Donald Trump is doing Harry Houdini’s act.
In the 1890s, Houdini was famous for performing a trick he called “Metamorphosis.” The magician’s hands would be tied securely behind his back and he’d climb into a sack that was tied at the top with a knotted rope. Then the bag with Houdini inside was placed in a wooden trunk which was locked and secured with leather straps.
Houdini’s wife Bess, his assistant, would draw a curtain around the locked trunk and step inside. The audience heard her clap her hands once, twice, three times — and on the third clap Houdini himself would step triumphantly through the curtain.
The trunk was unlocked to reveal Mrs. Houdini inside the bag, her hands tied behind her. In three seconds, they had changed places.
And now, ladies and gentlemen, we present the presidential campaign version of Houdini’s Metamorphosis.
The trick begins with the Republican Party tied to wealth, privilege, the Iraq war and Wall Street.
Then Donald Trump comes down the escalator and announces he’s running for president.
The Republican Party tries to tie him up and lock him in a trunk.
But when the curtains open, the New York billionaire stands triumphant. The trunk is unlocked to reveal Hillary Clinton tied to wealth, privilege, the Iraq war and Wall Street.
Trump is not getting enough credit for a brilliant campaign.
He has distanced himself from the deeply unpopular and endless war in Iraq while remaining the strong-on-defense candidate who will “rebuild our military.” And he has placed Hillary Clinton’s 2002 Senate vote for the war into a pattern of bad judgments that have made us less safe.
Trump has made the Republican Party the home of working people who have been hurt by government policies.
And he has successfully rewritten the narrative that frames Clinton scandals.
From the early 1990s right up to the present day, the Clintons have been awash in overlapping scandals, too many to list.
But Bill and Hillary Clinton and teams of surrogates convinced most of the press and much of the public that all the charges were baseless and politically motivated, and that every new revelation was part of a right-wing plot to stop them from helping the American people.
Donald Trump has beaten the Clintons at their own game by branding the Democratic nominee with a competing narrative. New accusations? She’s “Crooked Hillary.” No charges? It’s a “rigged system.”
Some Democrats are watching this Metamorphosis and sounding kind of worried about it.
Bill Clinton referred to the competing narratives about his wife during his Democratic National Convention speech. “One is real, the other is made up,” he said.
President Obama sounded frustrated as he asked convention delegates, “Does anyone really believe that a guy who’s spent his 70 years on this Earth showing no regard for working people is suddenly going to be your champion?”
Quite a few people believe it. CNN’s poll after the Republican convention found that 46 percent of Americans think Trump is “in touch with the problems ordinary Americans face in their daily lives,” up from 37 percent. Trump’s lead among white voters who do not have a college degree was 51 to 31 percent pre-convention and 62 to 23 percent afterwards.
While everyone’s attention was misdirected by shocking statements and bickering feuds, Donald Trump skillfully and brilliantly positioned himself as the candidate who can’t be bought; who’s strong on defense; who’ll fight for working people. Then he tied his opponent to Wall Street, corruption and the Iraq war.
Amazing.
No doubt Houdini would be impressed. But in all fairness, he’d also give high marks to Hillary Clinton for her handcuff escapes.
