George Bush "Swift Boated" John Kerry. It worked. And it gave a name to a campaign technique. We are seeing it again right now.
To "Swift Boat" means to attack an opponent at the point of their most obvious strength. It would be to attack Albert Einstein for being, actually, rather stupid and forgetful and bad at physics. Or it would be to attack Arnold Schwarzenegger for being, actually, physically weak and underdeveloped. Say, what?! Does that work? Yes.
Bush's people called John Kerry a coward for his actions when he won purple hearts and a bronze star. It "brought into question" whether he was a hero or a fraud. It turned something from a settled fact into an uncertainty, and it gave skeptical people a mental toe-hold on which to ignore something good about a candidate. John Kerry showed one way of dealing with the attack: to scoff at it for being ridiculous. That way doesn't work. The attack stuck.
Today Hillary Clinton is making a major point that Donald Trump is temperamentally unsuited to be president. This is not a swift boat attack. It is a major campaign theme, one that every GOP candidate raised, that Trump's friends raise, that Donald Trump openly discusses. As recently as Friday, in Des Moines, Trump said, "I always thought I was extremely fit. In fact, all my life I've been told I have the greatest temperament."
Trump kept talking, saying Hillary Clinton was "unhinged", "unbalanced". "She cannot handle pressure. I handle pressure." As I wrote yesterday, I consider this a campaign mistake and an artifact of Trump's lack of message discipline. He is making mental stability an issue, when Trump's entire brand is about extemporaneous shoot from the hip truth telling, which makes stability Hillary's strength (cool competence) and weakness (status quo.) Trump, I argued, needed to stay on message on his major point, his assertion that he can change things to make Americans more rich and more safe.
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| Wall Street Journal urges Trump to "reboot" by staying on message. |
Thad Guyer asserts that this isn't a mistake, that the Hillary-unhinged, Hillary-crazy idea is well thought out and planned, to be pursued in tweets, in speeches, in ads, and in social media. If so, it goes against logic and a candidate's obvious personalities, and that is what makes it a "swift boat" attack.
Will it work?
The meme is being picked up by Trump supporters and talk radio. Local talk radio hosts are talking it up on my AM dial and nationally syndicated ones are as well. Michael Savage, Author of "Liberalism is a Mental Disorder" calls her a "sociopathic liar." Fox News has stories on it. The Hillary is short-circuited crazy unbalanced unhinged is now out there as a charge.
Hillary is no John Kerry.
Hillary's reputation is to be a street fighter hawk who hits back--the trait that her Sanders-supporting detractors dislike about her. Cokie Roberts defined the attack as another example of Trump misogyny, blood coming out of her whatever, an attack on women.
But if Hillary herself has struck back it is not quickly apparent from a Google search, so it is evident that her personal response is not yet widespread, public, and loud. My readers should watch for this. I am assuming it will happen, but I haven't seen it yet. If it happens it will be new data on how one can respond to a swift boat attack.
Wait and see.
Guest Comment: Thad Guyer thinks the Trump attack was intentional and sound campaign technique:
Off Message? Trump Frames Viral Media Messaging of “Unhinged Hillary”
The Trump campaign was ready in the war room to launch its official new video campaign ad, initially to his 22 million social media followers, entitled, “Is Robot Hillary Melting Down?” (You can view it everywhere across the social media spectrum, but here’s a Youtube links. http://goo.gl/gxycq1). With messaging timed to his rallies in a 48 hour news cycle, Trump pulled the media trigger by somberly stating in an Obama-like statesman’s voice that Clinton “may be unbalanced ***, unhinged”. The video showcases electrical arches from her mouth uttering “I may have short circuited”.
We’d expect frenetic coverage of “Hillary unhinged” by conservative media, but the test for messaging effectiveness is crossover. The New York Times published “A ‘Short-Circuit’ on F.B.I. Inquiry? Hillary Clinton Seeks to Explain” (NYT, http://goo.gl/6tObn3). Dovetaling in Trump campaign’s messaging that Hillary is afraid of news conferences, the NYT quoted RNC chair Reince Priebus: “It’s not hard to see why she hasn’t held a press conference in 244 days. Hillary Clinton is once again proving herself incapable of telling the truth.” NBC went with “Trump Calls Clinton 'Close to Unhinged,' Assures He's Pro-Baby” (NBCNews, http://goo.gl/avnTdE); Politico decided on “Trump portrays Clinton as mentally unfit for the White House” (http://goo.gl/N8iIko); and Yahoo News posted “Trump's New Attack against Clinton Uses 'Short-Circuited' Line Against Her”, embedding the “Robot Hillary” video.
(https://goo.gl/QjRCkY). The Washington Post posted a news article—not a pundit piece—titled “Trump, in Series of Scathing Personal Attacks, Questions Clinton’s Mental Health” (WP, https://goo.gl/PSNP9V), and with advertising force you can’t buy, embedded a link to the Trump campaign’s “Robot Hillary Unhinged” video
“Hillary unhinged” is part of an orchestrated Republican campaign message, started in 2015 by Thomas Kuiper’s book, “Hillary Unhinged: In Her Own Words”, (see Goodreads, http://goo.gl/f08AiQ), marketed innocuously at first as “a raw and humorous collection of quotes” by Clinton. But its not funny anymore. Clinton advisors are taking it seriously, and are trying to deflect it with anti-sexism stereotypes about men calling women crazy, reminding voters about Trump’s sexist references to Megyn Kelly’s menstrual “blood coming out of her whatever”. Thus, NPR’s Cokie Roberts used a CNN roundtable last night to launch the sexism counter-attack, resulting in today’s post, “ Cokie Roberts: Trump Calling Clinton ‘Unhinged’ Is Code For "We Shouldn't Elect A Woman" (Real Clear Politics, http://goo.gl/gxycq1).
I leave it to others to decide if elevating “Hillary unhinged” to the debate mantle of the “first woman president” is a good idea. But I have little doubt that unlike “Trump’s insane”, “Hillary unhinged” is going to have staying power. It is part of the campaign’s developed messaging, and will be no less durable than “Crooked Hillary”, but hopefully not as effective as “Lyin’ Ted”, “Little Marco”, or “Low Energy Jeb”.
Never underestimate Trump marketing.
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