The_Wall_Street_Journal_Asia__September_13_2016

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Tuesday, September 13, 2016 |A

CLINTON

On Monday, Mr. Trump also

said he would put out more

medical information, though

his timetable wasn’t clear.

Mrs. Clinton was spending

Monday at home resting, the

campaign said, though she

planned to call into a fund-

raiser in San Francisco.

Mr. Fallon said Mrs. Clinton

didn’t plan to change her

schedule after her diagnosis of

pneumonia on Friday.

That day, she attended a

national-security meeting,

talked to reporters and at-

tended a fundraiser. She also

participated in meetings on

Saturday and didn’t want to

miss the 9/11 event on Sunday,

he said.

“Her intention was to

power through,” he said. “She

was full-steam ahead.” He said

aides had to persuade her to

cancel the California trip,

which was scheduled for Mon-

day and Tuesday.

It is possible she will return

to the campaign trail on

Wednesday, but it wasn’t clear

whether she would travel to

Nevada, where she has an

event scheduled that day.

Continued from Page One

There were discussions

about deploying her husband,

former President Bill Clinton,

to attend Los Angeles fund-

raisers in her stead. She also

had planned to appear on El-

len DeGeneres’s talk show.

Mrs. Clinton, who main-

tained a grueling travel sched-

ule as secretary of state and

now as a presidential candi-

date, “continues to feel better

but intends to remain at home

today, following her doctor’s

recommendation to rest,”

spokesman Nick Merrill said

Monday.

Mrs. Clinton’s defenders

pointed to her resilience.

“ ‘Powering through’ illness is

what women do: Stoically, ev-

ery. single. day,” former Michi-

gan Gov. Jennifer Granholm

wrote on Twitter.

But former Obama adviser

David Axelrod said the way

that Mrs. Clinton handled the

situation was a problem and

fed the perception that the

candidate isn’t always

straightforward with the pub-

lic.

“Antibiotics can take care

of pneumonia,” he wrote on

Twitter. “What’s the cure for

an unhealthy penchant for pri-

vacy that repeatedly creates

unnecessary problems?”

The campaign didn’t dis-

close until Sunday afternoon,

hours after a video emerged of

Mrs. Clinton stumbling as

aides helped her into her van,

that Mrs. Clinton has been di-

agnosed with pneumonia two

days earlier.

Clinton communications di-

rector Jennifer Palmieri re-

plied to Mr. Axelrod: “We

could have done better yester-

day, but it is a fact that public

knows more about HRC than

any nominee in history.”

On Monday, Mr. Trump

wished Mrs. Clinton a speedy

recovery but also aired ques-

tions about her health, citing a

coughing episode during a

rally earlier this month. Mrs.

Clinton attributed the cough

to seasonal allergies.

“I hope she gets well soon.

I don’t know what’s going on.

I’m like you, I just see what I

see,” Mr. Trump said on Fox

News. “The coughing fit was a

week ago, so I assume that

was pneumonia, also. I would

have to think it would have

been, so something is going

on, but I just hope she gets

well and gets back on the trail,

and we’ll be seeing her at the

debate.”

The candidates are sched-

uled to meet on Sept. 26 in

Hempstead, N.Y., for their first

debate.

U.S. NEWS

U.S.

Watch

ECONOMY

Inflation Expectations

Increased in August

A three-month slide in con-

sumer inflation expectations re-

bounded in August, according to

a survey by the Federal Reserve

Bank of New York.

Consumer inflation expecta-

tions for one year from now

ticked up last month to 2.79%,

the highest level since October.

The increase appears to have

been driven mostly by increases

in the expected prices of food,

rent, medical care and college tu-

ition. Consumers in the survey

expected gasoline prices would be

lower a year from now, however.

Federal Reserve officials pay

close attention to inflation expec-

tations because they can predict

the path of actual inflation. The

central bank has been struggling to

boost inflation up to its 2% annual

target for more than four years.

—David Harrison

OREGON

Trial Is Set to Begin

For Armed Protesters

Nearly nine months after the

armed occupation of a federal wild-

life refuge in Oregon, arguments in

the first trial against some of the

participants were opening in Port-

land, Ore., on Tuesday.

Eight of the 26 protesters facing

charges—including their leader, Am-

mon Bundy—were due to appear

before a jury in a federal court-

house. Mr. Bundy, 41 years old; his

brother Ryan, 43; and the six oth-

ers all face charges of conspiracy to

impede federal officers through in-

timidation, threats or force.

All eight have pleaded not

guilty. A lawyer for Ammon

Bundy didn’t respond to request

for comment. Ryan Bundy is rep-

resenting himself. The protesters

said the federal government re-

stricted cattle ranching, logging

and other economic development

on land set aside for preservation.

—Jim Carlton

Clinton Is Facing a Trump Dilemma

H

illary Clinton’s health

issue is her most cur-

rent problem, but not

her biggest one.

