Hillary, go walk the streets; it will humanize you. Lose the bubble.

by Jonathan Walczak - 07/30/16 7:57 AM ET

When my mom was 4, she met RFK in a chance encounter in a New York City park. He patted her on the head. It’s hard to imagine my 4-year-old niece running into Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump in a park.

My advice to anyone who wants to be president: Get out of the bubble. It’s understandable that you don’t want to put yourself in harm’s way, but if you really are for the people, be of the people. Not from a distance. Immerse yourself. Follow Pope Francis’s lead.

{mosads}Hillary, it’s not enough to trot out children you met two decades ago whose lives you improved. They are powerful surrogates, sure, but be your own surrogate.

Your husband verbalized it best: “I feel your pain.” You can do more, and in doing so, you have the opportunity to transform yourself from an unknown known into a re-known known, thereby winning the presidency.

Come visit a low-income neighborhood in New Orleans, my adopted city.

First, they’d love you.

Second, even if they didn’t, it would show the kind of courage RFK demonstrated by getting in the back of a pickup truck with a bullhorn the day MLK was killed and urging peace.

Third, if you are confronted by hecklers or dissidents, it will only serve to humanize you. And when you are humanized, you do well (tears in New Hampshire saved you once; showing up in the streets of America can save you now).

Fourth, the earned media – and social media – you’d get from on-the-street encounters with peopled screened only for weapons, not for differing opinions, would be invaluable.

Donald, if you really represent the people, stop trying to awe them with your choreographed plane landings. So far, your 140 characters have repeatedly been on show, but your character has not. You boast about your hands; try using your feet. You don’t seem strong hidden away in your tower or spewing exclamation points digitally.

Robert Kennedy went to the people. He visited and consoled the poor and forgotten. Usually, the poor and forgotten have trouble getting past 30 security corridors and a team of professional vetters.

Let your hair down, Hillary. I’d say the same, Donald, but, well, yeah.

Hillary and Donald, I hope my niece runs into you in a park sometime.

Jonathan Walczak is a New Orleans-based freelance investigative journalist. Follow him at @jonwalczak.

Tags Donald Trump Hillary Clinton