“It’s really quite amazing that after the Trump adventure this is still a competitive race,” said Scott Reed, chief strategist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a longtime Republican operative who managed Bob Dole’s 1996 presidential campaign. Stuart Stevens, Mitt Romney’s former chief strategist, threw cold water on Trump’s enthusiasm in an interview Friday, saying he has yet to see Trump outperform Romney in any state or with any demographic in a way that would signal that he has a chance to win. Stevens said that any talk of Trump having a ground game is “fantasy” because Trump has yet to build a campaign structure anything like Clinton’s. Stevens called Trump’s optimism “childish.” 

adventure：危険を冒して進むこと
yet to see：まだ見たことのない

“I don’t see the path. I just don’t see the path,” Stevens said. “I’ve been in these races where you’re nine points down, then you’re five down — you’re still losing.” Even among Democrats who wonder why Clinton isn’t doing better, the overall view is that she remains in position to win in November. “It’s going to be the craziest 60 days we’ve ever seen in politics,” said Mary Anne Marsh, a veteran Democratic consultant who is not working for the campaign but said she remains confident in Clinton’s chances. “Give me any other Republican, and I can tell you exactly how this is going to go down. I can’t do that with Donald Trump.” 

She added: “I don’t think we’ve seen the most negative part of this campaign yet, and that’s saying a lot.” Marsh and other operatives said Clinton will benefit by more directly engaging media and the voters in the final stretch of the race — as Trump has been doing already. “I look at this race, and I’m thinking that’s not a dumb thing for them have to have done,” said Joe Trippi, a veteran Democratic consultant. Some changes in Clinton’s operation are already in evidence on the campaign trail. Among them: more interaction with the media; a series of policy speeches that Clinton’s communications director, Jennifer Palmieri, said are “more about her than about him”; and a shift back toward positive messages in television advertising and efforts to present positive elements of Clinton’s biography elsewhere. 

biography：経歴・伝記

By the end of this week, the first in which she has traveled on the same plane as her press corps, Clinton had appeared four times before their cameras to answer questions. Clinton also played to the cameras and showed a flash of irreverent humor Friday when, after she had left the podium following a short press conference on national security issues, she paused and then returned to answer a shouted question about Trump. With dramatic timing and a sardonic smile, Clinton slowly shook her head and took a breath before addressing Trump’s perhaps ill-advised appearance on a television network backed by the Kremlin. 

corps：記者団
irreverent：無礼な
humor：ユーモア
sardonic：冷笑的な微笑み
ill-advised：無分別な・思慮の足りない
appearance：登場

“Every day that goes by, this just becomes more of a reality-television show,” she said. “It’s not a serious presidential campaign. And it is beyond one’s imagination to have a candidate for president praising a Russian autocrat like Vladimir Putin and throwing his lot in with him,” Clinton said. 

throw in one's lot： 運命を共にする、生死を共にする 

Clinton also addressed head-on the perception that she is chilly or aloof, telling the online interview site Humans of New York on Thursday that her natural reserve is born of the “hard path” she walked as a professional woman. 

head-on：面と向かって
chilly：冷淡な
aloof：よそよそしい
natural reserve：自然保護区
hard path：従来の化石燃料，原子力中心の路線をハードエネルギー・パス　soft pathとは集中的な巨大設備ではなく需要者接近の中小規模の設備を，そして化石燃料ではなく再生可能なエネルギーを，それぞれ利用していこうというエネルギー戦略。

“I had to learn as a young woman to control my emotions,” she wrote. “And that’s a hard path to walk. Because you need to protect yourself, you need to keep steady, but at the same time you don’t want to seem ‘walled off.’ And sometimes I think I come across more in the ‘walled off’ arena.” She continued: “And if I create that perception, then I take responsibility. I don’t view myself as cold or unemotional. And neither do my friends. And neither does my family. But if that sometimes is the perception I create, then I can’t blame people for thinking that.” 

walled off：城壁で囲まれた

In addition, a television ad released Friday features a relaxed-looking Clinton speaking directly to the camera and making a bipartisan pitch that weaves in some biographical high points from her long career. It was the first positive ad released recently, after a string of harsh ones that mostly use Trump’s own past statements against him while barely mentioning her. “We’ve got to bring people together. That’s how you solve problems, and that’s what I’ll do as president,” she said in the ad. 

bipartisan：超党派の
pitch：売り込み
weaves：織り込む
barely：ほとんど〜ない

Clinton holds several important advantages: She has experience and credentials, a vast campaign operation that drew the best political talent of her party, the hearty support of a popular sitting president and what seems to be plenty of money. She is marginally more popular than Trump. She also has significant disadvantages. It’s difficult for either party to win a third consecutive term, as evidenced by the fact that Republican George H.W. Bush is the only example in decades. A sizable number of voters think the country is on the wrong track. 

sitting：現職の

And Clinton is a highly unpopular candidate in her own right. Democrats maintain in particular that Clinton faces unprecedented obstacles as both the first woman to be a major-party nominee and the object of sustained Republican attack for 25 years.   “I don’t care what any poll tells me,” said Clinton’s running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, during an appearance Friday night in Norfolk. “We’re the underdog until they call us the winner.” 

object：Objection sustained 異議を認めます
underdog：勝ち目のない人・負け犬

月曜日。今日はこれまで。トランプがロシアに色目を使ったりしてかなり冒険的なことをしているにもかかわらず、クリントンが優勢にならない。もちろん彼女が有利な点もあるが、勝敗が決まらない。彼女は「Hard Path」という表現をしているが、従来型の政策を考えていて、そうした意味で、革新的ではない。また女性の大統領は初めでだということもある。今日は日本時間の１０時半からこのクリントンとトランプの最初の討論会がある。見ものだ。果たしてどうなるのだろうか。

昨日は愚妻を弁護士事務所に連れて行った。昨晩は１時まで仕事をした。研修資料作成のためだ。今日もビデオを全部見る。中国は奥が深いので、楽しい。色々な人がどうにでも解釈できる。そうしたことを中国人自身がしているので、白黒がわからない。今日の昼は三井不動産の権正さんと会食。ではまた明日。