The Politics Thread

[Vee]

The difference is that it's all real now. This isn't the primaries, it isn't 2015, it isn't even the brief respite the media tried to give him in early September. This is the general, and over the last month he's completely cratered. He's down in every poll, including Breitbart. Hillary's wide lead has reopened. He's pulling out of swing states.

 

The only way it could have been worse is to have video of him actually assaulting someone. This is not 'lucking out' just because that didn't happen - this  is an unmitigated disaster.

[Soapsuds]

Speaking of Billy Bush…any chance his job at Today show is over with?  To think NBC hired him over Willie Geist?

[DRW50]

And that's what it's about for a lot of people. "The Clintons are worse." The problem for him is he's so transparent about it. He's just so oily and so proud of being a pig, and every time he tries to half-heartedly walk it back that's just more clear. 

 

There's a lot of hatred for women in this country and a lot of tolerance of hatred for women, and his candidacy has put a red circle around that in a way NOW or twits like Lena Dunham never could. 

[AdelaideCate007]

Oh you know it lol- Im still embarrassed by Tony Abbott and Pauline Hanson . Frankly, Im surprised neither of them has gotten on the telly to champion Trump but they both seem to have come to their senses for once and are ignoring him. I still can't believe he dragged Nigel Farage of all people over to try and woo voters.

Edited October 7, 2016 by AdelaideCate007

[Vee]

 

I think so many things made it "over for Trump" that would've ended any other normal politician a thousand times over in the last year. They didn't because for so long we all treated Trump as a mere novelty act, something transient which would end with the primaries, so it was all just taken as par for the course and everyone assumed he would disappear from the race soon. But when he won the nomination, our press had no idea how to handle it.

 

They lazily tried to deal with it by hoping to refashion him as a normal Republican candidate, especially when he was in bad, bad shape in July and August - they saw the ratings potential dissipate as Hillary began to dominate, so they tried to give him a dozen chances to pivot and run a 'normal' campaign. But they realized too late that he couldn't and wouldn't be remade into a normal candidate. They continued trying to desperately pursue this same old both-sides false equivalence narrative with the two candidates until the last possible moment - namely mid-late September. When the worm turned it turned hard, and that's where he has been since, as a rolling disaster. Everyone knows it, he is cratering and Hillary is fully in control.

 

I think the debate, Alicia Machado, the tax leak, this tape - those are the things that have really destroyed Trump once and for all. There will be no coming back and there will likely be more scandals, but those are the things that officially sealed him off, after a year of too many of us shrugging at it because we thought he'd never get this close. And that happened because of the blinkered, myopic GOP.

Edited October 7, 2016 by Vee

[marceline]

Something else to remember is that people are actually voting now. A lot of that other stuff didn't matter because there was always time to try and make him seem normal. Now it's too late because people can actually go to the polls.

[Vee]

[Gray Bunny]

Side note: I'm so happy to see "Days of Our Lives" in the mainstream press again. Ari, this is your chance! Get an interview on The Today Show! Billy Bush can interview... That would be terrifically awkward. 

[RavenWhitney]

Hopefully, this latest scandal regarding that scumbag Trump will sink him before the final debate.  Friday cliffhanger!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-recorded-having-extremely-lewd-conversation-about-women-in-2005/2016/10/07/3b9ce776-8cb4-11e6-bf8a-3d26847eeed4_story.html?postshare=3561475870579757&tid=ss_tw

 

[Wendy]

This only confirms Donald Trump as a pig and the piece of s-h-i-t he is. But I don't think this will sink him with those that still support him (inexplicably so). I *do* think trying to capture the undecided voters may help Clinton with this lovely little leak, though. Or I hope it does.

The idea of this POS as president seriously repulses me.

[Vee]

People are saying Billy Bush deleted his twitter over this. Is God indeed real?

And no, this isn't about his supporters (though I think this will pull evangelical women, as will the Machado story). It's all about the undecideds and the last two weeks especially have been nuclear for him on that front.

Edited October 7, 2016 by Vee

[AdelaideCate007]

Thanks. I have been noticing a shift like you pointed out and I'm glad that it seems he's definitely not going to be elected. They've really been on top of the Alicia Machado and tax stuff here as well. I think they really tried for far too long to make him seems "normal" and like any other politician when he's really obviously a charlatan, crook, and racist/misogynist/sexist loser.  I'm sad to still see women on twitter supporting him and claiming that he's just like Bill Clinton .

 

They've really been hammering away here that American expats still have time to vote and bringing up things like Democrats Abroad and absentee balloting. I had not idea these things even existed. I even saw an ad about voting at the train station aimed at American expats.

 

Also, who the !@#$%^&*] is Billy Bush? This is now the second time I've seen him in the international news and I'd literally never heard of him before that Ryan Lochte debacle. Is he a major person? And is he related to the other Bushes?

[Vee]

Billy Bush is an obnoxious celebrity journalist on one of the fluff celeb gossip shows - Access Hollywood, I think. He's a nobody these days. Maybe he joined one of the morning shows? I have no idea.

 

And yes, Trump was always viewed as a charlatan and buffoon before the election, which is why it took so long for the media to adjust. I think the way some of them struggled to normalize him to try to make this year fit a usual election season is contemptible - we all knew he was an ignorant, misogynistic bigot from the beginning. They were desperate for a horse race and were totally amoral and lazy in their handling of it. Now most of them have come around, but I wonder how dogged Trump loyalist and supposedly unbiased NBC analyst Mark Halperin - last seen whining on Twitter about how the media has a double standard for Mike Pence vs. Tim Kaine - will take this.

 

Speaking of, Halperin's "With All Due Respect" co-hosts on MSNBC (he is absent) just called the time of death for Trump's campaign - LOL.

 

The video is especially sleazy - listening to Trump and Bush sneer and slather, then get off the bus and try to sleaze all over poor Ari Zucker.

Edited October 7, 2016 by Vee

[Roman]

Billy Bush did delete his Twitter account. Wonder how Mark Halperin will spin this? 

[Soapsuds]

They only bleep some but not all on CNN.