Trump Set the Table for Clinton

The challenge for Trump going into his convention was an amped-up version of the usual: to unify his party and cast himself in the eyes of voters as a man they can entrust with the presidency. He fell short, on both scores.

Clinton's test is different. There may be lingering grumpiness among Bernie Sanders voters and distrust of the triangulating Clinton duo in the party's progressive wing. Yet nothing concentrates the Democratic mind, or unifies the base, like the prospect of Trump. The party Clinton will address in Philadelphia may not be uniformly ecstatic about her candidacy, but it is far less riven by the notion of her as president than were Republicans in Cleveland.

Similarly, for all the particulars of Chris Christie's indictment of Clinton's supposed foreign policy blunders, voters' doubts do not center on her knowledge, her experience or her competence.

They concern, as always, her honesty, trustworthiness and fundamental issues of character, not a problem capable of being solved by a boffo acceptance speech or a string of testimonials. If such rehabilitation were ever possible, which is remote, FBI Director James Comey dispensed with that in two damning words: "extremely careless."

So Clinton's path lies in emphasizing the consistency of her biography, anchored in values. Where Trump declared bankruptcies and ripped off everyone from lenders to Trump University suckers, Clinton and her validators can be expected to argue that she devoted a lifetime to fighting for women and children.

But biography means little without it being tied to a compelling picture of the future. Trump has run a campaign that is all slogan and little policy. Clinton, by contrast, has run a tapas campaign, serving up endless small plates of wonky policy. Each may be smart individually but these dishes lack an overarching theme, at least not one that she has succeeded in conveying to voters.

Trump and his convention helped her by adding to the evidence about his own unsuitability. She needs to help herself not only by hammering that home, but by offering an affirmative case for herself and a vision of where she wants to lead the country.

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Ruth Marcus' email address is ruthmarcus@washpost.com.