Hillary Clinton speaks to supporters at the Sheraton Hotel in New York on April 19. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post) Hillary Clinton won’t need much help stepping over the dead body of the GOP on her way to the White House. (The easiest job in the United States might be doing opposition research for her.) Nevertheless, she would be smart to absorb some of the lessons of the GOP race.
First, she should not passively sit by as the networks become an arm of the Donald Trump PR squad. They claimed that other GOP candidates weren’t available, so Trump got all the time. She should put that to the test (take the airtime) and put the media coverage on the clock. How many more hours are they giving Trump? (She can put out the figures each week.) Her campaign honchos should be all over Fox News and some selected programming elsewhere for refusing to question Trump seriously. The “Trump said aliens landed today, but we could not confirm his assertion” style of reporting should be mocked and condemned.
Second, Clinton should never, ever attack him on ideology. He doesn’t have one. He has loony ideas, obnoxious proposals and nutty policies. Republicans, Democrats and independents can all agree that insisting he can force Mexico to pay for the wall is, well, delusional. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.)’s well-delivered tirade against Trump on the day he left the race should be material for countless ads. Hey, Cruz said it: The man is a pathological liar with deep-seated insecurity.
Third, Trump now says he doesn’t want to destabilize the economy, but she can find bushels full of economists attesting to the drastic consequences of a tax plan that loses $10 trillion in revenue or a punitive tariff. He says he wants to be a better friend to allies, but he wants to threaten to pull out of NATO until they pay up. These are not conservative ideas; they aren’t even ideas. They are visceral reactions to problems he does not understand. We cannot trust him with the presidency. (Repeat that a lot.) Skewer him for inconsistencies and contradictions, for not explaining how he would accomplish his aims. (Where’s his health-care plan?)
Fourth, what he cannot change is his personality and character. Cruz figured that out too late. Clinton should not wait, but rather, should steal that ad (updated with more recent remarks) quoting the nasty things Trump has said about women:
Likewise, she can find tons of helpful material in the Mitt Romney speech. It has really good lines, including: “If Donald Trump’s plans were ever implemented, the country would sink into a prolonged recession.” There is this riff: “Trump’s bombast is already alarming our allies and fueling the enmity of our enemies. Insulting all Muslims will keep many of them from fully engaging with us in the urgent fight against ISIS. And for what purpose? Muslim terrorists would only have to lie about their religion to enter the country.” No argument there. And finally, there is this: “Think of Donald Trump’s personal qualities, the bullying, the greed, the showing off, the misogyny, the absurd third-grade theatrics. We have long referred to him as ‘The Donald.’ He is the only person in America to whom we have added an article before his name. It wasn’t because he had attributes we admired. Now imagine your children and your grandchildren acting the way he does. Will you welcome that?”
And finally, do not act wounded or put upon when he name-calls (as Jeb Bush unfortunately did from time to time). Laugh at Trump. Mock him. Provoke him. Accuse him of not being worth $10 billion. (Bring up the tax returns, every single day. Keep tabs on the number of times he has promised to produce them and the number of days he is withholding them.)
You see, with 17 candidates in the race and the unpredictability of Trump, Republicans did not make the most of their arguments. They got distracted. Attacked one another. If their lives depended on it, they could not keep up a single line of argument (reveal his taxes) for more than a few days. Clinton has no such problem. She will have one opponent (unless a third candidate comes in), a single race (not two primaries) for the media to focus upon. She can, and will, make the most of it.