"I would love if she had just come out and said, 'I made some serious mistakes,' " Katz said. "She really didn't come out and say it ... . She didn't own it. She didn't own the mistakes. Don't dance around it. If she would have owned up to it, I would (have) felt a little positive."
And if Trump often proved erratic and veered widely off script, his message never did, said Jonathan Felts, who was a White House political director for President George W. Bush. It helped Trump stand out in a crowded primary and proved effective against a Washington insider such as Clinton.
"He benefited from a very easy to understand and appreciate message: 'Make America great again,' " Felts said of Trump's iconic slogan. "That's not about Donald Trump; that's about the American worker who used to be punching in at the textile plant. That's about college kids wanting jobs when they get out of school. It's what everyone wants: for America to be great again."
By contrast, Clinton's message sounded "all about her," Felts said, from her 2008 "In it to win it" message to "I'm with her," the 2016 slogan.
And Trump's blunt lack of niceties worked with a middle class frustrated by a sputtering economy and an inept Washington.
"He didn't try to finesse anything, and that what's people heard," said Dave Carney, who was President George H.W. Bush's White House political director. "There's a lot of enthusiasm in telling the establishment to screw off."
Trump's habit of going off on tangents and reacting to every Clinton provocation did limit his appeal, Carney said.
"He ended up going down these rabbit holes, which were hurtful," Carney said. "If he had purely stuck to the message that got him there, it would have been a landslide."
Trump successfully tied Clinton to every Obama administration foreign-policy misstep and linked the Clinton Foundation to a Washington pay-to-play culture, which most voters abhor, Carney said.
Trump repeatedly raised the question of a double standard, asking why Clinton was not charged for mishandling classified information by using a private email server while others faced criminal charges for improperly handling government material. And he pointed out government failures, assailing continuing U.S. involvement in overseas wars, the rise of the Islamic State and shoddy treatment of veterans by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Trump "is the best legal way to give the middle finger to Washington, and that's what's happening," Carney said.
He energized a middle class that has felt marginalized and passed over by politicians, particularly in parts of the country that have lost jobs amid globalization and a slow-to-recover economy.
"He captured the hearts and minds of Americans," said Rep. Lou Barletta, R-Pa., an early Trump supporter. "He said what was on everyone's mind in a way that was genuine."
That includes voters such as David Brady, 45, a Titusville, Fla., store manager who backed Trump as "all the change we need."
Brady said he believed Trump would remove immigrants who were in the country illegally, appoint conservative judges and secure the Second Amendment.
"His policies are what we need as Americans to get our country back in order," he said.
Kim Bream, 53, a Gettysburg, Pa., proofreader who stood in a chill wind last month outside a Trump event, hoping to catch a glimpse of the candidate, said he had renewed her faith in government.
She said it angered her when Trump said that if he didn't win the White House his efforts would have been in vain, because she believes he upended the political establishment, regardless.
"Mr. Trump has really changed the way politicians see us," Bream said. "He's shown politicians that they need to pay attention to the voters. We've been complaining about how they get to Washington and forget everyone at home. Now they're paying attention."
Bream said she was delighted by the angst that Trump had brought to establishment Republicans.
"He's really surprised everyone," she said. "They thought the status quo was enough and they could pat us on the head. Now they're learning we're here and we want results."
(Vera Bergengruen, Kevin G. Hall and William Douglas contributed to this report.)
(c)2016 McClatchy Washington Bureau
Visit the McClatchy Washington Bureau at
www.mcclatchydc.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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