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The Screaming Moderate

The play's the thing, wherein I'll capture...the voters?

4/22/2016

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The thing about hiring professional campaign staff is they sure “spin” more creatively than the amateurs.

Let’s look at the “new” Donald Trump staff. Led by the leader, Paul Manafort who was a “big” political consultant back in the day but more important, maybe, now is that he is a tenant in Trump Towers. Trump’s new political team is in Florida courting the very national Republican National Committee that their candidate is trashing on the stump every day about their “rigged” and “crooked” nominating system, a system he is leading.

The GOP "establishment" is not big on Trump both because of his personality and his stated views and opinions which they think will sink the GOP from the top office to the bottom this year.

Manafort’s explanation is the Trump has been “playing a role” so far and the “role” is about to change into a more adult, mature version of a political candidate.

Let’s think about that: Does that mean Trump has been lying to his “loyal” supporters up to now? That maybe he really doesn’t tell it like it is but tells it like he thinks it needs to be told to reach his ends (does the name Machiavelli mean anything to you?). And will we now see Trump – armed with his prepared and teleprompter-ready foreign policy and other promised substantive speeches – become a version, a serious, wonky candidate that the 70 percent or so who have a negative view of him now can say, “oh, that’s a guy I can back. He’s real…now”?

It defies logic. Will Trump’s up-to-now supporters who have made him the odds- on favorite to get the nomination buy his change in “roles,” as Manafort puts it? Or will they lose interest in just another lying politician? (Ironic in this telling that Trump calls Sen. Cruz "Lying Ted."

Manafort is doing the best he can with what he’s got but saying Trump has been “playing a role” doesn’t cut it. This is a candidate for President we’re talking about not a candidate for the lead role in a new TV drama.

Politicians emphasize certain things in one crowd and certain others in other crowds. I get it. But he’s going to have a “change in role” now? Manafort is a pro but I think he failed in this example. One of Trump’s problems is that the 70 percent or so who dub him Mr. Most Unfavorable Candidate Ever isn’t going to all of a sudden say, “Oh, he was playing a role, I like this role better. I support him.” And I doubt that other 30 percent or so who view him favorably will say, “oh, he was just playing a role…I knew that. I still support him. He tells it like (the script) is.”

Maybe Manafort’s ploy will work. Weirder stuff has happened this year. But the Trump team is playing to the entire voting population of American, not a slice. I can’t believe this works.


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    B. Jay Cooper

    B. Jay is a former deputy White House press secretary to Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He also headed the communications offices at the Republican National Committee, U.S. Department of Commerce, and Yale University. He is a former reporter and is the retired deputy managing director of APCO Worldwide's Washington, D.C., office.
    He is the father of three daughters and grandfather of five boys and one girl. He lives in Marion, Mass.

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