Posted on 06/19/2016 10:42:03 AM PDT by Pinkbell
Donald Trump has taken an unlikely path to winning the GOP nomination for president. And now he's taking an unusual approach to campaigning for the general election that could cost him dearly.
The billionaire businessman effectively clinched his party's nomination a full month before Democrat Hillary Clinton did the same. But Trump spent much of the month of May campaigning in states that won't help him win the 270 votes he needs in November.
Yes, the California primary and contests in other Western states still loomed. But he was unopposed in those GOP contests, and many Republicans wished he had taken the head start to pivot to the general election and start focusing on critical swing states. Instead, Trump seemed obsessed with a notion that he could run up the score and expand the map putting into play states that haven't gone for Republicans in almost three decades.
"The Trump campaign starts the general election at an organizational disadvantage," said Ryan Williams, who was a spokesman for Mitt Romney's 2012 campaign. "This is a candidate who won by the sheer strength of his personality and bluster instead of through a well-organized campaign effort."
Bucking the things that have worked for presidential campaigns
NBC News detailed in a news story last week just how skeletal Trump's campaign apparatus really is absent many positions usually seen as critical, essentially one media contact and with no rapid-response team.
He fired Rick Wiley as national political director, a seasoned GOP operative who was a key liaison to the Republican National Committee, reportedly after clashes with Campaign Manager Corey Lewandowski. And he continues to maintain an aversion to data and analytics the backbone of any modern campaign, especially one for the highest office in the land.
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
Trump simply can’t resist these personal attacks with his “if they hit me I’ll hit them back “ scenario. It’s taken him far afield of the messages he needs to convey.
That’s the thing, though. I truly believe Trump could have used those protests to his advantage as the article states. He should have been out there that night. The next morning he should have called into the networks who all would have taken his call. He should have went after Hillary and Bernie who these people support.
I still have hope this will turn into a good campaign ad.
Trump has to put on his Presidential Cap and sound off about all the things that are the most important and do it with Presidential flavor. There are those he can win over that have not gotten on his train.. He needs to get some persons who can help him get this on the road... this hillary crap has to stop.. she has nothing to win with.. and Trump has to get serious and show who he is for the time left. We’ve put all our eggs in the Trump basket and we’re down to months now.. and time is going by. I don’t want to see of ANY poll that has hillary in the lead.. I know they lie and maneuver and he has to be so far ahead that there is no way to pull that poll stuff on any of us. It’s Trumps to win or lose... and I don’t like to see a criminal able to fool anyone at all... there is nothing she has or can say.. there is a body count and a horrid past...along with benghazi, millions she has demanded, and her lies... plus the emails..
The people need to be taught about her... they don’t know and they don’t want to learn.. they don’t want to know how bad she is, but they have to hear it over and over.. they have to be forced fed.. and forced fed every day at every opportunity. Tell who she is... tell what she has done... expose her lies.
I am worried about the ground game. A skeletal operation may work in the primaries, but the general is a whole different ball game.
The media is responsible for his drop in polls.
How many times here on FR did we see threads titled "Dinosaur Media Deathwatch" that confidently predicted the demise of the MSM? Can we please put a stop to that? The media will do everything they can to protect Hillary and when you have a GOP (with the exception of Trump) that is incompetent at getting the message out, that makes it even more challenging.
Not to mention he is running against his own party essentially.
If the party listened to their own base and not their special interests groups and big money donors, Trump would not be a problem for them.
People forget things SO FAST! Within 48 hours of having had rallies in those states, the MSM will have so much nonsense brought against Trump, that people in those states (non hardcore Trump supporters), will almost immediately forget he was even there.
I’m sure he will be in those swing states NON STOP as we get closer to August, when the convention is over. Anyway, I think what you’re saying is good, but I don’t think it accounts for how quickly people forget things.
yes.........He needs to STF up about his personal stuff.
We don’t care and it just gives the Left MSM a chance to pick at him as they know he bites back.
Don’t take the bait Donald
Control yourself Donald
MSM don’t forget and bring up stale crap all the time to remind their mindless leftie viewers
Note to Bimbo Reporterette at NPR ( commieville public radio)
So I am sure you gave your advice to Trump...he just beat the crap out of 17 candidates on way to biggest GOP primary votes captured in history. He’s already explained how he plans to put those states that have not gone GOP in decades
Then you quote some guy that ran the super winning team of Mitt Romney...boy ain’ t you special! pffff!!
Yeah, that was one of my points. I know the judge released the Trump U stuff, and he was trying to defend himself. He had some valid concerns with the judge. I feel like if he articulated them differently that could have helped, or he could have asked the judge to recuse himself. My thoughts are that he didn’t think the judge would recuse himself, so he was trying to force his hand. I think he would have been better to have lawyers/ppl tell him how to spin the Trump U thing, focusing on the positive reviews. There was a video made of those reviews, but it got little play. Then he should have dropped it if possible because the trial is post election. Time would have been better spent on Hillary.
Trump is so outside the traditional campaign. All these experts with an MBA in political science can’t find anything in the textbooks to tell them how to respond. We were wrong on the Romney polling because we didn’t factor in the non turnout by anti-Mormon bigots and other Conservatives who were fed up with his now open disingenuousness. The turnout in the final polls were accurate in the top line numbers but not in the internals. This year we have people who are with Trump hanging up on pollsters, which distorts any turnout model. Presbyterians don’t generate bigotry among Repubs and Indys (regular people - not party elites) and he is slowly bringing Conservatives around. The woman thing is nonsense. Especially after Orlando, and what it is bringing out re: Islamic enslavement of women. Hope Trump continues to hammer that.
NPR is who we never trust for anything.
Vote Trump 2016
After seeing public opinion swing to Hillary this past week, I fear we have 1964 like drubbing coming our way. Aside from his base, everyone else seems to hate Trump with amazing passion.
Yes. Please Trump, stick to the issues. Try getting POSITIVE headlines.
Right. There is a book coming from a former Secret Service agent who dealt with the Clintons. He essentially thinks Hillary is a monster. I hope Trump rides that book until the election.
This.
The mistake Trump made was talking about the judge..that was the week the AWFUL job numbers came out, only 38,000 jobs created in the month of May..over 500,000 people dropping out of the labor force..THAT was the story, instead all the media covered is what Trump said about a stupid judge that doesn’t affect anyone’s life..the media did that on purpose to take the focus off of the jobs numbers..if Trump had focused on that, he would be up 10 points against Clinton right now
Elite MSM is TELLING you that everyone hates Trump. GOPe has long reach inside those prompting a narrative. Hillary is a criminal of the highest order, and if somehow she is thrust on us, there will be civil war.
How dare you criticize Trump! He’s never wrong, don’t you understand that? Everything he does is amazing and fantastic. He lives in a gold plated world where everything got that way because he touched it.
That’s why I posted this because of the poll numbers. If he was leading, I wouldn’t have. Implementing some of these changes could help him. It’s still early yet. The media, who he relied on in large part in the primaries, is now in the Hillary camp. Expanding his team w/ a good ground game, good response to things, focus on Hillary, and good ads could easily turn things around.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.