By John Wagner and Abby Phillip
CLEVELAND - Campaigning in the battleground state of Ohio on Wednesday, Hillary Clinton ticked off her plans to lift the middle class. The Democrat leveled some zingers at her Republican opponent, telling the crowd that "friends don't let friends vote for Donald Trump." And she left the stage 32 minutes later to boisterous applause.
What Clinton didn't do was break any new ground. The rally in a high school gym here was the latest in a series of workmanlike, largely news-free appearances by the Democratic nominee, who seems content to let Trump's troubles dominate the headlines for now.
"When your opponent is committing suicide, you don't have to commit homicide," Hari Sevugan, a Democratic communications consultant and former campaign spokesman for President Barack Obama, said when asked about Clinton's strategy of laying relatively low.
Indeed, by the time Clinton arrived in Cleveland, it was already clear that the political news of the day was going to be the staff shake-up at Trump's struggling campaign. It was the latest in a near-daily dose of developments on the Republican side dominating the agenda on cable news shows.
In a move expected to generate local headlines but be ignored by the national press, Clinton toured the recently rebuilt high school in which she would later speak, surveying the use of robotics, 3-D printers and other innovative teaching aides. She ignored questions shouted by reporters about what Trump's reshuffling says about the race.
"I for one am really proud of this high school and what that represents," Clinton said upon taking the stage, drawing some of the loudest cheers of her rally.
She touched on her plans to rebuild the country's infrastructure, expand early-childhood education, make college more affordable and raise taxes on the wealthy. All are central to her campaign - and all have been outlined time and time again.
Clinton campaign aides have long said that their most powerful weapon against Trump is Trump himself. Most television ads created by the campaign and the pro-Clinton super PAC, Priorities USA, have featured Trump's own words prominently.
And there has been plenty of material of late, including Trump's sparring with the family of a Muslim American soldier who was killed in Iraq, Trump calling Obama the "founder" of the Islamic State terrorist group and his invitation to Russia to seek out missing Clinton emails.
"When your opponent is making news that hurts him, then give the press and voters every opportunity to pay attention to it," said Mary Anne Marsh, a Democratic consultant. "Why would you do anything to distract them?
Clinton has kept a relatively light campaign schedule in August, during a stretch when Trump's missteps have helped hurt him - and lift her - in the polls.
A Washington Post/ABC News poll released this week showing Clinton leading Trump by a 14-point margin among registered voters in Virginia was the latest in a series of polls showing her gaining ground in battleground states and nationally.
The former secretary of state's schedule has been drawn in a deliberate way to put her in front of strategically chosen constituencies in swing states. There was a retail stop Monday focused on white working-class voters in Scranton, Pa., and a voter-registration drive Tuesday in an African American neighborhood in Philadelphia.
But there's been little effort to roll out anything new.
Even last week - during what was billed as a big economic speech in Warren, Mich. - Clinton didn't highlight new policies. Instead, she relayed a long list of initiatives put forward earlier in the campaign and used the speech to press the case that Trump's economic plans and actions run counter to his promise to help workers and energize the economy.
Coming days after a Trump economic speech in nearby Detroit, Clinton accused the Republican real estate magnate of wanting "America to work for him and his friends, at the expense of everyone else."
Clinton and her aides regularly rebuke Trump, and they are poised to move quickly to capitalize on his negative headlines. But they seem far less interested in grabbing headlines of their own.
While Clinton ignored questions about Trump's staff shake-up, her campaign organized a conference call on the topic with reporters Wednesday.
Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook called Trump's decision to hire Breitbart News executive Steve Bannon a decision to "double down" on "his most small, nasty and divisive instincts."
"This latest shake-up turns his campaign over to someone who's best known for running a so-called news site that peddles divisive, at times racist, anti-Muslim, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories," Mook said.
Clinton has had some of her own controversies to contend with in recent weeks.
She recently suffered a self-inflicted wound by suggesting in an interview that FBI Director James B. Comey had called her statements to the public about her email controversy "truthful."
Yet that incident highlights a recurring theme for her campaign: Even unflattering headlines are often overshadowed by controversies created by Trump.
On Aug. 31, the same day that Clinton faced renewed questions about her email arrangement at the State Department, Trump fired back at Khizr Khan, the Muslim father of a fallen U.S. soldier, prompting consternation and condemnation from Democrats and Republicans alike.
And while Trump generates national headlines, Clinton's visits often generate positive coverage in the local media. Recent headlines have included "Clinton pledges millions of jobs" in the Denver Post and "Clinton pushes jobs in area visit" in the Tampa Bay Times.
Clinton's campaign also has been utilizing a new podcast, Twitter and other social media, and paid television advertising, where the campaign's expenditures have dwarfed those of Trump and his allies.
"They're still able to reach voters without getting into the back and forth of the daily news cycle," Sevugan said.
The Washington Post
