There are precious few diaries which actually report on what our candidate actually did during the course of a day on the campaign trail, so I thought I would post a quick diary on Hillary’s rally at Palm Beach State College. I tend to watch just about all of her rallies (and those of the surrogates) as it’s easy for me to have it on in the background while I work or if I am driving somewhere. You Tube pretty much has everything.
By the end of today, Hillary will have done 6 rallies in 4 days, plus a couple of fundraisers and an appearance on Telemundo. There were a few themes that have stuck out to me in these rallies, which are repeated in this rally:
- A lot of focus on down ballot candidates. Out of a 30 minute rally, it seems that around 5-10 minutes are focused on electing down ballot Dems. So for those who are constantly worried about shifts in tracking polls and the odd outLIEr (and it happens in every election folks), just keep in mind that most campaigns don’t devote nearly 20% to 30% of their air time to promote other candidates unless the campaign is confident about their position. Hillary has done this at every rally since the 3rd debate.
- New hits on Trump that keep evolving. She speaks about his ridiculous statements on the Mosul military operation; his hotel’s use of undocumented workers and stiffing of US businesses, US goods and services; and his dismissal of Democracy itself. She also keeps the tax thing alive and what it means in terms of our collective responsibilities to one another. So while the media want to talk about horse races, she’s reminding voters why Trump continues to be unacceptable in new and evolving ways.
- Imploring people to vote and help GOTV in optimistic tones. Talks about early voting, how to do it, and how many people have voted early already. The target is clearly young people and she is conveying that this is their chance to seize their future. She does so with a smile and energy. 50 million of the 200 million registered voters are young people. Most effective part was about how she talked about how a young man who has medical conditions and requires an oxygen tank to help with breathing, o ditched that equipment to go out and vote (for her).
- Hitting on key issue positions, such as small business support, tuition free college/college debt relief, investment in technical/vocational education, raising the minimum wage, tax fairness. In FL, her speech has an additional focus on climate change.
- The tone of these rallies is celebratory, inclusive, confident, optimistic and determined. She is smiling a lot and is drawing ener
- The campaign is clearly confident about the GOTV operation and seems very glad to finally be at this phase for which they have been preparing and planning for many months.