Up from Cartoonism

In the past week, Donald Trump has pivoted, as they say, to try to appeal to African-American voters. He’s convinced he can win them over. Indeed, he claims his policies as president will be so transformative that, “At the end of four years, I guarantee you that I will get over 95 percent of the African-American vote. I promise you.”

Some effort in this direction by the Republican nominee, even if performed in a clumsy way and marred by braggadocio, is presumably better than none. Still, it’s hard to dispute the judgment of James Hohmann of the Washington Post: “Donald Trump’s outreach to the black community is so sudden, so over the top and so ham-handed that it is cartoonish.”