The Hill’s Jonathan Swan offered these 5 things, but, he forgot a big one: actually campaign. Trump says he’s not going to start till after the convention. The GOP convention is July 18-21, which leaves a bit over three months till the general election. That’s not a lot of time to get things up and running.
Here are the 5
(The Hill) Pick a good VP: One of the fastest ways Trump can repair trust is by surrounding himself with people who would be seen as having a steadying influence on his administration.
Will he do it? Or pick someone completely outside the box, which will make the Trumpites happy, and turn everyone else off? McCain’s pick of Sarah Palin electrified the Conservative base in 2008. She was an up and comer, dynamic, exciting, attractive. Unfortunately, as we soon learned, she was woefully unprepared, and Team McCain did little to help her.
Expand your base: Trump crushed his opponents in the GOP presidential primary, where he was competing with other Republicans for a slice of the vote.
Winning a general election is tougher.
The thing is, he has attempted to expand it, but appealing to Democrats and Bernie supporters. What he hasn’t attempted to do is appeal to Republicans and Conservatives. Yes, he gets big crowds, and had a good showing during the primaries. But, the number who come out to vote during primaries is considerably less than during the general. And huge swaths supported someone other than Trump. He’s making little to no attempt to woo them, even just to the point of saying “at least vote against Hillary”. Often, he’s insulting to the people he needs to get out and vote.
Focus on winnable states
He needs to limit his appearances and attempts at putting California and NY in play, and focus on those states a Republican should win, as well as swing states. But, he’s running a “different campaign”, so don’t expect him to change.
Cut out the conspiracy theories
His base loves these. And, if he’s going to dabble in them, at least deal with real stuff, like Hillary’s email server and Bill’s sexual assaults.
Focus on jobs and the economy: Trump’s image is that of the successful businessman who knows how to make a deal.
The economy remains the No. 1 topic for voters.
As such, Trump’s path to the White House would seem to be based on an economic argument.
In interviews with The Hill over the past month, dozens of Republican strategists have said they wish Trump would get back to talking about how he’ll make America rich again.
The economy is a mess. He should spend more time talking about it. He can also talk about terrorism and illegal immigration, and should. But, much like with the other Democrat in the race, Hillary Clinton, Trump is more about populism. And whining about the Republicans who aren’t sold on him.
National polls are virtually meaningless. It is the state polls that matter, due to that whole Electoral College thing. Some early polls show Trump doing poorly in what should be slam dunk GOP states against a horrible candidate in Hillary. This could be an epic wipeout of the GOP for the general with a guy who doesn’t know how to run a campaign beyond the primaries.
More: perhaps Trump dumping Lewandowski is a step towards changing the narrative towards a general election, as many are suggesting. But, Trump says what Trump wants to say, not what Lewandowski tells him to say.
IOW, do what all they guys who lost did.
He’s 3 or 4 down (yes, it’s a little too-well established the networks and the Big Dailies are giving Hillary an 8 point bump) and we haven’t seen any post-Orlando polls, so what’s this “turn the campaign around”?
Realclearpolitics poll average has Trump down by 5.8
A 3-4% would have Trump losing the electoral college by 100
Rasmussen the GOP polled gives Clinton a 5 point lead that would most certainly carry over to a Dem Senate
Well realvlearpolitics has now posted up 2 polls find since Orlando both done by Mknmouth obe giving Clinyon +8 and one giving her +7
If that held in Nov it would mean the GOP woukd definitely Lise the Senate and probably also lose the House
Because if the Sebate’s obstruction of Obama’s SCOTUS nominee it might also give Vlinyon 3 chances to have a Dem Sebate confirm her nominees for SCOTUS
That would put s death sentence in GOP gerrymandering of congressional districts
Generally a general election vote that wins by 3% pretty much in sites a win in the electoral
If Hillary wins by 8% the GOP will also probably losing the House, 4-5% pretty much ensures losing the Senate
Bookies are offering 5-1 odds on Trump winning, they began at 2.5 to 1
He is a downward spiral
John,
At this stage, what do your stats mean? Nothing.
Now, please explain why you like Clinton. She is a liar, she is incompetent, she has zero accomplishments of her own, in fact her running of the State Department was a disaster. She got 4 Americans killed and could give a care about it, then she lied to the families over their dead bodies. If you know the Clintons from their Arkansas days you will know that they are horrible people. So, why do you like her?
“Dewey Wins.”
Third party will be starting up shortly and the now existing GOP will officially become recognized as the new libertarian party.
People dont understand that EXTREMES on the right dont get people elected nationwide. While promising a 1000 things only to do nothing, the GOP understands that promising all this stuff in local elections might work but promising these same ideals nationwide offers only one thing.
DEFEAT. The GOP has become Unelectable nationwide. Essentially handing the White House to whatever whacko the Left wants to run every 4 years.
The REGANITE REPUBLICAN has changed his name to the REGANITE INDEPENDENT. This is whats going on in this party right now.
A fracture thats turning into an ABYSS.
In 2006 the Left said that the GOP was going to be wandering in the wilderness for quite some time and what everyone doesnt realize is that the Manchurian candidate actually fueled this fire by doing things he knew the PRESS WOULD DISMISS and that the right would absolutely go APESHIT over.
Its worked. The GOP has officially gone BATSHIT CRAZY! Nominating Donald Trump……OMG. This would be hilarious if not for the fact that its the final nail in the GOP’s lid.
Well Played Mr. Obama. Well Played. You have destroyed all that was great about America by destroying any opposition to the leftists Socialist/communist agenda.
Well Played.