Countdown to Extinction: The 2016 Presidential Election

[Herman]

This morning it struck me that for his entire career as a businessman Donald Trump learned that he could enhance his brand by 1) never admitting defeat or making a mistake despite the objective record of a deal's failure and 2) to never apologize, instead double down and go on the attack.  For the last 40 years as a New York businessman those tactics worked.  Why?  Because there was no real accounting and the battles were short term.

In the NYC business world DT is looked at as a toxic failure. A rich kid with who never learns. Only bad guys do business with him and the Russians.   

[Herman]

But at least primates have bands to connect with, whereas Trump is so alone, if a tree fell in his emotional forest, it would not make a sound.[/i]

well, obviously Trumps got Ivanka and his two sons. (Whether Melania will hang on depends on what kind of sexual revelations turn up in the coming two weeks, to make it perfectly clear that it wasn't just locker room talk, but action, too, i.e. Trump's history of date rape.)

That's why Clinton paid them this compliment at the close of the town hall debate.

[Madiel]

Being bothered is far better than being scared shitless!

Indeed. Every one of the historically significant endorsements that I've read hasn't been on the basis that Clinton is the most wonderful candidate they've ever seen, it's been on the basis that Trump is the most awful candidate they've ever seen.

Responding with a criticism of Clinton misses the point entirely. It's a two horse race and one of the horses is going to win. Calling off the race is not one of the available options.

[Herman]

Indeed. Every one of the historically significant endorsements that I've read hasn't been on the basis that Clinton is the most wonderful candidate they've ever seen, it's been on the basis that Trump is the most awful candidate they've ever seen.

I have seen many, beginning with Obama's endorsement.

Many people have stated, not without reason, that Clinton is the best prepared and most dedicated candidate ever.

[Madiel]

I said historically significant endorsements. The Democrat president endorsing the Democrat nominee doesn't count. I'm talking about the organisations who either don't usually endorse anyone, or who have a long history of endorsing Republicans.

[Rinaldo]

I've seen Trumpism compared to a cancer in the Republican Party. If so, keep in mind the patient was smoking three packs a day for 50 years.

https://twitter.com/EricKleefeld/status/785938858714144769

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

The view from the ground

I wonder what people are seeing where they live, in terms of lawn signs, bumper stickers, and other expressions of support.

My town went 53%-45% D/R in 2012. So far I have seen a grand total of 2 Trump signs on lawns here, and one disappeared after a couple of days. I have seen no Hillary signs at all. But I have seen a lot of signs for local candidates, including one urging me to write in somebody for coroner.

Elsewhere, few presidential signs in evidence. A while back, I drove through Park Ridge (Hillary's hometown), but to my surprise, did not see any Hillary signs. To be fair, no Trump signs either.

My sister, a fan of the novels of Patrick O'Brian, has an "Aubrey-Maturin 2016" sticker on her car. I can't recall seeing any Trump or Clinton bumper stickers anywhere.

Anecdotal but interesting: the only voters I know who have definitely committed to Trump are immigrants.

[The new erato]

The view from the ground

I wonder what people are seeing where they live, in terms of lawn signs, bumper stickers, and other expressions of support.

My town went 53%-45% D/R in 2012. So far I have seen a grand total of 2 Trump signs on lawns here, and one disappeared after a couple of days. I have seen no Hillary signs at all. But I have seen a lot of signs for local candidates, including one urging me to write in somebody for coroner.

Elsewhere, few presidential signs in evidence. A while back, I drove through Park Ridge (Hillary's hometown), but to my surprise, did not see any Hillary signs. To be fair, no Trump signs either.

My sister, a fan of the novels of Patrick O'Brian, has an "Aubrey-Maturin 2016" sticker on her car. I can't recall seeing any Trump or Clinton bumper stickers anywhere.

Anecdotal but interesting: the only voters I know who have definitely committed to Trump are immigrants.

Explanation: The campaign is so toxic that sane people lay low.

[Rinaldo]

My sister, a fan of the novels of Patrick O'Brian, has an "Aubrey-Maturin 2016" sticker on her car.

Now that's a ticket I could get behind unequivocally!

[Karl Henning]

Anecdotal but interesting: the only voters I know who have definitely committed to Trump are immigrants.

We know more native-born Tuperos, perhaps, but he also has strong support in the ex-pat Russian Jewish community here.

(It may seem that I said that only to make snypsss suffer, but it is true.)

[Karl Henning]

What planet do these people inhabit?

Trump surrogate said Clinton can't complain about his sexist comments because she likes Beyoncé

[Madiel]

This is probably the most savagely cutting, well-written thing that I've read about how we got to Trump.

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2016/10/11/trump-the-gop-and-the-fall/

[Madiel]

What planet do these people inhabit?

Trump surrogate said Clinton can't complain about his sexist comments because she likes Beyoncé

A planet where they think a rude word is the problem, not what the word was used to convey.

Honestly, there's something deeply clueless about thinking that everything would have been fine if only Trump had used a medical doctor's term for the female genital area.

[Karl Henning]

The delusion is on a grand scale.  Anything remotely negative about Clinton is a cue for the Lock her up! chant.

But El Tupé is the golden boy.  He could rape a model in broad daylight on W 46^th Street, and his supporters will say, But he's not Clinton; he's got my vote.


(That's a joke, of course.  El Tupé would never be caught outside of a limo on W 46^th Street.)

[Madiel]

Yeah well. Beyonce's last two albums have stunned me and radically expanded my musical horizons, so I'm instinctively biased against such a petty criticism.

EDIT: I think I've just realised what I should be listening to this evening. Thanks, Obama!

[Wendell_E]

The view from the ground

I wonder what people are seeing where they live, in terms of lawn signs, bumper stickers, and other expressions of support.

Ari Rabin-Havt, who hosts a program on the Sirius Progressive Channel, and who has worked for Media Matters, campaigns and on the staffs of Senator Harry Reid and Congressman Ted Strickland, is fond of saying "Yard signs don't vote". 

Anyway, I've only noticed three:  One for Hillary (in my own yard  ), one for Trump on my route to work, and a neighbor across the street from me (a family of Vietnamese immigrants, FWIW) has this sign:

EVERYBODY SUCKS
WE'RE SCREWED
2016

I've not seen a whole lot of bumper stickers.  One for Hillary (not counting my car which has "I'm with her" AND "Feel the Bern" magnets on it). None I can recall for Trump. 

I live in the red state of Alabama, BTW.  I usually see a lot more, especially pro-Republican.

[Madiel]

There's an election here in the Australian Capital Territory this weekend. Very, very few signs in people's yards. But signs have been breeding along the main roads for weeks and I can't wait to be rid of them. Not least because most of them have the word "trams" on them. I am absolutely sick to death of hearing about trams. The first person who manages to get through a speech without mentioning trams will win my vote.

[Karl Henning]

". . . And so I sort of get away with things like that."

[Florestan]

EVERYBODY SUCKS
WE'RE SCREWED
2016

[Madiel]

Well, sure, so long as you think they're all equally bad and you're happy to abdicate the result to those that make a choice.

I've never understood this approach myself. Possibly that's because I'm Australian and so I'm used to compulsory voting, and also a Canberran and so naturally engaged in the political process as it's a major part of the city.

But to me there's a kind of fantasy element to it, a belief that somehow if a person doesn't vote, this prevents the result of an election impacting up on the person. Here in the real world, though, the outcome affects you whether you like/want the outcome or not. Someone's going to get the job. So the first choice to make is whether or not to have a say. Not having a say doesn't absolve you of living with the result.

The one thing that poster doesn't say, and can't say, is that nobody will be elected. And that's the glaring omission.