Test Marketing Trump’s Weak Spot

The same Super Pac that spent $66.5 million ripping Mitt Romney’s face off in 2012 has just begun a similar crusade against Donald Trump with a $6 million television ad buy over the next 3 weeks in Florida, Nevada, Ohio and Virginia — battleground states where recent polls have shown a surprisingly tight race between Trump and Hillary Clinton.

Obama’s former big money attack dog, Priorities USA, which is now working for Clinton, is paying for the ads (see below) targeting Trump’s reputation as a sexist pig. Republican primary foes and their super-pac pals tried this approach, but it was too little, too late, and fell on mostly deaf ears among the GOP rank and file.

A broader, more diverse general election audience might see these ads a bit differently. How they test market over the next month will be most telling about whether the Clinton campaign can take down the Donald.

Trump’s Response
Quick to react, the soon-to-be GOP nominee tweeted the reaction he has used before when his treatment of women is at issue: “Amazing that Crooked Hillary can do a hit ad on me concerning women when her husband was the WORST abuser of woman in U.S. political history.” He has also called Hillary an “enabler” of Bill’s womanizing who victimized his accusers, making these next few weeks a test of whether his counter punch against the Clinton pac ads is effective.

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Author: craigcrawford

Trail Mix Host. Lapsed journalist, author & retired pundit happily promoting nothing but the truth for Social Security checks.

40 thoughts on “Test Marketing Trump’s Weak Spot”

  1. Trump’s response will do fine with his base, and may even do OK with repug women, or at least some of them.  I do not think it will ring resoundingly with any Dem women and doubt that it will be very effective with the indie women inclined toward Hillary.  If my hunch is right that won’t result in votes. Trump’s problem is that it is his words he has to try and deny were sexist.  He ain’t got so much of Hillary’s words to put up there, although there are those clips of her defending Bill and questioning the accusations.  It’s an apples to oranges comparison IMHO.  I’m more concerned with the 13 minute youtube video linked by Kathleen Parker at today’s Post. Of course Trump has changed his position on just about every issue in any campaign so many times that a video that runs parallel to the Clinton one makes him look just as bad if not worse. The biggest difference is the medium.  Priorities will run theirs on the tube.  The youtube vid is on youtube.  It will get huge views, but it won’t be repeated and repeated on The Voice.

  2. The problem with His response it that The Big dawg will take no for an answer, where as Trump is the Co-worker/boss from hell. Every working woman knows one.

    Jack

  3. BTW, BS’s Statement re the NV violence of his supporters is just more preachy BS. Those who are picking out the “I condemn any and all forms of violence, including the personal harassment of individuals. But,…” part miss the tone and tenor of the statement entirely. No apology or expression of regret.  No acceptance of responsibility, and in fact no acknowledgement that what our lying eyes and ears tell us even occurred.

     

    I heard yesterday about the problems at Burlington College.  Mrs. P ran across an article about it – first I’d heard of it.  Here’s the Atlantic’s article on the closure of the college.

  8. trump’s weak spot?  vanity.  what’s needed adwise is an Edward’s type “i feel pretty” vid to go viral. seems likely something like that exists with stuff already out there like this — those few seconds of him patting his hair repeated on a loop maybe

    frpm des moines register last june:

    People often ask him what he’d do differently if he were elected president, he said.

    “I would probably comb my hair back. Why? Because this thing is too hard to comb,” he said. “I wouldn’t have time, because if I were in the White House, I’d be working my ass off.”

    just how long does it take to comb?   new puzzler: how many stylists does it take to screw in Donald’s hair plugs?

  9. and more gibes like this from a 2011

    wonkette story “Donald Trump ‘Hair’ Mystery Solved? (It’s a Wood-Grain Scalp Tattoo)”

    or this from vanity fair

    But then I saw this stunning photo, which ran with a recent VF Daily post by my colleague Juli Weiner discussing Oprah’s gracious offer to give Donald Trump a make-over. Thanks to the miracle of harsh lighting, the photo appears to reveal one of Trump’s most tightly-held secrets. Look closely. See the cross-hatching in Trump’s hair?
    My baldly-stated thesis: this could be evidence of a rarely-sighted, possibly unprecedented “double comb-over.” It looks as if a length of hair growing from the part on the left side of Trump’s pate has been combed left-to-right over the crown of his head, while a second length of hair, growing from the back of his head, has been combed back-to-front over the first length of hair. Salon-strength hair products likely play a role in the final construction of this lattice-like structure—which could also explain the “ship’s prow” look one sometimes sees in side views of Trump.

