“Trump is “not doing basic things” that are expected, or required, of a major party’s nominee, such as explaining his policies in clear talking points and drawing distinct contrasts with his opponent.”
I hear Trump drawing a distinct contrast between Hillary and himself all the time. I guess Plouffe’s not been listening. Maybe Plouffe means that Trump should work “hope and change” into every other sentence like he had 0bama doing.
This is pretty straightforward.
The role for the GOPe designated loser (DL) is to keep everything at a very refined, high policy level: ““Trump is “not doing basic things” that are expected, or required, of a major party’s nominee, such as explaining his policies in clear talking points and drawing distinct contrasts with his opponent.””
The designated loser is definitely not supposed to:
a) point out the Democrat’s past poor behavior, lawbreaking, or mistakes;
b) point out the Democrat’s present behavior;
c) publicly notice any discrepancy between the Democrat’s stated intent and the obvious consequences of this behavior, unless framed in a policy wonk context so that no voter will connect the consequence with their own life;
d) refer to the Democrat in any but glowing terms (’my distinguished opponent’ is about as rough as is permitted); or
e) respond in kind to any personal insults or mischaracterizations, particularly not by doing any of the forbidden a) through d).
By following these expected, presidential, behaviors, the designated loser can be assured that the voters will deem the DL a wuss who is completely out of touch with actual people and almost certainly guilty of being a sexist/racist/homophobe/evil person.
See Ford, Bush, McCain, and Romney, for recent examples.
The Democrats aren’t used to, and have no strategy for, an actual opponent who hits *back*. They’re only ready for a game where they get free rein, an assist from a willing media, and the opponent is limited to whiny debate statements and canned ads.