Posted on 06/30/2016 12:43:44 AM PDT by vannrox
Here’s how Hillary Clinton plans to beat Donald Trump: She will replay the very successful 1964 campaign against Barry Goldwater. That is, she will scare the bejeezus out of Americans by describing Trump as a “loose cannon,” someone who cannot be trusted with America’s nuclear arsenal. At the same time, she will convince Republicans, alarmed at the prospect of a Goldwater-scale defeat, that backing her is the sensible choice.
Her surrogates in the media are already spreading this narrative, which may prove as empty as Clinton’s record as secretary of state.
Goldwater was the conservative presidential candidate who went down in flames in 1964, winning only six states, because Democrats convinced voters he might drop an atom bomb on China. The clincher for opponent Lyndon Johnson was the "Daisy" television ad, showing a young girl plucking the petals off a daisy as a male voice counts down from 10 to 1. The ad closes with a gigantic nuclear explosion filling the screen. You can easily imagine a similar ad surfacing this year, with a split screen showing Trump bellowing insults or promising to take on China while a nuke demolishes the Forbidden City.
The news media, ever faithful, has picked up the hint. Face the Nation, CNN, MSNBC and others have recently featured segments and op-eds about Goldwater, noting how his candidacy devastated the GOP. They frequently forget to mention that Hillary Clinton — yes, Hillary Clinton — worked for Barry Goldwater’s campaign. Clinton was a “proud” conservative in her youth, before she became a liberal and then a “pragmatic progressive.” Even as Trump has ranged widely over the political plains, so has Clinton.
Related: Cruz Might Restart His Campaign, But Won’t Say He’s for Trump
Hillary’s claim, of course, is that unlike Trump she will be a reliable, steady hand on the wheel. She touts her foreign policy chops and experience gathered while first lady and more importantly as secretary of state. Yet, the more we know about the functioning of the Obama White House, the more it becomes clear that she had very little authority or even influence in foreign affairs.
The disturbing piece published last weekend in The New York Times Magazine about the power and influence of would-be novelist then Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes, concluding that Rhodes has been “the single most influential voice shaping American foreign policy aside from Potus himself,” confirms her marginal role.
In the specific events which led to the Iran deal, for instance, Clinton said in a speech to the Brookings Institute, “I sent one of my closest aides [Jake Sullivan] as part of a small team to begin talks with the Iranians in secret,” hinting that she was behind the overtures. However, as author David Samuels tells the story, the effort was actually orchestrated by Obama, working with Rhodes, Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns and Clinton aide Jake Sullivan. Later on, of course, John Kerry became the torch bearer.
Related: Trump Running Strong Against Clinton in 3 Battleground States
Samuels’ conclusion dovetails with former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates’ account in his book, Duty: Memoires of a Secretary of War: “The White House staff — including Chiefs of Staff Rahm Emanuel and then Bill Daley as well as such core political advisers as Valerie Jarrett, David Axelrod and Robert Gibbs — would have a role in national security decision making that I had not previously experienced…”
That may be why Gates, despite having some positive things to say about Hillary, has not endorsed her. Or maybe it was because Clinton offended Gates by admitting that she had opposed the successful surge in Iraq for purely political reasons. In either case, his neutrality is not flattering.
Voters should wonder: Why did Hillary play such a minor role? Was Obama’s hiring of his former opponent an example of “keeping your friends close and enemies closer?” Did Obama, like Bernie Sanders, question her judgement? We may never know, but those questions are fair game for Trump. As is: What did Hillary actually accomplish as secretary of state?
Critics on the right have ridiculed Clinton for having been unable on more than one occasion to cite any significant accomplishments while in office. Not only has Hillary whiffed on the question, so have State Department officials and also Democratic supporters of the former first lady. Don’t think Trump won’t pounce on the lapses.
Or make an issue of her temper and volatility, which have been widely reported. Trump is not the only one capable of lashing out.
Related: As Hillary Plays the Woman Card, More Men Are Being Dealt Out
Meanwhile, recent polling challenges the conclusion that Donald Trump’s nomination will ensure a landslide win for Hillary. The liberal media has been especially gleeful about the schism in the GOP, and has incessantly broadcast the most unflattering surveys of voter preferences. But, Quinnipiac just released a poll showing Trump in a dead heat with Clinton in crucial swing states Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio (where he is actually ahead.)
