Running against Trump's often outlandish behavior will be tempting, but it's a losing strategy as voters are prone to dismiss Trump's antics as entertainment, said David Beattie, a Democratic pollster.
Clinton instead must find a narrow, narrative argument to make against Trump, said Beattie, who worked for Democrats in the 2010 and 2012 Connecticut Senate races against Republican Linda McMahon, a multi-millionaire former president of the WWE, or World Wrestling Entertainment.
In Connecticut, voters weren't interested in salacious details from McMahon's past, such naming her yacht Sexy Bitch or, in the wrestling arena, degrading a woman portraying her husband's mistress by ordering her to undress, crawl around the ring, and bark like a dog.
Instead, Beattie said, McMahon's opponents honed in on comments made during the campaign, such as her support for phasing out Social Security. I've run a lot races against candidate who have said crazy things, and those crazy things seem to have less and less impact, Beattie said.
With Trump, the hardest thing is knowing where to attack, Beattie said. He says so much and changes so frequently, it's almost like you're always behind, because you don't know what he's going to say. You have to have a narrative: He's not a deal-maker. He's a bad businessman who's taken advantage of the system to enrich himself, and he's not interested in helping people.