On Day One, Democrats ruthlessly exposed a core Trump weakness

[DonViejo]

Stuart Stevens, chief strategist for Mitt Romney in 2012, tells the Washington Post that Donald Trump isn’t building a winning coalition.

Said Stevens: “Hillary will have Bernie Sanders, the Obamas, Elizabeth Warren, who has been elevated to star status by Donald Trump, and Joe Biden. Who will be campaigning with Donald Trump that has a large constituency?”

He added: “The essence of politics is about addition, not subtraction. Donald Trump finds it very hard for any given moment not to be about Donald Trump, which makes coalition building and the blocking and tackling of politics more difficult. If you’re in a fight with the Republican governor of Ohio and the Hispanic governor of New Mexico, how can you expect to build a broader coalition?”

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https://politicalwire.com/2016/07/26/trump-is-failing-at-political-math/

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This is the article linked to and excerpted by Political Wire, above:

On Day One, Democrats ruthlessly exposed a core Trump weakness

By Greg Sargent July 26 at 9:31 AM

The first night of the Democratic convention, which started out amid discord but ended up featuring outstanding speeches from some of the most outsize figures in the party, continues to be analyzed through the prism of this question: Will Democrats unite at a time when supporters of Bernie Sanders continue to express fury at the process in general and at Hillary Clinton in particular?

That’s a fine question, and its answer remains to be seen, though the significance of the Bernie-or-Bust sentiment is being widely exaggerated this morning by major news organizations. But there’s a bigger picture point to be made here. What last night really showed is that there will be a profound, fundamental imbalance between the Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump campaigns when it comes to the wattage of surrogates out there making the case this fall.

The biggest speeches of the night, from New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, Michelle Obama, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders, projected a tone that seemed designed to contrast sharply with the hate-and-rage-fest otherwise known as the GOP convention. All of them, in one way or another, sought to align the Democratic Party, optimistically and aspirationally, with culturally and demographically changing America. They explicitly called out Trumpism — the rendition of it featured at the GOP convention — as brimming over with reactionary hostility towards the evolving and diversifying America of the 21st century.

All of this is driven in part by the fact that the voter groups out of which Democrats hope to assemble a winning national coalition — college educated whites, nonwhites, women, young voters — appear to reject the xenophobia and ethno-nationalism at the core of Trumpism’s appeal. But there’s a key nuance here. There is a direct link between Trump’s alienation of key demographics and the lack of high profile surrogates that will be there for him this fall. Senior Republicans are keeping Trump at arm’s length in part precisely because he’s putting off those voter groups, which many top Republicans know the party must improve among for the sake of its future.

more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2016/07/26/on-day-one-democrats-ruthlessly-exposed-a-core-trump-weakness/

[calguy]

1. When the polls come out next week

I fully expect a 10 point bounce or more for our side.

[Hekate]

2. We have optimism and aspiration pitted against hate and rage. I think we can do this.