For a brief shining moment in late July Hillary Clinton was free to be who she is -- Hillary the Progressive, Hillary the Passionate! Her speech at the DNC was inspiring, and I saw her two days later in Pittsburgh when she was still on fire. Everyone loved the candidate who evoked her youthful idealism and went on offense for the working men and women of America who have been getting the shaft during the past 20 years. She sounded truly authentic, she seemed to be enjoying herself. And her poll numbers went up, with millennials, with women, with men, with just about everyone.
But, then something happened in August. It was as if she listened to bad advice from her campaign managers urging her to keep a low profile, reduce media exposure and give the press and public opinion room to demolish Trump. Whoever gave the advice, we know now from recent polls it didn't work. This is a two horse race and the media and voters need to see the other horse is running to win. Hillary has to look like she wants to win, has to be willing to make some errors, but be confident that the overall impression on the American people will be positive.
Lauer pretends to be a journalist
In her role as the champion of the struggling middle class, Hillary should make news, every day. God knows, she has more than enough policy proposals that could be individually used to make news every day over the next two months.
Matt Lauer, the Private-in-Chief
If Hillary were driving the news cycle, the second, third and fourth questions on the lame Matt LauerNBC show last night would not have been about the stupid emails; they would have been about news she should be making this week on national security issues. Yes, she has policy papers on national security, but she has to make them pithy and memorable! Hillary showed she can go on offense when she decided to ignore Lauer and stood up to speak directly and sincerely to the vet audience, We need more of this Hillary!
Speaking of Matt Lauer, he tried to show last night that he's not an entertainment tv host by badgering Hillary about past mistakes, instead of focusing on future policy on national security. He then reverted to his celebrity style with Trump, treating him with the same kid gloves he used on Ryan Lochte. Why did he not challenge Trump on his false assertion,not once but twice, that he opposed the Iraq war? Or ask Trump about his support for the Libya war? Astoundingly, Trump again praised Putin as a better leader than the American president. He said, "If he says great things about me, I'm going to say great things about him," citing the dictator's 82 percent approval ratings.
Football season starts tonight
Returning to the theme of letting Hillary be Hillary, football season starts tonight and we know what happens when teams go all defensive when they are 3 points ahead with a minute to go, and end up giving the ball back to the other team which scores a touchdown. I've sadly seen it happen to my beloved Pittsburgh Steelers (But they look really good this year).
So, Brooklyn, just let Hillary be Hillary, compassionate, passionate, competitive, and funny too.
Postscript
John Cassidy writing in the latest New Yorker adds some comforting context to the tightening poll numbers in August between Hillary and Trump:
"But it needs putting in perspective. To come out on top in November, Clinton doesn't need to transform herself into a beloved leader. She just needs to defeat Trump, who, by most measures, is even more unpopular than she is. Here again, the poll averages provide more reliable information than individual surveys. According to the Huffington Post's poll average, Trump's net favorability rating—that is, his favorable rating minus his unfavorable rating—is minus nineteen. Clinton's figure is minus 14.6.
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September 8, 2016
