You’ve probably heard the old joke about the diners complaining about how terrible the food at a restaurant tastes, with the punch line, “And such small portions!” This joke is now Donald Trump’s campaign message against Hillary Clinton. Trump has lambasted his opponent as a corrupt, globalist, crime-coddling status quo insider whose presidency will deal the final death blow to the America we once knew. Worst of all, it might not even last four years!
The evidence here is so comically thin — Clinton came down with pneumonia, and here she is coughing — that the ad comes off as parody. But it is apparently a real ad. And the ad’s argument is that some voters may be willing to vote for Hillary Clinton, but they should consider the possibility that Clinton will not make it through her term and would then hand power to Tim Kaine. If you’re happy to vote for Hillary Clinton, but the notion of madman Tim Kaine having his finger on the button terrifies you, then this is a strong case for Trump. But the number of voters who feel this way is probably fairly small, and not enough to make up for Trump’s current polling deficit, making this ad an odd message for the last month of the campaign.
