Barack Obama won Colorado in both 2008 and 2012 by close enough margins to still earn the state the color of purple in the eyes of many pundits. Yet Democratic Congressman Jared Polis is not worried about his state going red. After all, Colorado is not Ohio. "We have a high percentage of Latino voters and we have a highly college educated population," says Polis, whose district includes Larimer, a Bush-Obama county. "Those two demographics are not Trumps' and frankly he would win a state like Ohio or Pennsylvania before he won a state like Colorado. If he wins Colorado, I think he'll win the presidency, but I don't expect him to win Colorado."
Even after leaving a Democratic convention that is the envy of many Republicans, Polis is worried about Clinton's fate and expects an uphill battle. "I mean all I can say is Hillary Clinton has a small lead. It's not as large as we'd like and it's certainly not safe. She's up by 2-5 points in many national polls. It's very, very close. I'm hoping that we get a bounce from the convention and part of that bounce will come from Bernie Sanders appeal to his voters to support Hillary Clinton."
The core of Clinton's challenge in attacking Trump may rest in a value expressed in Michelle's Obama's convention speech--advice she says she gives her daughters that was clearly a swipe at Donald Trump. "...when someone is cruel or acts like acts like a bully, you don't stoop to their level. No, our motto is, when they go low, we go high."
Marlon Kimpson, a South Carolina state senator who was a Clinton delegate, says, in crafting attacks on Trump, Clinton should consider the the motherly advice of Michelle Obama and the failure of the Rubio campaign. "One thing we know particularly coming from South Carolina," says Kimpson whose district includes Charleston, a Bush-Obama county. "You can't out wallow with a hog in the swamp because that's where the hog lives. He lives low and lives in the mud. And if you to start getting low on his level, he'll beat you everyday because that's what he does. That is where he lives. You saw that in the Republican primary. Rubio engaged on that kind of level and he lost because that wasn't his natural habitat. We have to talk about ideas. We have to talk about vision. We have to talk about concrete plans, albeit we have to be able to pull those ideas and visions into a concise sound bite so the social media age can digest it."
