This shouldn’t take long, and it’s not earth shattering on a day then Mein Furor has already shaken-not-stirred things up enough already, without even being on the trail, but it is interesting, and it shows how sharp the Clinton campaign is when it comes to strategy and messaging.
As we are by now all nauseatingly aware Trump’s campaign slogan is “Make America Great Again”. The Democrats have pushed back nicely, countering that America already is great, but we can be greater. Orange Julius plans to make America great again by bringing businesses and manufacturing jobs back to America again, this despite the fact that his empire produces none of his retail products in the U.S.. He counters this obvious contradiction by stating that’s because he’s such a good businessman, it’s cheaper to make his shit overseas than to pay union workers a living wage here. Trump can chase cheap labor, but he’ll tariff the hell out of Ford and Carrier for doing the same.
Clinton and Kaine are walking directly into the lair of the beast. They’re taking their campaign high to the distressed manufacturing areas of Pennsylvania and Ohio, speaking directly to “blue collar” white voters Trump is gaining traction with. They have their contrast, and it’s a great one. In his intro for Clinton yesterday, Tim Kaine made a direct reference to the fact that his clothes were made at a factory in Ohio. Then he went on to name several other products that Trump produces overseas that could just as well have been made at plants in Ohio and Pennsylvania. In her rally speech today in a plant in Pennsylvania Hillary directly addressed the fact that both her and Bills togs were made right here in the good old U.S. of A..
If anybody out there is listening, this can be a very effective attack strategy. The Clinton’s and the Kaine’s are supporting manufacturing in this country, and instead of lying their asses off about the fairy tale of bringing lost jobs back to this country, they’ll grease the skids for entrepreneurs in this country to create new jobs, and make it possible for them to thrive and prosper. Trump has no plan to generate new jobs, he wants companies to bring long gone jobs back and he’ll penalize them if they don’t. Which plan has a greater chance of actually working? And one more question while I’m at it. If Trump is elected, will he slap tariffs on his own shit if he keeps those production facilities overseas? I’m not positive, but I think you’d probably see the words “Grandfather Clause” pretty prominently featured where his products are concerned.
This is the brilliance of the totally together Clinton campaign organization, and the thing that Trump will never be able to reproduce. The Killer ‘Do jets in on Trump Force One and spews his standard stump speech, directed to the base, with whatever new bile is in his throat that day. The Clinton camp researches and focus studies the issues of critical importance to the areas they are visiting, and they craft their speeches to speak directly to those issues. They treat every appearance as if they were running in a specific district for a congressional seat. This is about as effective as it can get.
One more point to make here. It was said by a commentator on CNN yesterday that heading right out from the convention on a bus tour was almost a divine inspiration. People have a sentimental love for bus tours. The candidate isn’t jet hopping from stop to stop, they’re going by bus, and stopping in local places along the way, they’re actually seeing the texture and countryside of the country, from ground level, not 30,000 feet. . Forget the fact that Hillary’s bus bears as much resemblance to a Greyhound as I do to Brad Pitt, that’s not the point, it’s the transportation mode. This may not get nationwide attention, especially on a weekend, but it does something much more important. Bus tours are such a rare political occurrence that this will absolutely dominate the local media. Eight to ten minutes of top of the hour local news coverage, and front page headlines with pictures of the candidates, crowd and bus. In battleground states like Pennsylvania and Ohio that blanket “free” coverage is worth more than all the national attention in the world, it resonates locally, exactly the effect they’re looking for. What connects voters to a candidate more, getting off of a bus, or getting off of an Airbus? This is how you target specific geographical locations.
Thanks as always for reading!