I just heard a television pundit, one I respect, say that Hillary cannot improve her negatives so she may as well continue to attack.  I won’t argue with attacking Trump, but I think it’s simplistic to say that she cannot improve her negatives.

Let me qualify that.  Between Republican attacks and our shabby excuse for a news media, Hillary probably can’t improve her negatives.  However, she can raise and lighten the campaign’s image. 

During the primaries, Hillary clung to President Obama like a shadow.  That has somewhat lessened, but Trump has picked up the slack, going out of his way to tie her to the President.  That’s strange, given the President’s approval rating, but this is Trump we’re talking about.  Hillary needs to embrace that, or re-embrace it or whatever.  The economic news is unrelentingly good.  The middle class is starting to catch a break.  Poverty numbers are going down.  This is our “Morning in America,” except that, this time, it’s not a lie.

The campaign doesn’t need to pretend that Hillary “feels our pain,” and it certainly does not need to stop hammering Trump.  They just need to put out a few ads about where we were 8 years ago and emphasizing where we are today.  Then ask which candidate is the most likely to continue that trend.  This also has the advantage of giving the lie to Trump’s dark, dystopian message about the country, of taking it head on.

Maybe the pundit was technically correct: Hillary can’t improve her negatives.  But she might be able to pull off the functional equivalent.  A few up-beat ads could make a huge difference in campaign that has seen nothing like that yet. 

• This is where we were after the last Republican president.  
• This is where we are after 8 years of a Democratic president. 
• Do you want to go backwards or forward?