IS CALIFORNIA AN EXAMPLE OF THE NATION’S FUTURE POLITICS?

Kellyanne Conway: Donald Trump’s Third and latest Campaign Manager

 

The GOP is virtually non-existent today in California, and this is the nation’s future?

 

Well, if the first Trump campaign ads are an indication of what we will be seeing from his continuously reworked operation, I would tell Hillary’s team not to worry too much.  Trump’s release of his first general election ad is an ugly and dishonest production which shows he isn’t really changing anything.

 

The new ad is filled with precisely the same dark Trump themes and content, and they even uses some of the same grainy dark footage, of the primary ads depicting illegal immigrant mobs as border invaders.

 

Some Republicans are admitting that they are seeing the parallels between the California Republican party decline, and their party’s national decline, with their failure to adapt to the on-going demographic changes.  It shows the national RNC’s current failure to adapt to these demographic changes that are sweeping the country as well as the impact they are having on our national elections.

 

In one respect, the new ad goes even further in its demagoguery than the original GOP primary ads.  It claims that the US border is totally “open”, which is not the case.  Broadly speaking, the new Trump ad echoes the ugliest elements of the picture Trump’s convention speech painted. That included what ails America and what he says must be done about it.  If you recall, that speech further alienated the same voter groups that Trump needs to expand his appeal, if he even had a snow-balls chance for turning around his current slide.

 

NBC News, which broke the story about the new ad, reported that the ad is backed by a $4 million TV buy and it will run for 10 days in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, and North Carolina. This is noteworthy that Trump is on strong defense in North Carolina and is spending sums there comparable to similar spending in other must-win states. If Trump loses North Carolina, there probably is no path for him to a November win.

 

The new Trump ad, that I have now viewed multiple times, reminds me as a Californian of the ads that the GOP ran in 1990 for Governor Pete Wilson.  His ad also depicted our borders being overrun with dark crowds of immigrants.  It worked back then, but today, with the white population now being the minority voting group in California, the GOP is virtually non-existent today in California, and this is where the nation seems to be headed.  (Clinton and Sanders together won 547 California primary delegates, Trump was the only GOP delegate winner at 172 delegates.)

 

It seems interesting that all the smart followers of election campaigns are now saying that, as the Washington Examiner’s David Drucker reported, not only is Trump getting outspent, he’s getting bested in other key ways.

 

Clinton is investing much more efficiently. With a strong field and data analytics program, the former Secretary of State’s campaign is maximizing her advertising dollar to reach specific voting blocs.  She also is doing it for less money. For instance, the level of their data tracking on distinct demographics and individual voters allow their campaign to purchase inexpensive advertising time on programs that receive lower ratings overall, but they are highly watched by particular ethnic groups of people.

 

In addition, the Trump campaign did not build a sophisticated voter turnout operation.  In fact, as Politico has reported, Trump has virtually no US ground game in any state.  He must rely on the RNC’s ground operation which nationally, is very insignificant.  Hillary’s operation is actually a mirror of Obama’s, which is the most sophisticated election operation ever developed.

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Now with Trump’s third internal election management change, and the fact that Trump has actually admitted that he regrets some of the comments he has made, as expected, he hasn’t said exactly which of his many ridiculous comments he regrets.  One would hope that he will at least make a real apology to the Kahn family that lost their son in Iraq, and that Trump had also attacked on TV.

 

Trump’s new senior adviser Kellyanne Conway, when asked if he would apologize to the Kahn’s, she said, “He may. But I certainly hope they heard him,” this was referring to Trump’s comments about regretting some things he has said.. “I hope America heard him because of all the people, who have been saying, hey, let’s get Trump to pivot, let’s get him to be more presidential. That is presidential.”

 

Sorry Kellyanne, that is only “presidential” when the statements have some real specifics as to which comments Trump actually regrets.  As usual, for everything that he promises, he never gets down to the nitty-gritty details of what comments he is referring to.

 

As to those in the know about what is needed in an American president, Michael McFaul, the former US Ambassador to Russia, he now says that the absolute worst candidate to deal with NATO, Russia and Vladimir Putin would be Donald J. Trump.

 

The New York Times now reports that Republicans are finally worried that Trump’s candidacy could seriously cost them the US Senate and even possibly the House. The dilemma is

 

that some Republicans believe that, in Democratic-leaning or evenly matched states, Republican candidates are better off abandoning Mr. Trump. That is because they believe that the party’s most reliable voters are still likely to go to the polls and support every Republican on the ballot. 

 

But if the party collectively disavowed Trump’s candidacy a bit too soon…the intra-party battle would likely depress the total Republican voting turnout, which would drag the other GOP candidates down with Trump.

 

As they say in politics, “Timing is everything!”

 

Continue watching this space….

 

Copyright G.Ater  2016