GA and AZ). Even UT and MS look kind of shaky.
Preaching to the choir won’t work as a general election strategy, and the fact that he is going there early is probably an indication that the same dynamic that was in play in 2012 is even more in play now…namely, that Trump is going to have to spend some weeks/months of the General solidifying the GOP base like Romney did. That’s a weakness that keeps him turned to the right when he should be turning to voters in the middle.
By contrast, as Hillary “preaches to the choir” about how awful Trump is…that message is actually appealing to those voters in the middle. Those voters have already heard all the 90s attacks on Hillary and Bill…and Bill left office with record high approval numbers. They have already decided.
I would further add, on a slightly different tangent, that while the possibility that both candidates will commit gaffes are react badly to external events…that chance is significantly higher for Trump, who gets flustered very easily when he is perceived as losing. Say what you like about Hillary being boring or too careful with her words…in the long run that is a benefit, and Trump’s habit of shooting off immediately from the hip is going to be a big negative.
25 Likes
Obama and Warren are going to just repeatedly smash Trump. Obama is going to campaign and make jokes about trump while Warren will be tweeting all the time about how weak he is.
24 Likes
That 25+min. interview was, to me, as focused as HRC was
during the Benghazi Committee hearings exposure.
All policy and positional insight. Worth watching in its’ entirety.
jw1
10 Likes
So if the Trump campaign says she should release her speech transcripts, her campaign can say, “Unseal your rape court records AND release your taxes and, oh, how about YOUR paid speech transcripts.”
4 Likes
I don’t recall Jeb laughing him off. I recall Jeb ignoring him and taking the high road, acting all proper and righteous.
Clinton is being dismissive and treating Trump like a joke. That’ll work much better.
7 Likes
I don’t believe that one bit
I don’t think so. I see it playing out more like this…
Surrogate X for Hillary makes a snarky insult at Trump’s expense. Trump the Insult Comic immediately launches into a tear in response. Media talks about that. In other news, Hillary makes the case again for XXX sound policy position.
Hillary stays above the fray, more or less, and relentlessly makes her case…while Trump ends up splitting his time between twitter wars, which he enjoys too much, and putting together actual policy positions, which he abhors.
I know some people say that Trump doesn’t have to do policy at all…but he does. He is already starting to feel the heat for not having any solid positions,and constantly changing the ones he does espouse. That pressure will continue to grow through the late summer and fall…Nature abhors a vacuum…and no policy positions in a Presdiential General election is vacuum.
13 Likes
This is all true, although I do worry a little about the effect of voter suppression, particularly in places like Virginia where the suppressors just won a victory. I also think that crazed Trump supporters might successfully cause trouble at poll locations in democratic areas.
Then again, I probably shouldn’t underestimate the possibility that he actually pisses off his own supporters while he flails around blindly during the general campaign.
Yeah and the fact Jim Messina and Steve Hildebrand, two of the geniuses in Obama’s war room are working for Hillary . their data analytics are what got Obama elected in 2008, they were even better in 2012 and they say they will be even better in 2016. I am confident HRC is going to do very well and win this election
11 Likes
So Trump’s daughter is to blame for his desire to bang her?
Yikes, what have conservatives done to “family values?”
11 Likes
Obama is chomping at the bit. He wants to get started so fuckin’ bad it’s KILLING him.
10 Likes
Trump cannot be coached to do this either.
He’ll be in perpetual pendulum swings-- arcing between extremes.
Unable to slow them-- as his rhetoric cannot be delivered in any sort of measure.
His method (if it can be described as one) is a ‘Gish Gallop for the Dense’.
jw1
5 Likes
Trump’s republican rivals in the primaries were hobbled because they didn’t want to alienate the crazy base that Trump was appealing too. Hillary & her surrogates can go full bore on his nutty statements and his ‘policy’ zigzagging from one day to the next. That will be fun to watch.
6 Likes
And from what I’ve read, Clinton has a much better ground campaign than Trump.
5 Likes
Politico had an article about that. Its staggering how ill prepared Trump’s campaign is for a General. I am a big believer in ground games and organization win elections (Thanks Obama!), and just based on the numbers in this politico piece…given the huge demographic and electoral college hole that Trump has to dig out of…he is going to get pummeled.
16 Likes
Off the charts better and bigger
4 Likes
And then there is my evil side whispering to me…
That I am not the only one that has noticed the weird and regular mood swings of Trump…raving late night twitter rants at everything for a few days…followed by a few days of a depressed funk…before “righting” and being regular Trump for about 2-3 weeks…and then starting the whole cycle over.
If I were on the Clinton campaign, I would be paying close attention to that and time my surrogates attacks to line up just a day or two ahead of the late night twitter rants phase, and the blast ahead with the policy discussions heavily on the depressed parts of the cycle.
17 Likes