At nearly every stop through two states Democrats must win in November, Clinton and Kaine talked about the Republican almost as much as they talked about themselves. She invoked him sometimes with red-meat outrage, sometimes with a tone of disbelief and sometimes for laughs.
“Donald Trump may think we never win anymore and our country is full of losers, but, boy, is he wrong!” Clinton said during a visit to a factory here that she held up as symbolic of Rust Belt revival…
Clinton and Kaine mentioned Trump’s name 36 times in some 45 minutes of remarks here Saturday, and they referenced him without naming him several times more. It was a recognition that the fall election has become a referendum on the businessman and political novice more than on the polarizing woman who has been at the center of American politics for a quarter-century. And that is mostly fine by her.
Many Democrats have concluded that the more the election is framed as a rejection of Trump, the less many voters are likely to focus on the particulars of their discomfort and dislike of Clinton. The cautious, traditional campaign that Clinton has built, designed to reeducate voters about her background and reassure them that she can be trusted, now appears to agree.
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