    ‘course this opens Hillary up to slams about hairdos… but that’s old news and it’s more effective against guys. just ask john Edwards.

  10. I know that Donald is an egotistic, sexist pig, but that isn’t his worse quality.  Virtually every statement he makes on any subject to do with global relations, government, or just plain history demonstrates an abysmal level of ignorance.  He is even ignorant about ignorance.  When the Prime Minister suggested Donald was ignorant about BREXIT, Donald said “I’m smart, if he doesn’t think so, let’s take an IQ test”.

    Ignorance is not a virtue, but it is curable.  Unfortunately Donald won’t take the cure.

     

  11. I am certain the numbers will move when it FINALLY comes down to HRC & DT. (Just hope they move in the right direction).  To me it’s a no brainer. Could the country survive trump’s 4 years or even eight? Probably. But what the hell would we have at the end of that time? I don’t think I’d be happy with it.

  13. Bill Clinton couldn’t hold a candle to JFK   didn’t they have a bunch of women murdered

  14. also need pac ads that ask “if he cheats at golf, where else will he cheat?” using stories like this from latina fox news “Oscar De La Hoya accuses Trump of cheating at golf, tycoon says it’s a lie”

    LAS VEGAS –  Of all the things Donald Trump has been called on the campaign trail, this one might sting the most: golf cheat.

    Oscar De La Hoya says that’s what he saw on the links when Trump joined up with his group at Trump National Golf Club in Los Angeles two years ago. Trump, he said, cheated not once but twice in the space of two holes — a charge the real estate tycoon quickly denied.

    “Yes, I caught him,” De La Hoya said. “It was unbelievable. But I guess it was his course, so it was his rules.”

     

    what we have here (combined with the self-admitted infidelities) is a pattern of cheating, lying, untrustworthy behavior which should make for good ads re lack of judgement and character

  15. I think there’s scant doubt that Trump is intelligent; but, he has demonstrated a complete lack of the intellectual rigor that would have transmuted his native intelligence into a gift for society rather than the curse that it is.

  16. Back in Orlando now, just saw the first ad above twice on local news. Somehow it comes across even more shocking alongside bland broadcast TV programming than it does on the Internet.

  18. E.J. Dionne posted a very good piece on the peace that HRC & BS must make.  Visionary gradualism is the term Dionne uses as a goal for the two of them, “a concept offered by Michael Harrington, the legendary American socialist: “visionary gradualism.” It’s not a slogan but a steady approach to lasting reform that takes into account the urgency of undertaking change, the difficulties of achieving it and the disciplines that democracy imposes.”

    The questions for Sanders and Clinton should not be what his terms of surrender are or what “concessions” Clinton ought to make. To cast matters this way implies a zero-sum game and a cold peace. What they need to find, to use the venerable labor movement term, is solidarity.

    Sanders has already pushed Democrats (and the entire national dialogue) in a more progressive direction. He wants to lead an enduring movement that will continue the battle against privilege and inequality. His hopes for turning his troops into a formidable long-term electoral force will face their first test in the battle against Trump.

    And Clinton needs what Sanders has to offer. He has made his campaign about something larger than himself. She hasn’t done this yet. She can start by turning the Democratic platform into a fighting document, which is what Sanders has always hoped it would be.

    Indeed.

  19. Here’s More Proof Donald Trump Is A Serial Liar
    “I didn’t mean punishment for women like prison. I’m saying women punish themselves,” Trump said, regarding his past comments about abortion.
    Samantha Lachman

     Here’s yet another example of how the Republican Party’s presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump is a serial liar.
    Trump told The New York Times magazine in an Interview published Wednesday that when he said in March that there “has to be some form of punishment” for women who have abortions if the procedure were to be made illegal, he meant “women punish themselves” if they have a termination.
    “I didn’t mean punishment for women like prison. I’m saying women punish themselves,” Trump told the Times. “I didn’t want people to think in terms of ‘prison’ punishment. And because of that I walked it back.”

  20. WaPo’s editorial board agrees with my take on Bernie’s BS statement following the NV kerfuffle caused by his supporters and Bernie’s obligation to stop LYING to his crowds of adoring fans. There was no theft in NV, and there is no path to the nomination for him.  Stay in, fine, but CUT THE SHIT and act like an adult.  (A lot to ask of a septogenarian.)

  28. Nice Grandpa Bernie Sanders Gonna BURN YOUR SH*T DOWWWWWN

    By Rebecca Schoenkopf

    If you were waiting for Bernie Sanders to release a statement on the clusterfuck that was the Nevada state Democratic convention, hooray! He has done so! If you were waiting for Bernie Sanders to release a statement telling his supporters “hey maybe don’t drown out and scream at Barbara Boxer that she’s a fucking bitch for having a different preference in the Democratic primary than you do,” you are going to have to wait a little bit longer.

