And Another Piece of Advice for Trump Opponents

It has often been commented that Trump has so many scandals surrounding him that he presents s --an embarrassment of riches.  That proved to be a problem in the 2016 campaign.  Each weeks would reveal a new scandal that would get breathless attention and then be dropped in favor of the next shiny object (scandal).  Trump, on the other hand focused on one thing and one thing only -- Hilary's e-mails.  But he hammered relentlessly on the e-mails, even if not always for the same reason.  Sometimes he emphasized that the e-mails violated security protocols and thereby placed the nation in danger.  Sometimes he demanded that Hilary produced the deleted e-mails and insinuated that there must be something terribly incriminating about them.  And other times he harped on what the e-mails released by Wikileaks revealed about the Clinton Foundation and Hilary's willingness as Secretary of State to talk to large donors.  Every time he was accused of anything, he successfully turned the subject back to those damn e-mails and successfully got them to be seen as the biggest scandal by a candidate in the history of the Republic. 

So let us, by all means, do the same to Trump during the 2020 election.  Don't focus on the immense wealth of scandals that he has to offer.  That just looks like throwing everything as that wall to see what sticks.  Begin by running everything by carefully by polls and focus groups -- and by everything I mean not just scandals, but also policy matters -- and see what Trump's biggest vulnerability is.  And then endlessly harp on that.  Don't worry about anything else, no matter how horrible it may seem to you.  The goal is to defeat Trump.  Only then can we address whatever issue it is that you care about.  Instead, take whatever the American people are most bothered by in this Administration and hammer on it over and over, to the exclusion of everything else.  Make it to focus of every speech, every ad, every debate point, everything.  If asked about anything else, turn the subject back to that one thing.  If you keep hammering on it, the media will see no choice but to give it attention, too.  That was how Trump worked the refs to focus on Hilary's e-mails in 2016; we need to work the refs the same way.

Oh, yes, and don't try too hard to crack Trump's hardcore base.  Zero percent approval rating is not a thing in real life, and much as we think Trump may deserve it, it ain't gonna happen.  Focus on people who are persuadable.