Hillary Clinton’s speech Thursday night, coming at the end of a Democratic National Convention filled with amazing speeches, has left the Trump campaign seriously flailing in its search for a response. Campaign chairman Paul Manafort expanded his reputation for brazen nonsense by claiming that “because she has no message, she has to try and confuse by making these kinds of attacks.”
That’s right. Hillary Clinton has no message, after a speech in which she elaborated on the theme of “stronger together,” saying that:
Every generation of Americans has come together to make our country freer, fairer, and stronger. None of us ever have or can do it alone. I know that at a time when so much seems to be pulling us apart, it can be hard to imagine how we’ll ever pull together. But I’m here to tell you tonight – progress is possible.
Hillary Clinton has no message after a speech in which she talked about the minimum wage, affordable health care, immigration, trade deals, Social Security, equal pay, NATO, ISIS, and more.
If Donald Trump is setting the bar for having a message … that bar is low. Clinton cleared it by so much she couldn’t have looked down and seen that the bar was there at all. But the Trump camp is desperate and they’ve shown time and again that they’ll say anything. And speaking of the Trump campaign saying anything, they also issued a statement describing the speech as “an insulting collection of cliches and recycled rhetoric.”
Donald Trump’s people are describing someone else’s speech as insulting? Again, they’re desperate and sad. The DNC kicked the RNC’s butt on ratings and message and indelible moments that will motivate voters for months to come. It’s harder to reach people emotionally with optimism than fear, but Democrats did it, and did it against a campaign that pushed fear hard. Trump’s campaign is going to the only play it has: more insults and fear and lies.