  29. Tony, Weaver’s a forking ash hole (who ya gonna believe,  that ash hole or your lying eyes?) And a Dem debate on Fox?  Is bernie STUPID?  Jesus god, I wonder why they (Fox) would suggest that? I hope the only response coming from Hillary is NFW.  I can’t stand this shit.

  30. I Felt the Bern But the Bros Are Extinguishing the Flames
    http://time.com/4339865/bernie-sanders-supporters-violence/?xid=tcoshare&utm_content=buffer7ea10&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
    Sally Kohn

    The Bernie Bros are real. I’ve been the target of Bernie Bros on social media, and when I endorsed Sen. Sanders at a Brooklyn rally in front of more than 30,000 people, a not insignificant portion of the audience booed me for praising Clinton in my remarks. Forget the plainly self-defeating results of that behavior in terms of trying to recruit would-be Hillary supporters to Bernie’s column. It was disturbing from a visceral, human level.
    It’s also too easy to suggest that Sanders’ supporters are a different kind of angry than Trump’s. Are we entirely sure about that? The populist right may be more inclined toward misogyny and xenophobia, but the populist left is not immune from these afflictions. And as I’ve written before, when you see progressive white men—many of whom enthusiastically supported Barack Obama’s candidacy—hate Clinton with every fiber of their being despite the fact that she’s a carbon copy of Obama’s ideology (or in fact now running slightly to his left), it’s hard to find any other explanation than sexism. Either way, the brutish, boorish behavior of Bernie Bros (and their female compatriots, too) was a huge reason I was reluctant to seemingly side with them in endorsing Sanders—and has been the only reason I have ever questioned my decision to do so since.

  31. Pogo

    I know, wtf, a debate on Fox, wow.. The guy sinks lower and lower.. I’m tired of him. Hate to say it but Hillary needs to just move forward.. Enough of him.. Like Hillary supporters in 2008 the Bernie supporters have nowhere else to go.. Not sure anymore Sanders will do the right thing.. Def not the person i liked on Thom Hartmann all these years..

  32. Clinton should run as though she is unopposed or she should ask for all third party candidates to be included in any debate

  33. tony, thanks for that kohn quote.  she put it well what I was thinking about those (40%) wva berner voters who said they will vote for trump if their man doesn’t get nominated…. also applies to some of the pundits who self-id as liberal.  a worthy repost:

    “…when you see progressive white men—many of whom enthusiastically supported Barack Obama’s candidacy—hate Clinton with every fiber of their being despite the fact that she’s a carbon copy of Obama’s ideology (or in fact now running slightly to his left), it’s hard to find any other explanation than sexism.”

  34. Yes, Pat, that quote explains much. When put like that what other reason can there be other than sexism.. My friend Seth yesterday a Bernie supporter tells me, HRC acts entitled and she only cares about winning.. I said that’s a strange thing to say, nerver heard that said about Al Gore or John Kerry.. Yes i said (being sarcastic) a women wanting to win is just such an unattractive quality now in men it’s expected and admired.. Seth i said, whether you realise it or not you’re being sexist in a major way.. Unlike some of the Bernie Bros Seth is voting for Hillary in Nov..

  35. Bernie Bros out of control: Explosion of misogynist rage at Nevada’s Dem chairwoman reflects terribly on Sanders’ dwindling campaign
    Sanders backers have been flooding Roberta Lange with sexist abuse because of the loss of 4 delegates
    AMANDA MARCOTTE
    Sanders himself had a perfect opportunity to put a kibosh on all the craziness on Tuesday, when asked about it by NBC News. He could have played the role of the conciliator, telling his supporters they fought the good fight but you can’t win them all — Clinton’s concession speech to Barack Obama from 2008 is a good model — Sanders simply walked away.
    This is irresponsible of Sanders and his campaign. They know full well that they have lost this campaign and that Clinton has millions of more votes than he does. Sanders needs to issue a full-throated denunciation of not just the violence, but of the misogyny and the conspiracy theories. The refusal to do so, even when directly offered an opportunity, speaks volumes.

  37. what’s with Bernie’s cry “democrats, open the doors”? never known anyone turned away who wanted to register.  is he demanding/asking the party to let his non-dems (those who refuse to join the party let alone contribute moral support, time or money) vote in convention on platform, rules and nominees as tho’ they were members but not have to sully their conscience by officially becoming one?

    bern is sounding like a burn ’em down anarchist nowadays.

     

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