I Helped Obama Win in 2012. Now Trump Is Using the Same Playbook.
Democrats have ceded the field, allowing the president to define the terms of the general election.
The general-election campaign is happening today. And Donald Trump is running unopposed.
Presidents who have recently won reelection seeded their victories not in the final sprint before Election Day, but by executing a two-year campaign to exploit a contentious primary on the other side, reconnect with their base of supporters, and define the election as a choice, not a referendum. I served as the national press secretary on President Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign, when we used that strategy to great effect. Now I’m watching President Trump executing the same strategy that powered Obama to reelection, while the Democratic organizations that could answer him have left an open playing field in the battleground states where
