Open Memo to Donald Trump

17 Aug, 2016 by Dick Morris

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The media is filled with speculation that your campaign is sinking. But I believe that inherent in Hillary Clinton’s rise are the seeds of her own destruction, and of your eventual election.

As Clinton — with the aid of a hopelessly biased media — struggles to convince people that your candidacy is unworthy of serious consideration, she will swing the focus away from you and onto herself. If Donald Trump cannot win and won’t be the next president, who cares what his shortcomings are? How does he pose a danger?

On the other hand, the more it looks like Clinton will win, the more her own scandals and cover-ups will be brought into the spotlight.

Today’s media is incapable of focusing on more than one thing at a time. In this election, the spotlight will either be on you or on Clinton. As the new kid, it’s on you.

Clinton is making every attempt to marginalize you and to make it seem unthinkable that you could be elected.

But carry it through to its end product: If Donald Trump won’t win, who cares what he says? Who worried about the gaffes? He’s not going to be president. So media and voters focus on the person they think will be the next commander in chief — Hillary Rodham Clinton.

And they run screaming.

It is only in Donald Trump’s shadow that Clinton can survive. My wife Eileen and I make this point in our new book: “Armageddon: How Trump Can Beat Hillary.”

She can’t handle the focus. The more people examine her record, her scandals, her lies, her flip-flops and her contradictions, the more they will see how she is manifestly dishonest.

Then, chastened, their attention will drift back to you. “Give Trump another look” will become the de facto campaign message now that they have seen how bad Clinton really is.

Were Clinton to mount her strategy of marginalization later in the process, it might have worked. But she peaked too soon. She won’t be able to handle the focus that will come her way in September and October.

The history of presidential elections confirms that this last-minute surge can happen:

–President Obama came from behind in 2012 propelled by Hurricane Sandy and by Chris Christie.

–George H. W. Bush came on strong from behind in 1988 and passed Bill Clinton on the weekend before the election. It was only the bogus announcement by the special prosecutor that he was going to indict Cap Weinberger that swung it back in Bill’s favor (Bill has told me he agrees with this analysis)

–George W. Bush lost the last debate and John Kerry came on strong in 2004 after winning the third debate. But he overplayed his hand by stressing the “discovery” of an unguarded weapons dump in Iraq that turned out to predate the invasion. It blew up in his face and cost the election.

These kinds of last-minute twists and turns are the norm and in a race with two candidates with high negatives, it is especially so.

Hillary Clinton is peaking way too soon.

Also see,

Media Focus on Trump; Voters Focus on Clinton