Hillary Clinton campaign trolls GOP by boosting Donald Trump

[applegrove]

Hillary Clinton campaign trolls GOP by boosting Donald Trump

By Greg Sargent, The Plumb Line, at the Washington Post

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/12/22/hillary-clinton-campaign-trolls-gop-by-boosting-donald-trump/

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Mr. Podesta said that Mr. Trump has “demonstrated to be a serious” candidate for the Republican nomination, and that he is “someone who could very well be successful in their nominating process. People have come around to the conclusion that this isn’t just…going to go away at some point.”

It’s hard to know whether the Clinton camp really believes this. But one obvious possibility is that the Clinton camp is signaling to top supporters that they should publicly make the case that Trump now looks like a genuinely viable candidate to win the GOP primary. If so, this takes the Clinton camp’s trolling of GOP voters to another level: Hillary is attacking Trump because Democrats are afraid that he’ll become the nominee!!!

But there may be a deeper rationale here, too. As I reported the other day, Democrats plan to increasingly make the case that Trump’s simplistic bluster and belligerence are forcing the other GOP candidates to dumb down their rhetoric to match his, thus revealing Clinton to be more prepared to lead in complicated and dangerous times than any of the GOP candidates.

This is a political and policy argument: Democrats are claiming that Trump’s rhetoric has become a threat to national security, which in turn makes the other GOP candidates’ efforts to match it — or at least, fail to condemn it in a full-throated fashion — more consequential, and reveals Clinton to be a steadier, more reliable presence. (The bet is that, while all the bluster may appeal to GOP primary voters, it will taint the party in the eyes of the general election audience.) Clinton’s increasing efforts to highlight Trump’s reckless anti-Muslim demagoguery not only gives Trump a way to boost himself among Republican voters, by arguing that he has emerged as Clinton’s chief foe; it’s also designed to advance that larger argument.


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[SunSeeker]

1. K & R

[AngryAmish]

2. It looks like Clinton is schlonging the Trump campaign.