The Republicans’ Trumpian catch-22
Or she can build large leads among more affluent voters, many of whom are moderate and see Trump as dangerous, extreme and temperamentally unfit.
[...] the direction of her campaign and her selection of a running mate will depend in significant part on the class tilt of her strategy.
Trump’s stubborn refusal to transition away from his persona during the primaries has put the party’s leaders in an impossible position.
[...] Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg says Republican candidates for the House and Senate would risk large defections from their base if they are seen as sabotaging Trump.
Clinton set up what was by far the best period of her campaign with a sweeping assault on Trump to which he offered only a feeble reply.
“I do think (Trump’s) temperament and divisiveness are going to discredit him with voters who might otherwise have been available to a Republican nominee among the white college-educated,” said David Axelrod, formerly Obama’s senior adviser.
[...] given a Democratic leaning in the electorate reflected in Obama’s 5-million-vote margin in 2012, Trump is unlikely to gain enough in the white working class to offset his losses among the well-to-do.
[...] Greenberg sees a focus on Trump’s personal volatility as having helpful ricochet effects with other constituencies. .
His challenge is that while most of the negative information about Clinton is already well-known, each day seems to bring new revelations about Trump’s past business practices and personal habits.