WHICH of Donald Trump’s failings as a presidential candidate is most off-putting to voters? This was the question Hillary Clinton’s strategists were grappling with in May, as the fog of the primaries began to clear.
They were not short of possible answers. Mr Trump is abusive towards women and minorities; has a sometimes-shady business record; is largely ignorant of foreign affairs; is a liar. Yet Mrs Clinton’s advisors feared that assailing him with many of his weaknesses would risk embedding none of them in voters’ minds.
They therefore settled on a meta-failing, encompassing most of the others: Mr Trump is too ignorant and impulsive as to be unfit for the presidency. Or as Mrs Clinton put this in a speech in California on June 3rd, ostensibly on foreign policy: “He’s not just unprepared—he’s temperamentally unfit to hold an office that requires knowledge, stability and immense responsibility.”
In attack ads and through surrogates—including Barack Obama, who on August 2nd called Mr Trump “unfit to serve”—Mrs Clinton’s team has since been pushing this line hard. The idea is not merely to...Continue reading
Source: United States http://ift.tt/2aNYNJg
EmoticonEmoticon