OPINION:
In recent weeks, Donald Trump has ripped away Hillary Clinton’s best criticism against him: That he’s temperamentally unfit.
On Wednesday, Mr. Trump stopped his ban on certain news organizations such as The Washington Post, allowing them to once again follow him in pool coverage and at his events. This comes as Mrs. Clinton has invited the media aboard her plane and has taken a few select questions (but still no press conference — it’s been 277 days since her last one).
The Clinton team loved using Mr. Trump’s media blackout list as an example on why he was too brash and thin-skinned to be president. It’s a charge they no longer can point to.
Nor can they point to reckless comments Mr. Trump’s made in his televised speeches. Mr. Trump sticks to a teleprompter now, and largely reads from a script. It’s his same message, but it’s more refined, less prone to off-the-cuff remarks that can be taken out of context by the all-too-eager press corp.
Mr. Trump has also shown his presidential chops. While Mrs. Clinton was fundraising off the campaign trail among celebrities last month, Mr. Trump visited flood-torn Louisiana and met with families, flew to Mexico to have a sit-down with President Enrique Peña Nieto and traveled to Detroit to lay out his case among black voters.
All three trips were a success, showing Mr. Trump as temperamentally fit to meet with both foreign dignitaries and domestic constituents in need. Mr. Trump listened, shook hands and offered his support. His in-person charisma won over some of his toughest critics.
And it’s paid off.
In the latest CNN/ORC poll, Mr. Trump leads Mrs. Clinton by 2 percentage points and has won over independents by double-digits. Although each candidate is deeply unfavorable, people seem to want to give Mr. Trump the benefit of the doubt — he just can’t undermine them along the way.
In recent weeks, he hasn’t. And that’s terrible news for Mrs. Clinton.
For she’s made her campaign all about him. Mr. Trump has signature issues like immigration and being an outsider, ready to challenge the status quo. All Mrs. Clinton has is her referendum on Mr. Trump and why he’s temperamentally unfit.
Take that away from her and she has nothing: No successful record to run on, no defining issue or policy, and a plethora of scandals — from trading favors with the Clinton Foundation while she was at the State Department to the mishandling of classified information.
The only time Mrs. Clinton came out of her August hibernation was to blast Mr. Trump and the so-called “alt-right” movement as xenophobes, racists and bigots.
Where is her platform? What are her policies? We know who she’s running against, but what is she running for?
If one thing is clear coming out of the summer, it’s that Mrs. Clinton’s attack-dog strategy is not enough. Her avoiding the press and not taking any questions won’t win her the White House, and being absent from the national scene has done her no favors.
And if Mr. Trump stays on message, continues to do what he’s been doing, he’s disarmed her of her greatest weapon: Him.
For people in this country want a reason to vote for somebody, not against somebody else. Mrs. Clinton has given the electorate no idea of who she is or what she stands for. And that matters.
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