News Analysis: Clinton goes after Trump hard in bid to take voters' eyes off her scandals

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is going after rival Donald Trump hard, breaking out of her shell and throwing bombs at the Republican nominee in a bid to distract voters' attention on her scandals.

Experts have said that each candidate needs to make the election a referendum on the other, as each is deeply unpopular. Clinton has done this in recent days, throwing jab after jab at Trump in a relentless effort to take voters' eyes off her many scandals and get the public to focus on Trump.

"I think it is a good strategy -- provided she combines those attacks with her alternative, more optimistic vision," Dan Mahaffee, an analyst with the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, told Xinhua.

Many have criticized Clinton for losing momentum in August following the conventions, and the Clinton campaign for "seemingly trying to run out the clock rather than attack Trump," Mahaffee said.

"Clinton needs to directly address Trump and his positions to regain some of her momentum leading up to the first debate," he said, referring to the first presidential debate scheduled on Sept. 26 in New York.

Trump's poll numbers have come up in the last couple of weeks, given all the negative media attention on Clinton and her scandals, including giving donors to the Clinton Foundation special access to her while she was secretary of state in an alleged pay-for-play scheme. And that has motivated Clinton to strike hard at Trump.

"(Clinton) has increased her attacks on (Trump) and pointed out he has his own foundation improprieties. He gave a contribution to the Florida Attorney General who was thinking about investigating Trump University," Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Darrell West told Xinhua.

West was referring to the allegations that Trump University, a school for entrepreneurs run by Trump, was a scam.

Clinton's strategy could be effective if she sticks with it. There hasn't been good follow-up on several of the issues that already have been raised, such as with Trump University. That issue got considerable attention earlier in the summer, but then faded away.

"She needs to push harder to make sure her major themes come through to voters. Trump definitely will come hard at her. That is his style and he is very good at counter-punching," West said.

Some experts have questioned whether the strategy could backfire, for any number of reasons, such as motivating Trump to hit back twice as hard.

But Christopher Galdieri, assistant professor at Saint Anselm College, told Xinhua that the plan is unlikely to go wrong.

"I don't think it backfires, because she can assume that he's going to hit her as hard or harder throughout the campaign," he said.

Earlier this week, Clinton lambasted Trump's recent visit to neighboring Mexico, saying on social media that "Trump just failed his first foreign test. Diplomacy isn't as easy as it looks."

During a speech in the state of Florida this week, Clinton said Trump is "temperamentally unfit and totally unqualified to be President of the U.S." She added that Trump lacks a plan to fight the terror group Islamic State.

Speaking to reporters in New York Thursday morning, Clinton repeated that Trump "is temperamentally unfit and totally unqualified to be commander in chief."

In Wednesday's Real Clear Politics poll average, Trump trailed Clinton by 3.3 percentage points.

Trump's outlandish comments and bombastic bravado have gotten him into hot water with moderate voters. But he has been trying hard recently to refrain from making over-the-top comments in an attempt to appear more "presidential."

While experts look at the average of many polls to determine which candidate is in the lead, some individual polls have Trump leading Clinton by a small margin.

Indeed, a new CNN/ORC poll released Tuesday found that 45 percent of likely voters back Trump, two points ahead of Clinton, with the rest supporting a couple of independent party candidates. Endit