Taking On Donald Trump May Be a Key Step in Getting to the Oval Office

No matter how glittering the political resume, getting elected U.S. president remains one of the great challenges on the planet. As Bill Clinton explains it, presidential candidates must not only make voters see them as a plausible president, but as an actual president, leaping resolutely and inexorably over the hurdles of the election process until it is time to stroll the stage to the tune of “hail to the chief.”

Another favorite Clinton adage is that candidates have a better chance to win over voters by being strong and wrong than by being right and weak. What links the two is the concept of strength. Strength defines, as much as anything else, the terms of winning the American presidential contest, and as such it’s an integral part of the tactical arsenal. Veteran Republican strategist Alex Castellanos says that candidates must constantly be on the lookout for opportunities to show “moments of strength,” which effectively allow the public to imagine a White House aspirant truly occupying the Oval Office, and managing the myriad burdens thereof.