Dear Mrs. Clinton:
I have great respect for your track record and your integrity and it makes me so very furious that the mainstream media have assiduously turned what should be a landslide against The Donald into a horse race where they can extract maximum viewer interest and maximum revenue.
[1] The content of your speeches is excellent. But, in my humble opinion, your delivery needs to be modified a bit. You need to interject more humor. You spend too much time speaking very loudly. You sometimes sound shrill. You should start out speaking at low volume, a bit slowly, and then build to a crescendo and then sometimes fade back a bit before ending the statement.
Bernie Sanders had a very effective way of pausing at the end of each point and looking very serious for about maybe 5 seconds, pursing his lips and appearing to be gathering his thoughts for making the next point. A very important part of making clear his seriousness. I think you should conclude policy remarks with this kind of pause.
In statements where you are attacking Mr. T, I have a suggestion. Namely, at the end of the attacking statement, pause a little, then say with a big grin say something like “Har Har Har — Donald, you are so full of it.”
When you are attacking Donald’s statements where he promises anything say something like “Don the Con… Donald has a habit of making promises he does not keep”
[2] One of the most potent weapons in Mr. Trump’s armory is…. seldom use facts, use adjectives… he’ll say …. “Veterans health care -— [pause] -— a disaster. Middle East policy — a child could do better.” The counter is “Trump casinos — failures”. “Trump contracts — he welshes on his bills”; “You can’t trust Trump — he makes promises he can’t keep”
One might attack his business dealings with sound bite comments “Donald is a business failure… bankrupt xx times” ; “Donald keeps breaking contracts — not paying his bills in full or not his bills at all — why should you trust him”…
[3] One of his mightiest weapons is his “Let’s make America great again (through cutting immigration and deporting immigrants so these foreigners don’t compete for your jobs)”. America is indeed great if you are part of the top 30 per cent, with good income, good health care, safe neighborhood, lots of nice toys, and enough money to send your kids to college and have enough for retirement. But if you are not part of this group, America does not feel so great. Far too many Americans feel underpaid, have not seen their incomes rise, feel they might lose their jobs if their company shuts down and goes to Brazil, feel that there has been little progress. Through our household helpers, I have seen with my very own eyes how the bottom 20 per cent is treated, with disrespect by the cops, with savage treatment by municipal court judges, with contempt by health care providers (who don’t want to accept Medicaid), with warrants for non-payment of unaffordable fines. FOr all too many in this group, America is a HELLHOLE.
[4] Trade: We have long used trade as a foreign policy instrument to maintain and improve our position on the world scene. For example, through trade, we have turned China from a dangerous adversary into a trading partner, sucking her into a strong embrace based on trade (and debt). And we have failed to compensate the millions of people who lost good paying jobs. For example, we have actually rewarded manufacturers for transferring their operations overseas, increasing our penetration of foreign countries. And we have failed to compensate people who have lost well paying jobs.
[5] Like Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump has campaigned on a slogan of “You can trust me because I am not financed by special interests”. I think you should campaign strongly for campaign finance reform.
[6] Maybe I am wrong, but I don’t get the impression that Bernie is doing much for you. I really love Bernie and his guts and his courage and his high intelligence and his real devotion to the American people. But I wish he would go to bat for you, at full strength, full court press. He could make a huge difference.
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Anyway, these are some of my thoughts. I wish you all power to your elbow, let the force be with you.
Peace and Love
EJH