The Hill’s Jonathan Swan offered these 5 things, but, he forgot a big one: actually campaign. Trump says he’s not going to start till after the convention. The GOP convention is July 18-21, which leaves a bit over three months till the general election. That’s not a lot of time to get things up and running.
Here are the 5
(The Hill) Pick a good VP: One of the fastest ways Trump can repair trust is by surrounding himself with people who would be seen as having a steadying influence on his administration.
Will he do it? Or pick someone completely outside the box, which will make the Trumpites happy, and turn everyone else off? McCain’s pick of Sarah Palin electrified the Conservative base in 2008. She was an up and comer, dynamic, exciting, attractive. Unfortunately, as we soon learned, she was woefully unprepared, and Team McCain did little to help her.
Expand your base: Trump crushed his opponents in the GOP presidential primary, where he was competing with other Republicans for a slice of the vote.
Winning a general election is tougher.
The thing is, he has attempted to expand it, but appealing to Democrats and Bernie supporters. What he hasn’t attempted to do is appeal to Republicans and Conservatives. Yes, he gets big crowds, and had a good showing during the primaries. But, the number who come out to vote during primaries is considerably less than during the general. And huge swaths supported someone other than Trump. He’s making little to no attempt to woo them, even just to the point of saying “at least vote against Hillary”. Often, he’s insulting to the people he needs to get out and vote.
Focus on winnable states
He needs to limit his appearances and attempts at putting California and NY in play, and focus on those states a Republican should win, as well as swing states. But, he’s running a “different campaign”, so don’t expect him to change.
Cut out the conspiracy theories
His base loves these. And, if he’s going to dabble in them, at least deal with real stuff, like Hillary’s email server and Bill’s sexual assaults.
Focus on jobs and the economy: Trump’s image is that of the successful businessman who knows how to make a deal.
The economy remains the No. 1 topic for voters.
As such, Trump’s path to the White House would seem to be based on an economic argument.
In interviews with The Hill over the past month, dozens of Republican strategists have said they wish Trump would get back to talking about how he’ll make America rich again.
The economy is a mess. He should spend more time talking about it. He can also talk about terrorism and illegal immigration, and should. But, much like with the other Democrat in the race, Hillary Clinton, Trump is more about populism. And whining about the Republicans who aren’t sold on him.
National polls are virtually meaningless. It is the state polls that matter, due to that whole Electoral College thing. Some early polls show Trump doing poorly in what should be slam dunk GOP states against a horrible candidate in Hillary. This could be an epic wipeout of the GOP for the general with a guy who doesn’t know how to run a campaign beyond the primaries.
More: perhaps Trump dumping Lewandowski is a step towards changing the narrative towards a general election, as many are suggesting. But, Trump says what Trump wants to say, not what Lewandowski tells him to say.
