The Politics Thread

[JaneAusten]

No one is buying this. No one. Holt was actually pretty restrained and emails, bhenghazi - maybe he didn't ask because it's been asked a zillion times already. And Trump has skirted the birther questions and tax returns so last night was the first time he was asked directly about those issues in months. And he failed. I don't see anyone excusing it. And she did get asked on email after he brought it up. If he was better prepared he might have been able to leverage those things like Hillary was able to leverage his past actions because she prepared.

 

And now he's back to attacking Miss Universe. Even the hosts at Fox had their eyes rolling. Radacz and Cooper are much more forceful IMO than Holt so I expect both to get questioned more authoritatively.

[marceline]

 

Except she did talk about the emails. Really, nobody's buying the spin. They are trying to astroturf the hell out of it but it's not working. As for Benghazi, she herself mentioned sitting through 11 hours of questioning during the discussion of her stamina. After the butt-whooping she gave them then, I don't think they want to revisit that to her face.

Edited September 27, 2016 by marceline

[Soapsuds]

I believe she even apologized for it last night but Trump kept barking that she did it on purpose....after that Donald went downhill fast.

[JaneAusten]

She did answer the email question but as is a standard rule in a debate, answered the counter attack quickly and moved on. That's exactly what she did. Maybe if Trump kept his tax return responses short and didn't try to excuse the birther crap making it sound like he did the American people a service, he could have moved on as well.

 

And I am frankly getting fricking TiRED of people talking about the lack of enthusiasm in this election. By who? So because that 10% of Bernie supporters are out there whining up a storm, other voters are not enthused? And please don't talk about lack of enthusiasm for HRC without talking about GOP voters who are not enthusiastic about Trump. He's leading with white working class but his support is less than Romney's was. African Americans, Latinos, Muslim Americans. Jewish Voters, LGBT people, and yes WOMEN are all enthusiastic. And does anyone know which demographic has the highest voter turnout percentage. BLACK WOMEN. I'm not saying it's not a close race but it was close with Obama too or presented to be. I'm trying to tune out the WHITE MSM and focus on the press, key websites, and alternate media sources like Telemundo, BET, WVON to give me a better perspective in terms of our minority populations and yes those outlets are motivated. Where the MSM wants to just focus on the WHITE voters who aren't voting and saying blacks won't vote due to their lives being crappy. GMAFB.

[marceline]

I laugh at the enthusiasm argument. I think that a lot of people have forgotten what elections were like before Obama's. This is the norm. The Obama frenzy was the outlier and that's because of the historic nature of his candidacy. There are plenty of us enthusiastic for Hillary but then supporters of Trump and Bernie went crazy.  "Enthusiasm" made Bernie's supporters heckle Elijah Cummings at the DNC while he spoke about his dead father. (That's right. I haven't forgotten). If expressing your choice gets you met with death and rape threats online or someone vandalizing your yard because of a sign then most sensible people will keep their head down. That's not lack of enthusiasm. That's common sense.

[DRW50]

We aren't, and I doubt a lot of people care either way (most already have their minds made up), but the media easily succumbs to pressure, which is what this will be. There will be more of an effort next time to "prove" they are impartial by taking the hammer to Hillary and giving Trump a soft kiss. 

[Juliajms]

I'm so glad that first debate is over and went so well.  What a relief. I did not watch the whole thing, but I read the analysis of how poorly Trump did particularly on the topic of foreign affairs.

[JaneAusten]

Did you watch the debate? She didn't win because they were harder on him. She won because she was prepared. If the media softballs him like the Lauer debacle just to "level" things they will get slammed again. Last night was a level playing field and if he had prepared there were opportunities for him to counter her. Nothing is going to change that. Even if they ask him his favorite color and ask her about her foundation(which I hope they do because I'd love to see the Trump foundation can of worms exposed on National TV) it won't matter. The CIC debacle was not just about Clinton being treated unfairly. The audience themselves were pissed because many of their questions were ignored and not answered period and with Trump in particular, he was not pressed. Nor did Holt really press him last night. It was HRC who mainly pushed his buttons.

[GMac]

So I've come across this little gem in my FB feed...

 

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/trump-threatens-to-skip-remaining-debates-if-hillary-is-there?mbid=social_facebook

 

What a fuckin crybaby.  He's upset because Hillary brought all the vile s.hit that's been spewing from his mouth for months, and left it in a nice lil baggie on his front stoop.  That's what a debate is, Donald. 

 

[marceline]

 

 

That's not true (yet). Andy Borowitz writes political satire for the New Yorker. He used to have an email called "The Borowitz Report" and they offered him a job and they have always been awful about clearly calling out his writing as comedy. Why do I know so much about him, you ask? He's from Cleveland. LOL!

 

The scary thing is that based on Trump's real actions, that was perfectly believable.

Edited September 27, 2016 by marceline

[DRW50]

It doesn't really matter what actually happened though, it's about the spin and how the press reacts to it. And they've already been reacting to the camp that said it was all unfair and biased against him.

[GMac]

  Thanks marceline.  It did have a definite The Onion feel about it, but then knowing how Trump is, I thought it sounded plausible.  lol

In-T-Way, thanks for clearing that up for me :-) 

 

[marceline]

I've been clearing it up for people all day. It's scary how easy it is to believe that he would react that way.

[dragonflies]

I want to marry this post and have it's babies

 

[Ms. Quartermaine]

Did you read about the couple whose dog was poisoned after receiving a note about how Hillary should be in prison? I believe they got a note in reference to their yard sign, their car was vandalized as well, and then their dog got sick. The vet said he was poisoned, and the dog died. 

 

Edit: Per Washington Post, Google Searches for "registrarse para votar" reached an all-time high during last night's debate. 

Edited September 27, 2016 by Ms. Quartermaine