The larger issue, revealed

by the difficulties she’s en-

countered in the last couple

of weeks, is the same one

more than a dozen Republi-

can presiden-

tial contend-

ers grappled

with, largely

unsuccess-

fully, during

the primary

season: How do you run

against a candidate as uncon-

ventional, harsh and relent-

less as Donald Trump?

Sen. Marco Rubio and for-

mer Florida Gov. Jeb Bush

can sympathize, for they dis-

covered the difficult strategic

choice Mr. Trump presents.

An opponent can try to ignore

his jabs and pursue his or her

own agenda instead, only to

discover that Mr. Trump has

used his tactics to define the

race and soak up much of the

oxygen in the room by grab-

bing attention for himself.

Or the foe can engage in a

kind of punch-counter-punch

exchange of insults, only to

learn how hard it is to beat

Donald Trump at his own

game.

Mr. Trump’s primary rivals

never quite figured out how

to navigate between those

two paths—and now Mrs.

Clinton is struggling with the

same problem.

“The primary should have

been a case study in the les-

son that you can never, ever

let Trump control the tone

and tempo of the race,” says

Kevin Madden, who was a top

strategist on Mitt Romney’s

2012 GOP presidential cam-

paign. “If you do, he will put

you in a reactive, defensive

crouch and you will end up

running at his pace instead of

your own.”

At the same time, Mr.

Madden adds, “you can never

assume your opponent will

implode on their own or the

media scrutiny will be enough

to showcase the contrasts be-

tween you and your oppo-

nent. You have to go at your

opponent decisively and re-

lentlessly, disassembling the

argument for their candi-

dacy.”

Mrs. Clinton’s current

problems illustrate how tough

it is to get the mix right.

It’s possible, perhaps even

likely, that the Clinton camp

decided to hide the fact that

she was diagnosed with pneu-

monia last week because dis-

closing that would have

played directly into the narra-

tive Mr. Trump and his al-

lies—principally former New

York Mayor Rudy Giuliani—

were crafting of a Democratic

nominee with mysterious, se-

rious health issues.

If so, Mr. Trump laid a

trap—and Mrs. Clinton

walked into it.

Likewise, Mrs. Clinton’s

second new problem may

have been another case of

walking into a Trump trap.

She asserted at a fundraiser a

few days ago that “to be

grossly generalistic, you could

put half of Trump’s support-

ers into what I call the basket

of deplorables. The racist,

sexist, homophobic, xenopho-

bic, Islamaphobic—you name

it.”

Mrs. Clinton backtracked

later, repeating that she had

been “grossly generalistic”

about Trump supporters and

saying “that’s never a good

idea.”

The bad idea may have

been being lured into trying

to play the attack game in

Trump style. This time,

though, the target wasn’t Mr.

Trump but rather many of the

voters backing him, which is a

crucial difference.

Clinton supporters are

doubtless galled that Mr.

Trump has attacked so many

people over the last year—

Hispanic immigrants, Mus-

lims, Sen. John McCain—and

himself has been “grossly

generalistic” along the way,

yet has prospered anyway,

while Mrs. Clinton is being

pummeled for this comment.

That misses the point.

Such a style is what people

have come to expect, and in

some cases admire, about Mr.

Trump. It’s not what they ex-

pect of Hillary Clinton, nor

does it play to the former

secretary of state’s strengths.

This is what both Messrs.

Bush and Rubio learned the

hard way during the primary

season. When they decided to

engage in a knife fight with

Mr. Trump, they got sliced up

pretty badly.

In this case, the “deplor-

ables” comment also cut

against what had emerged as

the uber theme of the Clinton

campaign, which is that

Americans are “Stronger To-

gether.” In a recent “Meet the

Press” interview, Mrs. Clinton

cited that slogan as the big

idea animating her candidacy.

The deplorables comment

went in the opposite direc-

tion, and just when the Clin-

ton camp was trying to pivot

to stress her agenda more.

T

here is no easy way to

handle the challenge

Mrs. Clinton confronts.

Republicans learned early this

year that ignoring Mr. Trump

and his jabs doesn’t work

very well.

“You can’t ignore Trump,”

says Alex Conant, a top ad-

viser to Sen. Rubio’s presiden-

tial campaign. “He is too good

of a showman and his mes-

sage is too salient.” But cam-

paigning in Trump style also

undercuts the key difference

Mrs. Clinton is trying to draw

between his approach and

hers.

Her advantages lie in her

more detailed grasp of policy

issues and her government

experience. His advantages lie

in his advocacy for a new at-

titude in Washington and dis-

missal of the establishment.

Perhaps Mrs. Clinton would

be better off staying in her

lane, and allowing other Dem-

ocrats to engage Mr. Trump

in his.

CAPITAL JOURNAL

GERALD F. SEIB

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaking in Pensacola, Fla., on Friday

EVAN VUCCI/ASSOCIATED PRESS

There is no easy

way to handle the

challenge Mrs.

Clinton confronts.

Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton shown speaking with reporters Friday in New York.

JUSTIN SULLIVAN/GETTY IMAGES

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