Can Donald Trump turn Bill Clinton into a 'Bill Cosby'?
Trump responded to the new charges with forceful denials and, once again, new charges against the Clintons and the allegedly compliant media.
With his polls having shrunk to little more than his hardcore base of supporters and Election Day fast approaching, Trump and his campaign have pretty much abandoned efforts to reach out to undecided swing voters. Instead, their hope is to discourage wavering young women, in particular, who might be turned off enough to stay home instead of voting for Hillary Clinton.
As someone old enough to remember the 1990s quite well, I don't think that trick's going to work any better than the partisan pursuit of President Clinton did.
Now, in the final days of a contest between two candidates with the highest disapproval ratings of two nominees in memory, we can expect the alley fight to get uglier. Yet a ray of sunshine -- and sanity -- appeared later in the week. First lady Michelle Obama gave a speech on Hillary Clinton's behalf in New Hampshire that seemed to put an overdue moral compass on this competition of scandals.
She put aside her prepared speech, she said, because the idea that "a candidate for President of the United States has bragged about sexually assaulting women" is "not something that we can ignore" or sweep under the rug "as just another disturbing footnote in a sad election season."
"We have everything we need to stop this madness," she said to enthusiastic applause. "We have knowledge. We have a voice. We have a vote."
We also have a remarkably poignant and powerful voice in Michelle Obama. It is no wonder that many people wish that she was on the ballot. But this First Lady has made it clear that she's had it with Washington's political circus, an attitude so sensible that, to me, it only makes her sound more attractive for the job.
========
(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@tribune.com.)
(c) 2016 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
