Sickening Attacks on Clinton's Health
WASHINGTON -- Donald Trump -- he who likes to fly home at night in the comfort of his own plane to sleep in the comfort of his own bed -- is at it again on the question of Hillary Clinton's stamina, or alleged lack thereof.
"To defeat crime and radical Islamic terrorism in our country, to win trade in our country, you need tremendous physical and mental strength and stamina," he said in Wisconsin. "Hillary Clinton doesn't have that strength and stamina."
And a day earlier, in case you missed it, "Importantly, she also lacks the mental and physical stamina to take on ISIS, and all the many adversaries we face."
It's obvious what's going on here. The strength and stamina combo is a gender-age two-fer, a double whack at Clinton for the price of one. Strength, what men have, and women lack; stamina, with its intimations of go-all-night virility. Clinton, in this depiction, is both a weak girl and a dried-up old crone.
No matter that Trump is a year and four months older -- and, for that matter, endures a far less rigorous schedule. In Trump World, what counts is the attack, not the truth.
Trump first began hitting Clinton on strength and stamina during the primaries, a fascinating detour from his usual precision-bombing of opponents. Ordinarily, Trump homes in on an opponent's actual deficit, and proceeds to magnify it: low-energy Jeb Bush, Liddle Marco or, more pertinent at present, Crooked Hillary.
But sometimes, under attack, Trump shifts to that trusty playground tactic -- I know you are but what am I? -- a move intended to jiu-jitsu the conversation away from his own perceived vulnerabilities. Thus, Trump has trotted out "unstable Hillary Clinton," "a totally unhinged person," and "like an unbalanced person." I'm rubber, you're glue. Whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you.
Increasingly, though, the rap on Clinton combines gender, age and health in a smarmy package of unsupported insinuation. "She's a mess, a total mess," Trump told radio host Hugh Hewitt. "She'll do an event, she'll make a short speech off a teleprompter, and then she goes home and goes to sleep."
When Trump uses the teleprompter, it is a supposed token of maturity and professionalism; when Clinton does, she is failing -- indeed, possibly brain-damaged. "She took a short-circuit in the brain," Trump said in New Hampshire this month, seizing on Clinton's explanation of how she flubbed an answer on her emails. "Honestly, I don't think she's all there."
Trump is subtle only by comparison to his unhinged allies -- and employees. Say-anything, know-nothing spokeswoman Katrina Pierson was on the job on MSNBC Thursday.
...continued
Copyright 2016 Washington Post Writers Group
