Countdown to Extinction: The 2016 Presidential Election

[Madiel]

PS Do you realise no-one has ever seen Hillary and her body double in the same room together? FACT.

[knight66]

Again, you conflate about half a dozen issues in one post. It is like watching a pinball machine in play. Throw enough mud at the wall, surely it will not all fall to the ground. However, as usual, the accusations you fired this time were not found to be factual. In a lot of minds, being a supporter of planned parenthood is a distinct plus. But those folk are no doubt also utterly evil.

Mike

[zamyrabyrd]

PS Do you realise no-one has ever seen Hillary and her body double in the same room together? FACT.

If there is a double (kagemusha) or even triple, they were probably in a room together if only to perfect the act. I don't subscribe to this theory however.

[zamyrabyrd]

Again, you conflate about half a dozen issues in one post. It is like watching a pinball machine in play. Throw enough mud at the wall, surely it will not all fall to the ground. However, as usual, the accusations you fired this time were not found to be factual. In a lot of minds, being a supporter of planned parenthood is a distinct plus. But those folk are no doubt also utterly evil. Mike

I wish I could find ONE thing that Hillary does which is noble or commendable. At least, however, she is consistent.

[Karl Henning]

I wish I could find ONE thing that Hillary does which is noble or commendable.

I think that both her advocacy for relief funds for NYC in the rubble of 9/11, and her arguments in favor of proceeding in the less-than-100%-certain sting operation which did in the event bag Osama bin Laden, essentially qualify.

Separately, I am glad to see the El Tupé campaign sink to the level of Bill Clinton's marital infidelities.  This, more than any of the prior flailing, is clearly an act of desperation.

[San Antone]

Trump is off message - again [sigh].      I cannot understand his tendency for these self-destructive asides.  There are so many issues, legitimate issues, he could be pushing.  I wish he would take the three top issues driving Clinton's low approval numbers and the three top issues for which his presidency would represent change - and hammer that message home, day in and day out, until November.

[Karl Henning]

Trump is off message - again [sigh].      I cannot understand his tendency for these self-destructive asides.

He has got to be himself.

Thank God.

[zamyrabyrd]

He has got to be himself.

And so all of us!

[Madiel]

Trump is off message - again [sigh].      I cannot understand his tendency for these self-destructive asides.  There are so many issues, legitimate issues, he could be pushing.  I wish he would take the three top issues driving Clinton's low approval numbers and the three top issues for which his presidency would represent change - and hammer that message home, day in and day out, until November.

The biggest trick that the Clinton campaign seems to have figured out is that Trump is never happier than when talking about himself. He's positively eager to make himself the issue, because he is his own frame of reference for everything.

[Karl Henning]

The biggest trick that the Clinton campaign seems to have figured out is that Trump is never happier than when talking about himself. He's positively eager to make himself the issue, because he is his own frame of reference for everything.

And the poor thing didn't have the stamina to last an entire debate with Clinton.  I think he may need to see a doctor.

[drogulus]

     Trump is not off message. If you think he is you don't know what message is on. The Repubs nominated Trump and the Trump message. They knew he wasn't a Repub in anything but name, that he had no ideology, that the message would be whatever he said it was, that he couldn't be managed or disciplined. All of this was evident and widely discussed in the media and certainly behind closed doors in Repub gatherings.

     Trump Becomes Latest GOP Nominee To Get Lost Inside The Fox News Bubble

     The punchline today? Reports suggest that in the wake of Trump's failed debate performance, Ailes' campaign role may be expanding. The Republican Party now appears to be trapped in a Fox News cycle that chews up GOP nominees.

[Herman]

Trump is off message - again [sigh].      I cannot understand his tendency for these self-destructive asides.  There are so many issues, legitimate issues, he could be pushing.  I wish he would take the three top issues driving Clinton's low approval numbers and the three top issues for which his presidency would represent change - and hammer that message home, day in and day out, until November.

But that's not what he's running for.

Originally he entered the primary contest in hopes of promoting his commercial brand.

Very few people in the contiguous states are less fit for the office of president than Trump and he didn't want it.

He'd figured he'd wind up in the top three primary candidates and he'd get a good offer for a tv show after.