Given the incessant pounding that the press has given Trump, and the disarray in GOP ranks, this is a shocker. Indications of possible success might bring Republicans on board a Trump candidacy. If he begins to look like a possible winner, GOP elites will be scrambling to get a prime seat at the table. Everybody loves a winner; the Donald says so, often.
“I don’t believe the polls or the media. I can’t stand the thought of Hillary as President.”....
There are millions of us like you, we can’t stand Crooked Hitlary either. The unfortunate part is there are millions of liberal idiots that DO like Hitlary, they are the ones getting all the “free sh%t” being handed to them.
Bill Clinton had better watch his 6 then, too.
Our challenge is to win the middle, without losing the right.
The pundits are dutifully blasting away against TRUMP.
But, their bosses at Rockefeller Center are still showing TRUMP answering them, with plenty of LIVE speech portions and film, of TRUMP, by TRUMP, and with TRUMP, out on the stump.
The man is hitting home runs on substance and common sense every time he opens his mouth and the corporate media know it. I think they want life and safe families too.
TRUMP is getting covered, and IT IS RESONATING.
Where is Hillary? She is not cutting it, and Rockefeller Center knows it.
Yes. As I've posted before, I believe that she will avoid debating Trump, on the grounds that she will not share the stage with this crude, uncultured lowlife.
Basically Clinton will lose because she is Corrupt, Stupid, and Ugly. Simple as that.
If Hillary could not best a jr senator from Illinois with a Muslim name in 2008, what makes anyone think she can beat an alpha male American in 2016?
She is weak, she is corrupt, she is evil, she is unelectable in a fair and free election.
Just like Goldwater, Trump faces an opponent who also is a lying murdering traitor, supported by a similarly lying traitorous fifth-column leftist media.
“Our challenge is to win the middle, without losing the right.”.........
The BIGGEST challenge will be to overcome the extreme bias of the media whores. They are soooooooooo deep into the demodummies camp, you would need a nuclear bomb to uproot them.
And Trump is not even running ads at this point.
Hillary did such a nice job with the Arab Spring and all. Especially Syria.
Per the Drudge Report headline:
POLL: TRUMP PULLS INTO LEAD
Trump supporters should counter with and did you like the LBJ Vietnam War Great Society that won in 64
FR’s Concern Trolls are now jumping ship.
Sure I’m on record as saying Hillary will win in the fall but this flat-out ridiculous.
Where’s the evidence for a Clinton landslide?
If these people really believe their own talk, even my safe prediction could turn out to be like Brexit.
In that case, watch out for talk from the Left demanding a do-over because Trump cheated.
You heard it hear first, folks.
Hillary is unelectable? Really?
Hillary has lots of campaign cash. And some of that cash came from Americans...
Ah, the fly in the ointment...
If the USSC doesn't step in and limit the number of times dead people can vote, the Donald may well have to stick to real estate.
In 1964 there were 3 TV networks. Nearly half of America was watching one of them on certain nights.
Mainstream media today does not have anything remotely approaching that kind of power.
From here on out Hillary will have great difficulty controlling the narrative. Future ISIS attacks, continuing economic slowdowns, job losses. All out of her control.
And further nail her as incompetent to avoid trouble, as in her failed RESET with Russia.
Trump has them boxed in, provided he and his surrogates make it clear that if he’s really so irrational and unstable, how could he amass a fortune in the billions of dollars?
To do that, a person is mostly likely very rational, cool, and indeed, dispassionate.
If he was really that unstable, wouldn’t we have all witnessed it by now? He’s been in the public eye for over three decades.
Further, we know Hillary and Bill socialized with the Trumps. Well, if he’s so unstable and racist, why did they hang with him? why attend his wedding? Is it as Trump said, that they were paid to be there? And if that’s true, why indulge an irrational bigot like that?
If the liberal narrative about Trump is valid, the corollary is that it’s very unflattering to the Clintons (indeed, more unflattering).
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