It’s not about Trump, stupid
“It’s the economy, stupid.” (Sign in the 1992 Clinton war room.)
For Trump, it’s always about Trump. For his acolytes, it’s all about Trump. For Steve Bannon, 2018 is all about Trump (so he can get back into the game, the news and the money).
Democrats, don’t take the bait.
Voters, real people, have strong opinions about Trump. For and against. But for them it’s not all about Trump. In fact, Trump making it all about Trump is his Achilles heel.
The vulnerability shows in his tawdry Twitter contretemps with this Omarosa person. That hissing contest tells us Trump cares more about his petty grudges and personal fights than about the real problems Americans face.
It doesn’t matter how loyal and passionate Trump’s base is if swing voters conclude that he doesn’t care about things like, let’s just say, jobs, incomes, health care, education, infrastructure, housing costs, college costs, retirement costs and even little things like trade war consequences, Russian interference in our democracy and climate change run amok.
Democrats across the country, thankfully, are nominating candidates who focus on just those issues. The candidates are diverse. Take two gubernatorial candidates: in Vermont, Christine Hallquist, a transgender person who was CEO of a rural electric cooperative, and in Wisconsin, Tony Evers, a mild-mannered, 66-year-old lifelong educator. Or two congressional candidates in North Carolina: Kathy Manning, a mom, business person and community leader, and Dan McCready, a Marine, small business owner and father of four.
Different people, same tune. Real people, real problems, real solutions.
Republican primaries aren’t about that. There’s only one test. Who is most like Trump, and who does Trump like most?
Let them go that way. For Democrats, let’s go back to Clinton-Bush ‘92 for a lesson. In January 1991, after the Gulf War, President Bush had a 90 percent approval rating. In November 1992, he got 40 percent of the vote. What happened? Well, Americans believed that if he won a war he could fix the economy. If he wanted to. But he didn’t fix it. Ergo, he didn’t care.
Today, that risk faces Trump and his Republicans. With one big difference. He starts at 40 percent approval.
It’s not about Trump, stupid
“It’s the economy, stupid.” (Sign in the 1992 Clinton war room.)
For Trump, it’s always about Trump. For his acolytes, it’s all about Trump. For Steve Bannon, 2018 is all about Trump (so he can get back into the game, the news and the money).
Democrats, don’t take the bait.
Voters, real people, have strong opinions about Trump. For and against. But for them it’s not all about Trump. In fact, Trump making it all about Trump is his Achilles heel.
The vulnerability shows in his tawdry Twitter contretemps with this Omarosa person. That hissing contest tells us Trump cares more about his petty grudges and personal fights than about the real problems Americans face.
It doesn’t matter how loyal and passionate Trump’s base is if swing voters conclude that he doesn’t care about things like, let’s just say, jobs, incomes, health care, education, infrastructure, housing costs, college costs, retirement costs and even little things like trade war consequences, Russian interference in our democracy and climate change run amok.
Democrats across the country, thankfully, are nominating candidates who focus on just those issues. The candidates are diverse. Take two gubernatorial candidates: in Vermont, Christine Hallquist, a transgender person who was CEO of a rural electric cooperative, and in Wisconsin, Tony Evers, a mild-mannered, 66-year-old lifelong educator. Or two congressional candidates in North Carolina: Kathy Manning, a mom, business person and community leader, and Dan McCready, a Marine, small business owner and father of four.
Different people, same tune. Real people, real problems, real solutions.
Republican primaries aren’t about that. There’s only one test. Who is most like Trump, and who does Trump like most?
Let them go that way. For Democrats, let’s go back to Clinton-Bush ‘92 for a lesson. In January 1991, after the Gulf War, President Bush had a 90 percent approval rating. In November 1992, he got 40 percent of the vote. What happened? Well, Americans believed that if he won a war he could fix the economy. If he wanted to. But he didn’t fix it. Ergo, he didn’t care.
Today, that risk faces Trump and his Republicans. With one big difference. He starts at 40 percent approval.