Suicide in Gettysburg

Hillary Clinton is very, very lucky.  Or skilled.

Trump in Gettysburg:   This wasn't "four score and seven years ago. . ."

Trump documented the Hillary message of Trump distraction and personality rather than the Trump message of jobs, trade, and corruption.

Trump at Gettysburg

Trump has done things that pundits and commentators and people who would never vote for him consider crazy.   But on second thought they may have been genius.  The statements kept him interesting and in the news and they communicated a connection to the feelings a great many voters share.  This week I have attributed farsighted strategy--or at least surefooted instinct--to his decision to say he would contest as fraudulent a Clinton victory and his decision to persist in telling jokes that got him boos at the Al Smith dinner.

I have been harder on Hillary Clinton, who seems to me to be punching below her weight.  She has the experience to do politics and campaigning very well but has failed to excite even people who expect to vote for her.  

But she did something very clever or very lucky in the first debate.   She brought up Trump's woman problem with Miss Universe.  She surprised Trump.  She got him wanting to defend himself.  She did it in the face of open and credible threats by Trump not to raise the issue.   She did anyway.

NY Post, the very pro-Trump tabloid

It has driven Trump crazy, and apparently kept him awake at night, tweeting.   And worse for Trump, it has driven him off message.  It had him talking about Miss Universe and weight gain rather than jobs and trade and the revolving door of politics and special interests--the issues where he has wide bipartisan support, as Sanders documented.

Donald Trump announced a major address in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, a site whose name elevates a speech to something special, the site where a new national purpose was announced. (History reminder:  Lincoln said the vast battlefield sacrifice meant that the Civil War could not be fought just to preserve a Union but instead to fulfill the even greater destiny of preserving a country dedicated to the proposition of equality for all.)

Trump spoke.  He used a teleprompter.  His tone was earnest and his voice was controlled and purposeful.  He looked and sounded presidential.   He talked about jobs and trade.   Click here: Trump starts at 1:36

But he couldn't stop there.

Even Fox:  Trump closing argument is a lawsuit.

Hillary Clintons campaign was reminding voters about Trump having forced himself onto women.  Trump's pussy-gate tape had him bragging about being irresistible to women, about how desirable he was, how when you are famous they will let you do anything, he said.  Hillary's parade of women were saying he was unwelcome and undesirable. 

Trump could not let this stand.  Unwelcome?  Undesirable?

So, amid a speech about a new direction for America, one that addresses the need for governmental reform, job growth, stronger American manufacturing, and greater safety in a troubled world, Trump included a section on a private lawsuit against his female accusers.  It was astonishing in its self destruction.   Trump knows that the media would feature sex lawsuits over job policy--but he did it anyway.   It was as if Lincoln, surveying the battlefield and with a national audience said that America had a new challenge worthy of our heritage and the sacrifice of thousands, and, oh yes, he was going to sue somebody for slandering him for an unflattering letter to the editor.

Breitbart today:  more sex.  No policy.

As I have illustrated with splash pages from Fox, Breitbart, and the NY Post, Trump stepped on his story so badly even his allies lead with sex stories for the next two days.   This is not media bias.   This is Trump's doing.   

Trump promoted this speech in advance saying this was a major look at the Trump agenda--then used it to present himself as a man more interested in playing out a personal legal strategy of intimidating women with his lawyers into staying silent than he was in doing the things to make America great.   

This was Trump being suicidal--or Hillary very strategically doing murder.