Hillary Clinton's campaign is planning to showcase a more spontaneous and fun side of Clinton in a strategy shift.
"In extensive interviews by telephone and at their Brooklyn headquarters last week, Mrs. Clinton’s strategists acknowledged missteps—such as their slow response to questions about her email practices—and promised that this fall the public would see the sides of Mrs. Clinton that are often obscured by the noise and distractions of modern campaigning," a report in the New York Times said.
The campaign now wants to show potential voters that Clinton can be funny and heartfelt.
"They want to show her humor," the paper reported. "The self-effacing kind ('The hair is real, the color isn’t,' she said of her blond bob recently, taking note of Mr. Trump) has played better than her sarcastic retorts, such as when she asked if wiping a computer server was done 'with a cloth.' They want to show her heart, like the time she comforted former drug addicts in a school meeting room in New Hampshire."
Clinton's 2008 campaign made a similar shift in strategy after losing the Iowa caucus. Clinton showed a softer side, including tears, in the run-up to her victory in the New Hampshire primary.
MSNBC's Morning Joe was among those mocking Clinton's new strategy this week:
"We were laughing before the show," panelist Mark Halperin said. "There’s twin stories, one in theNew York Times, one in the Washington Post, about [how] Hillary Clinton is turning the page … She’s going to be showing more humor, heart, and joy."
"That’s not calculated," co-host Mika Brzezinski said sarcastically. "What is wrong with them?"
[---]
"These same aides that calculated the dumping of documents, like at midnight Friday night [on] Labor Day weekend, now are telling us in a calculating way she’s going to show … humor, heart, and joy," host Joe Scarborough deadpanned.
"Show, not tell, is usually better, but in this case they’re going with tell," Halperin said.