Pirate's Cove

If Donald Trump wants to hit people on the campaign trail, he should focus on Hillary and Democrats, minimizing the attacks on the media and stopping attacks altogether on Republicans. Hit Hillary. And, make it a bit outrageous so that the in-the-bag media highlights it, rather than glosses over it. You want it showing up on the major networks and in the pages of newspapers. Things like this

(Politico) Donald Trump stepped up his effort to sow doubts about Hillary Clinton’s physical capacity to be president, questioning her work ethic on the campaign trail during an interview recorded Tuesday and aired on Wednesday.

Speaking at a Fox News town hall special hosted by Sean Hannity, an open supporter of the Republican nominee, Trump said, “She doesn’t really do that much. She’ll give a speech on a teleprompter and then she’ll disappear. I don’t know if she goes home [and] goes to sleep. I think she sleeps. I guess she takes a lot of weekends off. She takes a lot of time off. And you know that’s, frankly — frankly, it’s really not fair.”

Of course, since this is Politico, the actual thrust of the article is meant to show Team Hillary slamming Trump

The Clinton campaign issued a statement Tuesday night slamming Trump for pushing “deranged conspiracy theories” after he said in a speech Monday that Clinton “lacks the mental and physical stamina to take on ISIS.”

“While it is dismaying to see the Republican nominee for president push deranged conspiracy theories in a foreign policy speech, it’s no longer surprising,” wrote Jennifer Palmieri, Clinton’s communications director.

Unsubstantiated rumors about Clinton’s health failing have been circulating on right-wing media sites for months, with the influential Drudge Report bannering images of Clinton being helped up stairs and sitting on pillows. Clinton’s doctor pronounced her health “excellent” last year in a letter released by her campaign.

So, Team Trump and their supporters get the story out there. Team Hillary responds. But, what people will see initially is Trump saying Hillary is essentially low energy, and people will wonder about how fragile is her health, regardless of the media spin. Smart, especially if people start talking about it.

For good or bad, this worked well for Trump during the primaries. He needs to start hitting her on this with actual commercials.

The Hill covered this as well, and, here’s how it went beyond the initial comment

Trump also resurfaced an old Clinton campaign ad, in which Clinton promised she’d be up in the middle of the night to answer the White House phone, to poke at her physical capacity for the job.

“Who do you want to be at that phone at 3 in the morning?” Trump asked. “I’ll be up, I will tell you that.”

“She wasn’t there,” Trump said in reference to the Benghazi attacks.

“This was 4 in the afternoon,” Hannity noted.

Trump this week has attacked Clinton’s “stamina,” a line of attack pushed forward by conservative media. Clinton’s campaign slammed Trump on Tuesday night for the tactic.

If Trump wants to win this thing, there are really three things he has to do. First is expand the tent. Do this by keeping the crazy down while reaching out to Republicans and Conservatives for their votes. Give great policy focused speeches. If you listened to his speech from Milwaukee, well, it was damned good. Finally, hit Hillary, and hit her hard. Paint her as low energy. Highlight her physical capacity and stamina. Discuss her server issues. Put them on the defensive.

Crossed at Right Wing News.