So you want to run against Trump?

Don’t Savage Trump: While it can be politically satisfying, attacking Trump directly for his many faults won’t improve a candidate’s prospects. Yes, Trump’s status as an accused rapist, a racist, a liar, .a demagogue, a Putin worshiper and a defiler of the Constitution puts him in a ditch. But Trump fans have accepted the “bad” Trump in order to gain access to the “good” Trump who makes them feel good about themselves and the country. The best way to wound the ex-president is to go after his positives. Cotton explored this territory in February when he slagged the Democrats for passing Trump’s crime bill! That’s bagging two political birds with one stone. The Jan. 6 hearings, which diluted perceptions about Trump’s alleged patriotism, provide another opening. Trump has yet to account for why he spent a good chunk of the riot sitting alone in front of his dining room TV and not ordering any response to the Capitol Hill mayhem. A campaign speech that declares its love for Trump but shames him for neglect could spell political gain.

Be Kind to Be Cruel: Contenders should also praise him as a latter-day Ronald Reagan who restored Republican virtues to the country, created the Trump economy and packed the Supreme Court with conservatives. After delivering these messages with a smiling face, the contenders should drop a qualifying “but.” Pence has been doing this over the summer, extolling the “Trump-Pence administration” on the stump, but framing it as part of our “past.” He is “threading the political needle by championing the policies of Trump, absent the abrasiveness,” as Bloomberg put it. The downside of the “kind to be cruel” strategy is that praising Trump out of one side of your mouth makes it sound like an endorsement of his reelection. Another kind-to-be-cruel option would be to find ways to say he’s served us well, but now he’s too old and beaten down for the job. Virgil Sollozzo expressed this thought in The Godfather after attempting the assassination of Vito Corleone. “With all due respect,” Sollozzo said, “The Don, was slippin.’” Mr. Manners from Indiana is the only candidate who could politely convey the message that Don has slipped without sounding like an ageist.