Unfortunately it didn't work that way, and now his crazy belief that he has to be nr 1 at everything he does (btw he's not one of the top New York real estate developers; not even close) compels him to go on with this charade.

So he can't be off message, because he doesn't have a message.

[San Antone]

     Trump is not off message. If you think he is you don't know what message is on. The Repubs nominated Trump and the Trump message. They knew he wasn't a Repub in anything but name, that he had no ideology, that the message would be whatever he said it was, that he couldn't be managed or disciplined. All of this was evident and widely discussed in the media and certainly behind closed doors in Repub gatherings.

Yours is a myopic view of Trump's campaign.  Yes, he manipulated the media and dominated the news cycle with his controversial statements.  This was how he marginalized the 16 other Republican primary challengers.  But he also has issues he's developed throughout his campaign in between his other outbursts.

Trump is not part of the political elite; he is not even a politician;
Immigration;
Terrorism;
Trade deals;
The role for the US in the world;
Taxes and the economy.

It is primarily because of these issues that he was voted to become the Republican nominee.  He should use these issues as well as hammer the Clinton campaign on her negatives and contrast his policies with hers and curtail his "off-message" comments.

[Karl Henning]

Not of the political elite.  Simply of the elite.

His greatest con of all has been convincing so many people that he cares a fig about the little guy.  Even while he has used his wealth as leverage to cheat small businesses left and right.  He gives even the elite a bad name.

[Madiel]

Trump is not part of the political elite; he is not even a politician;

That one is not an "issue". It is a statement about a person.

And it is negated the moment he does actually have a position on any of the issues you listed after that one. Being a politician means having policies. "Not being a politician" is hardly something to be celebrated when electing someone to political office, unless one believes that there's no difference between being the President and being the entertaining star of a reality television show.

As I read the other day, "When the president of the United States speaks, the world expects substance. Not a blistering tweet."

[Karl Henning]

Characteristic chutzpah in using the word squander of anyone else on the planet.

[Karl Henning]

Trump spoke off the cuff about the most important responsibility of our commander in chief: U.S. nuclear weapons policy. Apparently unaware of the meaning of the words, he first said he believed in "no first use" of nuclear weapons, then contradicted himself by saying he would keep his options open as president. One of us (Michael Vickers) had oversight for U.S. nuclear weapons policy during the George W. Bush administration, and we can say unequivocally that absolute clarity is critical to the strength of our nuclear deterrent. And these comments come on top of Trump's already-reckless pattern of remarks on allowing more countries to obtain nuclear weapons and the potential scenarios in which he would consider using such weapons.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/donald-trump-proves-he-is-unfit-unserious-and-unprepared-on-national-security/2016/09/28/42449c20-8595-11e6-92c2-14b64f3d453f_story.html?utm_term=.f13c8a1e5e67

[drogulus]

Trump is not part of the political elite; he is not even a politician;
Immigration;
Terrorism;
Trade deals;
The role for the US in the world;
Taxes and the economy.

    You might have nominated a politician who would make these issues the centerpiece of the campaign, which means a professional who holds views you favor on the issues you mention. Instead you nominated Trump.

[zamyrabyrd]

Characteristic chutzpah in using the word squander of anyone else on the planet.

Got your point. Would that be late Marie Antoinette or the better situated Louis XIV?
In any case, it's pure schlock.
No danger of the Trumps stealing furniture from the White House, however.

[San Antone]

    You might have nominated a politician who would make these issues the centerpiece of the campaign, which means a professional who holds views you favor on the issues you mention. Instead you nominated Trump.

Voters picked Trump based on his positions on these issues, he was not chosen by some vague notion of the "Republicans".  If anything, the back room Republicans worked overtime in an attempt to thwart the will of the voters.

That one ["Trump is not part of the political elite"] is not an "issue". It is a statement about a person.

It is an issue.  I think a majority of voters want a departure from the kind of politics that has been going on for decades.  What Trump represents to many voters is an opprotunity of breaking the lock on the legislative agenda that is determined by elected officials in bed with corporate donors and their lobbyists, goaded along by media assumptions about what is doable or preferable according to elitist thinking.