As often happens in election campaigns, events have a way of changing the debate. That means that smart candidates make hay while the sun shines. That means when the opponent is under fire you don't do anything to draw attention away from whatever that issue is. But Trump can't help himself. Right in the middle of the email story, he retweets the Star of David meme which originated on a white supremacist site. Own goal! Yes, it dogwhistles to white supremecist voters but he has them locked in anyway.
Now the focus has shifted away from emails to white cops killing black guys and black snipers killing white cops. Hmmm... what was that email issue again, I forget.
This turn of events can work to the advantage of both sides. For Trump and his white supremacist mates, a race war is manna from heaven and as an authoritarian he would love to be the Patron Saint of police officers. Already, some Republicans have blamed Obama and Clinton for the killings :
On the other hand, black people have further proof that racism needs to be addressed or it will continue to polarise whites and blacks to their disadvantage. Even wealthy and privileged black people understand that their wealth and celebrity won't necessarily protect their children. And the fact that the shooter had a cache of weapons raises the gun control issue. That he was a former military guy puts into question the theory that the way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun. The military and police are both supposed to be good guys, no? I'm praying that the shooter wasn't Muslim ...
And there's just been an announcement that Zika has killed its first American, a guy in his 70s. This while the GOP is trying to defund birth control measures. Early doubts that Zika causes microcephaly have been erased. But Microcephaly isn't the only condition it causes. The consensus is that it also causes Guillain-Barré disease and it literally eats fetal brain tissue and attacks the eyes etc. And it can be spread by sex as well as by mosquito. It therefore raises questions of birth control, protected sex, abortion and healthcare, all of which help the Democrats. It wouldn't be hard to draw in global warming as well given that increasingly tropical conditions in the South will leave it vulnerable to tropical diseases. Now summer has arrived in the US, the Zika issue will draw more attention.
The campaign is a marathon and this week has shown that no one can control the agenda for very long. There'll no doubt be dozens of unforeseen twists before this thing is done.
successful businessman ...No....lucky heir to plenty of money..yes...