The Politics Thread

[heffer]

Their saying Carly Fiorina "won" the B show debate. I'm waiting for the day she's asked the tough questions about the Hewlett-Packard failure.

[Eric83]

The primetime debate got 24 million viewers last night. More than double what the final Obama-Romney debate got, and 8 times as many viewers as the 2012 Republican primary debate. This election is going to be messy. I think Donald Trump is a plant to either run as a third party and help Hillary win (his stance on certain issues are totally different from the past) or to help someone snag the Republican ticket. We'll see. Many folks I know watched it just to laugh at the candidates.

[marceline]

That day will never come. The media is more interested in live blogging every time Trump flashes his dick. Trump is the perfect candidate for lazy voters and lazy reporters.

[DRW50]

Trump is still basically existing as a sideshow while the truly dangerous candidates bide their time, but while this is still going on, it's morbidly amusing how he manages to twist the GOP elites to his view. He personally attacks Megyn Kelly - all but saying she's on the rag - and he puts up the offensive for so long and so stridently that he manages to turn the narrative into when is SHE going to apologize to HIM, he gets Faux News to mend fences with him, and he even gets them to grill that disgusting pig Erickson over his own lengthy history of hostility toward women.

 

In a political party that is all about hucksterism and who can hate "PC" the loudest, few can trump a Trump.

 

It's nice to know that Democrats are responding by being Democrats and either being feckless (Hilary doing whatever flailing she tends to do, Chuck Schumer's usual egomaniacal posturing) or self-destructive (protesters dominating a news cycle by running onstage and basically calling Bernie Sanders a white supremacist).

Edited August 11, 2015 by DRW50

[ThePrinceOfSunspear]

Ignore him at your own peril...I think he came off calm and smooth during the debate...

 

His position on abortion notwithstanding he definitely came out as one of the stronger performers in the debate. That can't be argued with.

[marceline]

Trump's job is to divert attention from thedangerous candidates: Jeb Bush and Scott Walker. Although Bush seems like he's only running because it's his legacy.

[quartermainefan]

I think everyone may have gotten it wrong and Trump is no joke who is going to self destruct.   He has said things again and again that would have ruined anybody else and he is still here.    I also think he was right about the debate and their fake questions and he made everyone else look like phony politicians--especially Rand Paul.

[marceline]

Disclosure: I didn't watch the debate and I won't.

 

We're still a year and some change out from the election. He has months to continue making an ass of himself. The bottom line is that he will drop out because if he wants to be president he will have to give up most of his business interests. We won't be able to negotiate with countries where he owns or wants to own real estate so he'll have to ditch most of his financial interests by, at the very least, putting them in the names of his wife du jour or kids. The closer he gets to the White House, the more of his life is going to become an open book. If Mitt Romney couldn't bear to show his financials, Trump certainly won't. And don't even get me started on his health records. How much viagra based heart damage do you think he has? 

 

But the money is the real issue. He's not going to stop being a mogul, just so he can become president.

Edited August 12, 2015 by marceline

[quartermainefan]

He is such an egomaniac that he probably is salivating at the chance to be one on one with Hillary.   Hillary is A List and that is just the company Trump wants to be in.  Ideally he pulls a Ross Perot and we get a threeway with Bush. 

As for the debate, it was a bit of a farce.   From the very first question it was the Trump show and every question was designed to show him in a bad light.  Not that there weren't questions designed to show everyone in a bad light, but Trump knows nobody is paying attention to any of them and 24 million people tuned in to watch him and only him.   The pundits always go on TV and declare him dead and they are wrong every time.   He has a cult of personalty and his followers just don't care.   He also has unfair advantage of 35 years in the spotlight and 10 years maybe on TV.  He will overshadow the rest of them every time because he knows what works on TV and they don't.    The whole brouhaha with Megyn Kelly was interesting because everyone declared he imploded and yet he won the battle with FOX.

[DRW50]

I've never disagreed that he's a good huckster. But that's not the same as being presidential. Fortunately for him, the last GOP President was even less competent and he got in twice, so the door is his. 

[DramatistDreamer]

Oh Hillary Hillary and this e-mails business.  Not.  good. 

Speaking of things that need to be fixed, I do have to giver her campaign credit for this though:

 

 

[marceline]

These fools learned nothing from Benghazi. These astroturf scandals keep the base fapping but the rest of the voters simply don't care and it's so early in the process the only people paying attention are hard core partisans and politicos like yours truly.

 

I just got into a flame war with some wingnut on another site who started talking about Vince Foster as if half the voters these day even remember that old conspiracy theory. I trolled him by saying that I consider Foster a selling point. If she'd kill a friend, then she'll take out McConnell and Boehner without breaking a sweat. You could almost hear his enraged screaming through the screen. 

Edited August 12, 2015 by marceline

[ThePrinceOfSunspear]

Just because you have differing views with him in regards to his positions I don't think that changes that he looked and felt like a president. He didn't come across as young inexperience boy. He was calm, composed, delivered his lines well and within the time frame. He seemed like someone you have to respect and give some credit to.

 

Unlike Donald Trump who came across as bratty and a child. If not for Megan Kelly he would be completely down in the polls by now.

[heffer]

I sought of agree with The Prince on certain points when it comes to Rubio. I don't think he will end up being the Republican nominee but I think he would be the smartest choice for the repubs out of anyone in the "clown car" for the VP nomination (not that I would vote for them anyway). All issues aside, he is almost the Republican version of John Edwards during the John Kerry campaign (notice I'm not talking about the more recent Edwards indiscretions). Young,photogenic, a bit of charisma,etc. Too bad I don't agree with his politics.

[marceline]

This is going to be a really painful election. Republicans desperately throwing poo at Hillary and each other while Fox News demands that Megyn Kelly jerk Trump off on the news and on the other side the Sanders fans basically turn in Ron Paulbots with an even more annoying hashtag. Thanks Citizens United for turning presidential races into a reality show cash grab.