Unsolicited advice for the Hillary Clinton campaign: First, a few premises. There are two Hillary Clintons. No, not the body double. I mean the actual Hillary Clinton and the distorted Hillary Clinton cooked up over 25 years by various critics. I’m not going to claim the actual Hillary Clinton is above reproach in any way. But compared to the distorted Hillary Clinton, the actual one is a genuinely impressive leader.
Another premise: when Hillary is out on the campaign trail, talking to voters, the real Hillary Clinton comes through and connects a lot better than the pundits realize. When she is off the trail, for whatever reason, the distorted Hillary Clinton seeps back in. And it gets more and more distorted with each passing day that she is not visible. It’s worth mentioning that the same thing happened to Obama in 2008 and 2012. This isn’t a matter of charisma, per se, but simply the politics of the vacuum. When you aren’t creating an image for yourself, somebody else is creating that image for you.
Finally, most voters really want to vote FOR a candidate and not just AGAINST the opponent. When Hillary built up large leads in early August, polls showed that most of her voters were more pro-Hillary than anti-Trump. For Trump, however, it has been a consistent reality that the majority of his voters are NOT pro-Trump but are mostly anti-Hillary. So here’s the problem: if you run a purely negative campaign, a lot of voters will just stay home or will vote for a third party, concluding that both candidates are unacceptable, even though most of those same voters really do loathe Trump more than Clinton. This is a turnout election: Hillary always leads among registered voters, and often by a considerable amount. Convince those voters on the fence to rally TO you and not just AGAINST Trump, a man whose obscene excuse for a campaign is on display for all to see every day.
With those premises in mind, here are my suggestions:
Get out on the trail and talk to voters each and every day. Have the cameras rolling in these settings and release the video on social media.
Talk about how your policy proposals will help ordinary Americans. You have more policy knowledge than anybody else, and your policies are plenty popular. Talk about them. Voters are tired of the bogus theatrics. Americans take the Presidency seriously and want a President who has at least some realistic idea of what she or he plans to do.
Talk about how your record and how you have fought for things like children’s healthcare for decades and how you will continue to do that as President. You did this very well at the DNC.
Take questions from voters in small town hall settings – big rallies are not your style and are overrated anyway. This includes taking questions from obviously skeptical voters. Show that you care about everybody – the “deplorables” comment may or may not be factually true, but it does nothing to build a positive campaign FOR you and not just AGAINST Trump.
Talk to the press regularly, and show them that you are comfortable, nimble and in command, even when facing repetitive and absurd questions.
Release all of your medical records so most voters will put conspiracy theories about your health to bed. This should never have been an issue, but unfortunately the seed was planted by the Trump campaign so that when you actually got sick, many reasonable voters genuinely worried about your health. With full medical records released and a visibly energetic Hillary Clinton on the trail, voters will draw the obvious conclusion that you are physically fit to serve.
Stop with the fundraisers – you raised enough money in August. Send Bill to do them if necessary. Now it’s time to put that money to work to get out the vote.
With the upcoming debates, use them to draw a contrast between your informed positions, thoughtful articulation of them, and Presidential composure versus whatever Trump tries to bring to the table. People will be watching very closely.
Most important: trust and respect the voters and they will give you their vote. This race is still very unsettled, with unusually large numbers of voters either undecided or leaning toward a third party out of disgust with both major candidates. But every poll has shown those “neither” voters to be extremely anti-Trump. You moved many of these voters to your side during and after the DNC when you convinced them to vote FOR you and not just AGAINST Trump. But then they drifted away, not to Trump, but to the undecided and “other” camp, as the distorted Hillary Clinton filled the void in your absence.
This is game time. You have a small lead right now but can easily build back a big lead and create a legitimate Democratic wave election. No votes have been cast yet. There is no need for gimmicks or bombastic criticism of Trump. The real silent majority wants to vote for you. Do what you do best and voters will not only vote for you in droves, but they will also send to Washington a Congress that will support your agenda.