OPINION:
Donald Trump has an unconventional campaign approach.
He’s a counter-puncher, and if he thinks he is being treated unfairly or in any way slighted, he fights back and doesn’t worry about getting dirty.
The problem is, neither does Hillary Clinton, and she’s been playing in the political mud for a lot longer.
In the first 30 minutes of the first presidential debate, Mr. Trump won — and he won on the issues. He punched her on her email server, called her out for her flip-flop on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, took jabs at her record and defined her as the status quo.
“All you have to do is look at Michigan, and look at Ohio and look at all of these places where so many of their jobs and their companies are just leaving, they’re gone,” Mr. Trump said. “And Hillary, I’ll just ask you this, you’ve been doing this for 30 years: Why are you just thinking about these solutions right now? For 30 years, you’ve been doing it, and now you’re just starting to think of solutions.”
His offense put her on the defense, and during the exchange you could visibly see Mrs. Clinton shifting her weight, and at times, it appeared she didn’t seem to know what to say.
Because Mrs. Clinton would rather be talking about Mr. Trump and his fat-shaming of women — this is the dirty ground she feels more comfortable on, not defending her own record or putting forward her vision for the country.
So on Monday night she baited him, and Mr. Trump — being Mr. Trump — fell for the bait. He’s still defending himself regarding his comments about former Miss Universe Alicia Machado’s weight, launching a Twitter firestorm Friday morning.
Message to Mr. Trump: No one cares. Apologize to Ms. Machado, and move on to the economy, to your immigration plans, to your vision of change. Mr. Trump’s biggest failure as a candidate is getting trapped defending himself in fights that mean nothing to the American public. This is one of them.
And, of course, it’s these fights — and on this low ground — that Mrs. Clinton wants to do combat.
“You’re never going to beat the Clintons in the mud,” former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said in an interview on ABC News’ Powerhouse Politics Podcast Thursday. “It’s not possible. They’re the best gutter-fighters we’ve seen in our lifetime.
“I mean you have to go back to Richard Nixon to find anyone with the potential to fight with her,” Mr. Gingrich said. “So you’ve got to stay above her. You’ve got to say look, ’I’m going to beat you on jobs, I’m going to beat you on trade, I’m going to beat you on taxes.’”
I fully agree. Mr. Trump — no matter how it pains him — can’t take her bait. He’s got the winning message, he just needs to go out there and sell it.
Ms. Machado, extramarital affairs, Rosie O’Donnell — these fights aren’t going to make America great again, so it’s time to put them to rest.
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