| JWeinCom said: Trump won the primaries (which to be fair I thought was utterly impossible) for a couple of key factors. First off, primaries skew towards more passionate voters on one side or the other. After the primaries, when the more moderate folks start paying attention, being extreme becomes less viable. Secondly, Trump was in a field with about ten candidates. That meant the traditional republican vote was split five or six ways, and the "outsider" vote was really between Trump and Carson... and Carson wasn't ever a strong candidate. Granted, Trump did continue winning even when it was him and Cruz, but at that point the momentum was hard to combat. Trump's schtick is that he is a winner, and the early results fed into that. Trump's rhetoric ignited early voters, but it's the thing that's going to turn moderates around. It's especially problematic in states where he'll need spanish, muslim, or female votes. Trump is actually polling in fourth place among blacks... We're dealing with the two of the most disliked candidates in the history of politics. If the focus is on Trump, he loses. If the focus is on Hillary, she loses. And the Clinton campaign has been doing a great job of keeping the election focused on him. Not that they need to work hard on that, because Trump can't seem to get out of his own way by shutting the fuck up. The recent emails regarding the Clinton foundation (which I think were kind of overblown anyway) could have really hurt Hillary, but that's lost in the shuffle when Trump is suggesting second amendment people (aka people with guns) could "do something" about Hillary or saying that Obama is the founder of ISIS. A measured response could have kept the heat on Hillary, but things like this make the story about him. It seems his ego wants it that way. All Hillary really has to do is stick to policy points, and rebuke Trump whenever he says something stupid. It seems unlikely that anything Trump does at this point will gain him significant support. Unless something truly damning about Hillary comes out, it seems the election is hers... which is a bittersweet reality. |
I believe Trump plan which has worked pretty well for him during the Republican Primaries is to stay in the news and spend as little money as possible. The problem with the national stage is that if his money is not that strong, Clinton will just kill him with public ads everywhere. Money plays a really big role during the main event and being able to pretty much flood key states over your opponent is big. I totally agree that if Trump really wanted to win, he only needed to have more measured responses to Clinton instead of trying to blow everything up in bombastic proportions.
I still wonder if Trump really does want to win. It’s one thing to go through the republican party and win but it’s totally something else to actually be President. It seems like the President Job is something everyone wants but also something that seems to age you about 20 years once you are finished.
