Note to progressives. Wake up. Trump can win this.

Hillary has a self-inflicted wound.   Meanwhile, Trump is saying things people want to hear.   And his message and style seem to fit the situation.

From the Washington Post

What is undeniable, even for Hillary's supporters, is that the FBI said she was extremely careless with state secrets.  This weakens a central premise of the Hillary Clinton premise: that Hillary is the safe, competent one.   Hillary cannot say what a Sarah Palin might say--oops, she was new at this, but has learned--what is inescapable is that Hillary's handling of the emails reflect willfulness and high-handedness, not a simple "mistake."   And this helps document the "evil-Hillary" meme.

This is not good for Hillary.

Meanwhile, Trump has two messages going around.   Trump liked Saddam Hussain's way of stopping terrorists.   This one is being promoted by people hoping to hurt Trump, that Trump has said good things about Saddam Hussain.   Trump apparently praised Hussain for having a police state that killed terrorists "so good."   Trump opponents act like that gets Trump in trouble politically.  Quite the opposite. Trump opponents need to wake up and get out of their bubble.   A tyrant who squashes terrorists is exactly what Americans want, at least in the Middle East.  Open democracy is a disaster in the Middle East.  Open multicultural tolerant no-profile policing in the USA allows domestic terrorists to go unstopped here at home.  Trump's brand and central message is confirmed by this attack on him.   Trump defines the issue as blind, stupid political correctness versus common sense safety, and Trump is on the side of keeping Americans safe from Islamic terror.  Trump wins this argument.

The second message, presented forcefully by Trump,  is that Hillary is incompetent while Trump has answers.   Trump's speech in North Carolina is an improved, stronger iteration of that message.  It is done in the Trump style of short conversational sentences.   Here is a link to the whole rally:

Click Here: Trump starts at 4:00 mark

Click here for NC Rally

At 11:45 you can watch Trump deliver the part of the speech I typed out below.  Printed in transcript form shows how un-polished and conversational is the Trump presentation style: half sentences.  Run ons.  Contractions.  Very simple words.

'[Crowd:   TRUMP, TRUMP, TRUMP, TRUMP, TRUMP, TRUMP]

And we’ve got Hillary Clinton, she’s weak, she’s ineffective, she’ll never be able to do the job.  Her judgement is horrible.  Look at her judgement with the emails.  Who would do it? Look at her judgement.  Her judgement is horrible.  All right? 

Her judgement is horrible.  Now who said that about Hillary?  Bernie Sanders said, ‘her judgement is bad, she’s got bad judgement.’   OK?   

Now let me tell you, whether it’s ISIS, whether it’s trade, whether its borders, whether it’s jobs.   It’s gonna be four more years of the same thing.  The last thing we need is another Clinton, the last thing we need is another Obama-Clinton in the White House.  

We have got a mess in this country.  We owe nineteen trillion dollars, soon to be twenty one trillion.  The debt has doubled under Obama.  It’s doubled.  Wait till you see.  We are sitting on a mess, and it’s got to be taken care of.   And the way it is taken care of, at least that aspect of it, is jobs. We’re gonna bring jobs back to North Carolina.   We’re gonna bring jobs back to our country.  It’s going to be America first, not all these other countries that don’t give a damn about us.   It’s going to be America first.  America first.  America. America. America first.

[Crowd:  USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA. . . .]"

Trump looks confident and decisive--which is standard for Trump.  What is different now is that his denunciations of Hillary seem less like hollow name-calling and more like blunt truth-telling.  It isn't just Trump saying "Crooked Hillary."  The FBI said it, too.

The election frame has changed.   Now the Hillary frame is less persuasive and self evident:  experience and competence versus dangerous incompetence.    Now the Trump frame seems more plausible: Now it is Crooked Hillary incompetence borne of high handed sense of privilege vs common sense strength.   

Hillary handed this to Trump and Trump has the skills to run with it.


{Peter Sage note to readers.   I am not a fan of Trump.   I am attempting to look at political craftsmanship and message with objectivity and clarity, not which candidate matches my political orientation.  Trump is having a good moment, so that is what I report.  When Hillary does something politically really savvy I will write about it. Meanwhile, look up there in the upper right of the screen where there is a box that says "Follow by email."  Put your email address there and you will get "home delivery" of my blog every day, sending you whatever new has been added.)