Keller @ Large: Clinton Needs Candor, Trump Needs Humility
BOSTON (CBS) -- What really matters to voters as they try to choose a president? It's a pretty important question, and one the candidates will spend millions trying to figure out.
Even Donald Trump, who left his competitors in the dust by zeroing right in on the issues and stylistic approach that would win him the Republican nomination, has got to be wondering how to grab the remaining votes he needs from a population that hasn't warmed up to his primary-season tactics.
I have no magic 8 ball to consult for the answers; all I can tell you is what this voter is looking for from each of the likely major-party nominees.
From Hillary Clinton, I want to see some candor. For instance, Clinton has branded herself during the Democratic primaries as a continuation of the Obama doctrine, with the occasional acknowledgement of the Obamacare flaws that need fixing and the foreign-policy failures that need addressing. Once she's the formal nominee, I want to hear what the Clinton doctrine is, and be reassured that she understands what went wrong and has a plan to fix it.
As for Trump, I want to see some humility. He should prove that he knows what he doesn't know by bringing in serious advisers and showing us what he's learning from them. Demonstrating genuine growth in his grasp of issues would go a long way toward dispelling the whiff of fraud that hangs over the Trump campaign.
Luckily for our country, Clinton's partisans and trump's groupies won't decide this race. The rest of us will. And some of us want more than a bunch of smoke and spin.
