Trump has to point out Clinton's scandals!

Weekly Opinion Editorial

PUT MEAT ON THE BONE!

by Steve Fair

    

     The second presidential debate will be on Sunday October 9^th at Washington University in St. Louis.  Martha Raddatz of ABC and Anderson Cooper of CNN will serve as moderators.  The debate wills start at 8pm and run for 90 minutes.  It will be a ‘town hall’ format.  Half of the questions will come directly from so-called ‘uncommitted’ voters selected by Gallup.  The other half will come from the two moderators.  On Tuesday night, the Vice Presidential candidates squared off in their only debate, but few voters are moved by who the VP is on a ticket.  Both Pence and Kaine are capable and have governing experience, but voters vote for president, not vice president. 

     The latest polling results from Politico show Trump trailing Clinton in seven of the eleven swing states.  He leads in Iowa, North Carolina, Ohio, and is tied in Nevada.  The only real poll that matters is the one on election day, but Trump’s team better jump start their ground game in the next thirty days.  He must win Florida and the latest poll shows him trailing Clinton by two points.

     Rasmussen reports that 82% of voters now say they are certain how they will vote and Clinton leads 49% to 46% among these voters.  As election day gets closer more and more voters will move from undecided to the committed column.  Trump is doing better at convincing undecideds than Clinton, but he must win at least 2/3 of the undecideds to make this a race.  That is a challenge, but here are four things he should do to win:

     First, he must be more prepared for the second debate.  He can’t just show up and deliver marketing tag lines.  He has to put ‘meat on the bone.’  He has to convince the American people he not only understands what needs to be done, but has a plan to get it done.  Even those who support Trump are frustrated with his broad brush policy approach.   Debates don’t move the needle as much as many people think, but they are important to the momentum of a campaign.  Trump needs the momentum. 

     Second, he must bring up Clinton’s untrustworthiness.  Even within her own party, Clinton is perceived as being untrustworthy.  Never in our nation’s history have we had a candidate who went into the White House with so much baggage as Clinton.  The E-mail scandal, Benghazi, the Clinton Foundation donors, and dozens more make Clinton unfit to hold any elective office. Is Bill Clinton’s immorality fair game?  Hillary’s response to it certainly is and Trump will likely pull the trigger on that on Sunday.

     Third, Trump needs to remind voters the next POTUS will appoint several members of the Supreme Court.  Both Trump and Clinton have released short lists of who they would consider on the court.  Clinton’s list is all liberals, Trump has more conservative thinkers.  The future of the SCOTUS is likely the most important factor in the election. 

     Fourth, Trump must have boots on the ground in the swing states.  Spiking voter turnout among Republicans can win the race.  In every election, a candidate wins because they got their voters to the polls.  Trump’s celebrity campaign style draws big crowds to convention halls and stadiums, but that doesn’t necessarily translate to getting voters to the polls.  A get out to vote effort involves door-to-door personal voter engagement getting infrequent GOP voters up off the couch and to the polls.  Increasing voter turnout by 5% can mean the difference between winning and losing.  For Trump, it is his only path to victory.  The RNC has deployment teams(activist from other states going to swing states) who spend their own time and money knocking doors and convincing their fellow Republicans to get to the polls. 

    Trump has defied all convention wisdom this campaign cycle.  When pundits were declaring him a ‘flash in the pan,’ he proved them wrong.  When the media said he wouldn’t be competitive in the general election, he has put states into play that Republicans haven’t won in 30 years.  If all his ‘angry’ supporters show up and vote, he may very well turn the electoral map on its head.  We shall see in 35 days.