Let’s see. A month ago, while Donald Trump was down in Louisiana handing out relief supplies to flood victims, Hillary Clinton was at Lady Rothschild’s mansion on Martha’s Vineyard at a $50,000 a plate fundraiser. She spent much of August collecting millions from rich people, not campaigning, and not talking to the press. Less than a week ago, at an LGBT campaign fundraiser at Cipriani Wall Street (top ticket: $250,000), Hillary, in the company of Barbra Streisand and rich, liberal Manhattanites, denounced “half” of Trump’s supporters as “deplorables,” and some of them as “irredeemable.”

This Friday night, while she’s at home in Chappaqua recovering from what is said to be pneumonia, and perhaps contemplating her weakening position in the polls, husband Bill will be at another elite Manhattan venue, the Rainbow Room, high atop Rockefeller Center, hosting — wait for it — a fundraiser. Politico reports:

Even as the Clintons are touting plans to distance themselves from their foundation and limit its fundraising if Hillary Clinton is elected president, they’re planning one last glitzy fundraising bash on Friday to belatedly celebrate Bill Clinton’s 70th birthday. The fundraiser is being held at the Rainbow Room, a fine-dining restaurant on the 65th floor of a Manhattan skyscraper. Plans called for performances by Wynton Marsalis, Jon Bon Jovi and Barbra Streisand, according to people briefed on the planning. They said that major donors are being asked to give $250,000 to be listed as a chair for the party, $100,000 to be listed a co-chair and $50,000 to be listed as a vice-chair.

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Michael Duga, a former Bill Clinton White House staffer now running the Say No To Trump PAC, conceded that “the optics are less then optimum.”

Ya think?

Take a look at this punchy, populist Howie Carr column in the Boston Herald, suggesting to readers how they can know if they count as “deplorable”. Excerpt:

Or if when you go to Market Basket, you tend to buy generic products, because you’re using your own money, not an EBT card. You may be a deplorable if you just got your car inspected. If you’re deployable, you’re definitely deplorable. If you wake before noon, if you call Islamic terrorists Islamic terrorists, if you don’t have an Obamaphone and you don’t believe that global warming is “settled science” — can you say deplorable? You may be deplorable if your passport, driver’s license and credit cards are all in the same name. Saying Merry Christmas — Deplorable with a capital D! You may be a deplorable if you wouldn’t mind showing some ID at the local precinct before you vote. You are most assuredly a deplorable if you have more than one job. You may be a deplorable if you’ve never used Western Union to wire welfare cash south of the border. You may be a deplorable if all of your children have the same last name — and it’s your last name. Or if while watching the second Monday night NFL game you were less irritated by the streaker than you were by all the fawning coverage of Colin Kaepernick on the pre-game show. You may be a deplorable if you resent training your H1-B replacement.

You get the point. Honestly, the Clintons. Why do they do this? Can’t they help themselves?

Chris Cillizza of the WaPo points out the danger to Team Clinton:

Something very interesting has happened over the past two weeks in the presidential campaign: Donald Trump has seized the momentum from Hillary Clinton and is climbing back into contention in both national and key swing state polling. New polls released over the past 24 hours confirm this momentum.

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But with Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway installed as campaign manager in mid-August, Trump began to regulate his behavior — somewhat. He, generally, stuck to his central message — system is broken, Clinton is part of broken system, we need an outsider to fix broken system — and, again generally speaking, stuck to his teleprompter while speaking in front of crowds.

Nothing says “insider” and “system” like a gaggle of wealthy globalist elites gathering at the Rainbow Room at a fundraiser for a foundation that has been a source of controversy for Hillary. As The New York Times reported last month:

The kingdom of Saudi Arabia donated more than $10 million. Through a foundation, so did the son-in-law of a former Ukrainian president whose government was widely criticized for corruption and the murder of journalists. A Lebanese-Nigerian developer with vast business interests contributed as much as $5 million. For years the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation thrived largely on the generosity of foreign donors and individuals who gave hundreds of millions of dollars to the global charity. But now, as Mrs. Clinton seeks the White House, the funding of the sprawling philanthropy has become an Achilles’ heel for her campaign and, if she is victorious, potentially her administration as well. … The Clinton Foundation has accepted tens of millions of dollars from countries that the State Department — before, during and after Mrs. Clinton’s time as secretary — criticized for their records on sex discrimination and other human-rights issues. The countries include Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Brunei and Algeria.

Of course Trump has his own big conflict of interest messes to deal with regarding how he would run foreign policy as president. The point here is not who is worse. Everybody knows who Trump is now and what he’s about. If you haven’t decided to be #NeverTrump by now, it’s hard to imagine him doing much to put you off him at this stage (though hey, this is a crazy year). The point is that the Clintons keep doing things that reinforce the narrative that hurts her and helps Trump: that they’re reckless, greedy, shady, elitists who manipulate the system and don’t care who they run over to get what they want. In other words, as Maureen Dowd keeps saying:

And that’s the corkscrew way things go with the Clintons, who are staying true to their reputation as the Tom and Daisy Buchanan of American politics. Their vast carelessness drags down everyone around them, but they persevere, and even thrive.

Finally, look below at the direction of the polls, via Real Clear Politics’ average. If I’m worried about Donald Trump becoming the next US president, I’m starting to get really worried about the Clinton brand. It takes real talent to be a Democrat who lets a brash Manhattan tycoon come off as the populist presidential candidate, doesn’t it?