Charles Krauthammer
"If you are the status quo candidate in a change election in which the national mood is sour and two-thirds of the electorate think the country is on the wrong track, what do you do? Attack. Relentlessly. Paint your opponent as extremist, volatile, clueless, unfit, dangerous. Indeed, Hillary Clinton's latest national ad, featuring major Republican politicians echoing that indictment of Donald Trump, ends thus: "Unfit. Dangerous. Even for Republicans."
"That was the theme of Clinton's famous "alt-right" speech and of much of her $100 million worth of ads.
Problem is, it's not working.
"Over the last month, Trump's new team, led by Kellyanne Conway, has worked single-mindedly to blunt that line of attack on the theory that if he can just cross the threshold of acceptability, he wins. In an act of brazen rebranding, they set out to endow him with stature and empathy.
"Stature was acquired in Mexico whose president inexplicably gave Trump the opportunity to stand on the world stage with a national leader and more than hold his own. It's the same stature booster Sen. Barack Obama pulled off when he stood with the French president at a news conference in Paris in 2008.
"That was part one: Trump the statesman. Part two: the kinder gentler Trump." . . .
"That was the theme of Clinton's famous "alt-right" speech and of much of her $100 million worth of ads.
Problem is, it's not working.
"Over the last month, Trump's new team, led by Kellyanne Conway, has worked single-mindedly to blunt that line of attack on the theory that if he can just cross the threshold of acceptability, he wins. In an act of brazen rebranding, they set out to endow him with stature and empathy.
"Stature was acquired in Mexico whose president inexplicably gave Trump the opportunity to stand on the world stage with a national leader and more than hold his own. It's the same stature booster Sen. Barack Obama pulled off when he stood with the French president at a news conference in Paris in 2008.
"That was part one: Trump the statesman. Part two: the kinder gentler Trump." . . .
. . . Trump's methods, which Dr. Krauthammer discusses at more length in this article:
"Trump never goes on the defensive. He merely creates new Trumps. Hence:
1) The African-American blitz." . . .
2) The immigration wobble. . . .
3) The blockbuster childcare proposal. . . .
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