What a difference one month makes. Only 30 days ago did it look like a Hillary Clinton victory was inevitable against the brain-fart that is Donald Trump. That has now changed. In an new LA Times national poll, Trump leads Clinton by +7 points, his largest lead since his post-RNC surge. Clinton has blown leads in both Michigan and Virginia (both leads down to 3 points), is down in battleground states Florida, Ohio and Nevada, as well as significantly down in Iowa by +8 points. Trump's move to seemingly replace himself as the conductor of the "Trump-Train" in favor of new campaign top-dogs Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway, in conjuction with daily showcasings of the Clinton campaign's immense dishonesty, corruptibility and tone-deafness, now make a Trump-led White House a possible reality, and here is why:
1. Hillary is still SO bad at this...
Hillary has put herself in a position where she cannot escape herself. People think she's dishonest, and people think she's corrupt, and it rings true when an NBC poll shows that only 11 percent of Americans think Hillary is "honest and trustworthy." That's because she isn't, and everyday that her campaign trots her out to lie about her emails, the Clinton Foundation, or why she collapsed at the 9/11 memorial, it only lowers her trustworthiness in the eyes of the public. Attacks that she's throwing out to the public hoping to stick are only getting slammed right back into her face, like ripping Trump for calling the September 17 Chelsea, NY terrorist attack a "bomb," then turning around and calling the explosions "bombings," her "basket of deplorables" comment (she 'apologized'), and her refusal to drop the desperate, last second hail-mary subject that is "birtherism."
That last act of tone-deafness only made matters worse for Clinton, who only drew more attention to her campaigns fueling of the false claim that President Obama wasn't born in America (of which Donald Trump has holds plenty of responsibility in spreading). After bringing it up, former McClatchy Washington Bureau Chief James Asher further embarrassed Clinton, tweeting that long-time Clinton confidant Sidney Blumenthal (if that name rings a bell, it's probably because of this and/or this) had "told me in person," during the brutal 2008 Democratic primary that pit then-Senator Obama against then-Senator Clinton, that Obama was born in Kenya. In an interview with McClatchyDC, Asher said this, “During that meeting, Mr. Blumenthal and I met together in my office and he strongly urged me to investigate the exact place of President Obama’s birth, which he suggested was in Kenya. We assigned a reporter to go to Kenya, and that reporter determined that the allegation was false."
This type of attack strategy that has typically worked for Clinton in the past is currently running out of steam, even with the help of the liberal media. With less than two months left, we'll see if Hillary continues to attack Trump in similar fashion as well as continue to use some of her top weapons, President Obama and First Lady Michelle, as well as Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, on the campaign trail in an effort to halt this regression in the polls.
2. ...while Trump has just now realized how bad he is at this.
It's taken Trump until mid-August to figure out he can't run his own show and still win, and after a third midseason change at the top, it's clear that Bannon and Conway are the ones now doing so. Bannon and Conway immediately moved to try to change the optics surrounding Trump by first having him hold a press conference apologizing (in semi-apologetic, Trumpian fashion, of course) for all the disgusting things he has said throughout his campaign, putting him in Louisiana after the recent tragic flood in Baton Rouge (while Hillary "rested" and Obama golfed), and even putting him in Mexico for an olive branch-extending meeting with Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto, a very risky move which ended up being a big win for Trump.
They placed him in front of millions of daytime TV viewers on The Dr. Oz Show to release the results of his physical exam and talk health in the same week Hillary's health was put in question, and when Hillary decided to drag out the skeleton that is "birtherism," the Trump campaign went full-on master troll. As news networks went live at a press conference in which Trump said he would address the topic once and for all (Noteworthy: at his own Washington DC hotel), he spent the TV time pitching his hotel to the press, bringing up veterans one by one to endorse him, and then finally taking to the podium and announcing, "Hillary Clinton and her campaign of 2008 started the birther controversy, I finished it," and then, finally, “President Obama was born in the United States. Period.” A masterfully played bait-and-switch by the Trump campaign, which led even CNN's John King to acknowledge, “We just got played. We just got played.” They did, and according to the polls, it's working.
Hillary has found herself stuck between the proverbial "rock and a hard place;" her need to stay out of the spotlight for her own good to hide her deceitfulness conflicts with her need to remain actively campaigning.
Trump, breaking the 43 percent mark for the first time since July, has finally moved to attempt attracting those Republicans and others who have previously held out their support for him.
Time will tell if this surge is simply the result of a temporary scam, or if the Orange Man truly has pivoted. In an election where truth is secondary, anything is possible.
