Having lived through the demonization of Mitt Romney, an extraordinarily kind and decent man who happened to be a successful businessman, I have anticipated that should Donald Trump get the GOP nomination, Mitt will sound like a saint in comparison to what will be said about The Donald.  It turns out that this is precisely what the Clinton campaign has in mind.  Glenn Thrush of Politico has been talking to Team Hillary, and they are not shy about their obvious strategy ahead.

We learn right off the bat that the campaign will be vicious and unethical.  Personnel, as the saying goes, is policy:

… the man tasked with leading off an eventual anti-Trump offensive is David Brock, the former Clinton foe turned ally who spearheaded the first sharp attacks against the Vermont socialist.

In November, a subsidiary of the Democratic National Committee paid the Brock-run American Bridge $144,000 for “research services,” according to elections filings. That research was devoted almost entirely to building a “Trump Book,” a compendium of clips and other records that could be used for future attacks, a campaign official familiar with the situation told POLITICO. In early December, the Clinton campaign paid the group another $22,000 for similar work, the official added, and another David Brock-affiliated group, Correct the Record, began a cursory vetting of Trump over the summer.

It is a given that Trump will be portrayed as an anti-Hispanic Islamophobe.  But there is a lot to work with in his business career.

There is a lot more material to work with on Trump than Romney:

This time, Democrats would highlight the impact of Trump’s four business bankruptcies – and his opposition to wage hikes at his casinos and residential properties — on the families of his workers.

Don’t forget the people who had gambling debts collected from them.  Families destroyed.  Lots of material from any gambling mogul.

One Obama ally who helped frame the 2012 Bain strategy added another line of likely attack: “He’s a landlord. Everybody f---ing hates their landlord.”

Check.

“Why didn’t the Republicans do this against Trump already? The business stuff is really good fodder,” says veteran Democratic consultant Hilary Rosen,

There is the fear factor, of course.  And it weighs on Team Hillary:

Trump’s rising appeal with white, working-class voters and his willingness to bring up the ugliest Clinton scandals of the 1990s have unnerved the former first family, according to people in their orbit. (snip)

…attacking him is tougher than it seems – mainly because he is so comfortable throwing a sucker punch and the Clintons aren’t [that’s what Brock, Blemnthal, Carville, and many others are for - TL]. And he’s already signaled that he would stop at nothing if he faces off against the former secretary of state and her husband.

It is Trump’s feistiness – so unlike Romney, McCain, and both Bushes – that has Trump’s fans glowing and his opponents worrying.

One thing for sure: it will be a very dirty, very amusing campaign – if they both are nominated.