People keep looking for a silver bullet will stop Donald Trump, and they keep shooting blanks. They think that exposing examples of flip-flopping—or of some other scandalous behavior (say, the way he treats women)—will help. What they don’t get is that you can’t lose something you never had, or never pretended to have.

For example, allegations of sexual impropriety never hurt Bill Clinton—because his credibility was never based on his being devout or virtuous. Bill Clinton’s credibility was based on feeling our pain, and so, as long as nothing undermined that narrative, he was fine. Likewise, Trump’s credibility is also based on feeling our pain—just in a very different way. We wanted Bill Clinton to show us empathy; we want Trump to seek our vengeance (against Mexico, China, the elites, etc.). We don’t particularly care if either man is especially gentlemanly.

In fact, there is essentially no new information that could come out about Donald Trump that would hurt him. If tomorrow we discovered he wasn’t as wealthy as he says he is, it wouldn’t matter. If it came out that he paid zero taxes, it wouldn’t matter. People who are locked into “Trump as savior” mode shall not be moved. As he said, he could shoot somebody on 5th Avenue and it wouldn’t matter. There will be no scene such as in A Face In The Crowd where Andy Griffith’s character is finally exposed as a phony. There will be little attrition. What might happen, however, is that Hillary Clinton might stem the bleeding. It’s time to consider triage.

Did you see her on Meet The Press this Sunday? She kept talking about the danger Trump might “normalize” himself. This is the kind of thing a candidate says after she picks it up in strategy sessions. It’s obvious that this is something Hillary’s team is worried about—and rightly so. It’s one thing for angry Republican primary voters to like Trump; it’s another  for decent, self-respecting, average—even sophisticated!—Americans to see him as a mainstream alternative.

So how do you stop that from happening? I have a theory. You have to do what [crscore]Marco Rubio[/crscore] tried, but ultimately, failed to do. You have to make him into a joke. You have to delegitimize him. You have to make it unacceptable for the smart, decent, “cool” people to support him. Saul Alinsky declared, “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.” And he was right.

But here’s the problem. Hillary Clinton isn’t the right person for the job. Neither is Bill—as good as he once was. Hillary isn’t particularly cool or authentic. In fact, she’s the opposite. No, the only Democrat I’ve seen (so far) who can make fun of Donald Trump is Barack Obama. So here’s what I think the Democrats will have to do…

First, President Obama needs to go “all in” for Hillary this fall. He needs to be on the trail every week. This can’t be limited to fundraising appearances. (Frankly, the demands of the presidency might make it very hard for him to perform this function to the degree it will be needed.)

The second option (and it would be ideal for her to have both) is for Hillary Clinton to outsource this role to a running mate. Here, the problem is that the Democratic bench is already so thin.

A while back, Bill Scher suggested [crscore]Al Franken[/crscore] might make for a good veep pick. At the time, I was a bit skeptical. But it’s starting to make sense. Hillary’s team should be testing this idea. As a former comedian, Franken might have the chops and wit to play the attack dog.

Maybe I’m overestimating Trump—maybe demographics will do him in—but something tells me that if Hillary doesn’t define Trump this way, he will most certainly do it to her.