Posted on 09/02/2016 2:25:26 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
For someone who’s often been reputed to be such a campaign klutz, Donald Trump had a pretty good week.
Yes, he wastefully campaigned in Washington and Connecticut, which he has no chance of winning, and in Mississippi, which he has no chance of losing.
But when the president of Mexico invited Trump and what’s-her-name down for a visit, the real estate billionaire pounced on the opportunity like it was a prime midtown corner lot.
That’s the sort of unpredictability that’s worried the risk-adverse Clinton crowd all along. Trump is like a scrambling quarterback. You set up all the usual defensive schemes to handle the most likely plays. But then your opponent does something totally unexpected, eludes defenders and pulls off a big play.
That’s what Trump did with his Mexico City junket. He left the much-traveled Clinton team explaining, well, there’d be plenty of time to work with neighbors later. They dismissed it as a photo op, as if 94% of Clinton campaign stops aren’t. Critics wondered how many U.S. voters Trump would find south of the border. Ha-ha.
It was, indeed, a real risk for the internationally-inexperienced Trump. And no one knows yet if such plays will prove decisive. But the TV showman pulled this one off, doing what his children at the GOP convention boasted Dad always does, think BIG.
The Mexico trip was worth it just for that photo alone. Talk about an op-portunity!
There was a towering Trump on the international stage confidently shaking hands with another (shorter) president, talking polite, but candid diplo-speak and even taking control of the ensuing news conference.
No funny faces, hand gestures, awkward jokes, snide comments. No stupid baseball cap hiding the eyes that every audience wants to see and judge.
For that afternoon at least, Trump appeared a plausible president. That’s a crucial impression for him to make indelible in voters’ minds. And it speaks directly to Clinton’s attack on him as an unstable commander-in-chief. You’ll see much more of that photo in these next 67 days.
Then, Trump flew back to Phoenix for his much-anticipated immigration policy speech. Allahpundit covered that thoroughly yesterday.
“Wow! Thank you. That’s a lot of people, Phoenix, that’s a lot of people,” said the man who claims to be no politician. “Thank you very much. Thank you, Phoenix. I am so glad to be back in Arizona.”
Anyone who’s watched Trump mature on the campaign trail these past almost 15 months can easily remember his endless, rambling mid-winter rants when the candidate rarely completed a single sentence before jumping over to something totally different.
As a novel experience, crowds ate it up, at least for the first hour. But as persuasive political communications, those remarks were in essence incoherent messages flying uselessly off into space.
Anyone who watched Trump’s immigration speech (full C-SPAN video here) Wednesday evening saw a completely different and disciplined speaker, one with organization, numbered policy points, entertaining asides and personal anecdotes. Imagine. Trump still sounded like Trump. But the candidate talked as if he wanted the audience to hear his message, instead of just to hear himself.
The candidate’s growth curve may or may not be enough to win ultimately. There’s a whole lot more to political victory than swell speech-giving. Labor Day used to be the unofficial start of a general election campaign. Now, it’s getting late. Remember, early voting starts in just three weeks.
But the evolving Trump (combined with Clinton’s seeping scandals) will make the presidential race more competitive, a fact now appearing in newer polls.
I think Trump will win in a landslide. The media and Whoros are so confident in a Hillary win but I say not so fast.
I think Hillary’s worst nightmare is that she is in a news conference and accidentally tells the truth about something, then she can’t stop. Hysterically, she keeps laughing and telling the truth. “I destroyed that twelve year old girl, ‘snort, giggle’ and then I got the rapist off with time served. ‘guffaw.’”
Trump’s rallies in Mississippi, Connecticut, and Washington have been viewed MILLIONS of times on youtube, and some of these rallies were broadcast live on CSPAN, FOX and CNN. No telling how many millions of people saw them. I don’t consider any of these rallies to be a waste of time and effort. What they do is let the people in those states know that Trump cares about their vote enough to show up, when most candidates, including democrats don’t bother.
I would not question the campaign techniques of, one Donald J. Trump. Wasn’t he the ONE Republican candidate, who, all agreed, could NOT win the nomination? I am sure that Andrew Malcolm is SOOOO much more politically astute than Trump.
Exactly!!!!!!!!!
Nice screen name btw
Hillary doesn't get a lot of practice. Everything is scripted and controlled for her. Of course, the debates may be rigged and she might (possibly) know something about the questions before they are asked. But that won't help. Trump will take the reins and throw his own challenges at her and she will have to respond.
It's been at least 8 years (probably 20 years) since anyone has seriously challenged Hillary. She won't know what hit her.
They most certainly are not confident. They are in panic mode.
Is the author suggesting that Trump's victory over 16 other candidates was just an unprecedented miscount of primary voters?
Right! They USED to be confident but that was B.T. Now they are just pretending to be confident hoping that many of us will be even more afraid and give up, but we are not gonna give up. We are gonna fight until we win or die!
Trump would pick by accident more conservative Supreme Court Justices than Hillary would choose. Anyone ignoring that is entirely unaware of what is at stake in this election. They should be embarrassed by their ignorance.
Scott Adams must be so proud of himself for having recognized early on just what a masterful persuader Trump is. The author of this article believes Trump has "matured" over the last 15 months. I can't imagine a more helpful characterization of the changes Trump has made while changing his target from 16 Republicans to one Democrat.
The first sentence was so condescending I couldn’t read beyond. Bloggers that think they’re smarter than Trump need to go extinct.
It’s been at least 8 years (probably 20 years) since anyone has seriously challenged Hillary. She won’t know what hit her.
Remember not long ago when the Peta folk heckled her
and she was stuned, STUNED! and her handler had to tell
her “Just keep talking”?
She is not ready for prime time, she is past her due date,
it won’t be long and her face will be plastered on the
bottom of milk cartons.
“Have you see this loser?”
Oh that 'stupid' cap with the words "Make America Great Again" also worn by many members of his rally crowd? Nice try lieberal dweeb..
So looking forward to seeing this vile woman destroyed in the debates.
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