Hillary Clinton told her supporters last night: “One of us is ready to be commander-in-chief in a dangerous world.”
Setting up the “dangerous world” frame is right out of the Frank Luntz playbook. I’d link to his writings on national security but I can’t seem to find them online — I only have hard copies. Basically, Luntz’s message is if you make the world seem dangerous and scary, voters will choose conservative candidate more willing to confront problems and bad guys directly with guns and bombs.
That’s not the direction of Hillary’s policy or even most of her rhetoric — she’s trying to focus on the experience gap, as she has every right to do. But candidates’ messaging can have lasting effects on the electorate.
Including this talking point once is no big deal, but it had better not feature regularly in Hillary’s stump speeches. She and her staff know better.
— Scott Paul
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