Countdown to Extinction: The 2016 Presidential Election

[Pat B]

I agree. The line being peddled really makes no sense.
First, Hillary *deleted* these emails. So if Trump actually asked Russia to hack anyone it wasn't Hillary. And Trump didn't say hack anyway, he said "find". I think it's clear he is implying, in a deniable way, that Russia already has the emails. (He wants to do it in a deniable way so he can't be pinned down on evidence Russia actually has them.) That's what he means by "find".

I think this whole thing benefits Trump btw. The folks who are outraged, outraged I tellya, OUT. RAGED, are the ones who already dislike Trump. To anyone else it looks like a puffed up non-issue. And that Hillary is trying to argue both that the emails were private harmless emails and that this is a national security issue. Fighting over emails does Hillary no good.

Maybe, but we'll see. Partisan outrage is hardly a new phenomenon, and Republicans have their share of it. I am skeptical that this episode adds any outrage towards Clinton beyond what was already there.

But a Republican cozying up to Russia -- and even if you can convince people to parse this instance as a joke, that has become a recurring theme for Trump -- is another move into uncharted waters. I'm not sure that the contents of the emails are still the issue.

All that said, Trump has certainly proven to be extraordinarily slippery.

[Brian]

Republicans have their share of it.

The North Carolina GOP just criticized Tim Kaine for wearing a supposed Honduras flag pin at the convention. It was actually a pin from the US Marines.

BTW Trump just told "Fox and Friends" that Putin "is a better leader than Obama", though he indicated that that doesn't mean he likes Putin, just that Putin is more effective. The more general concern here is that he's not capable of moving on from mistakes - anytime this happens, he digs a trench and starts fighting siege warfare in the media, rather than refocusing on his campaign's messages.

[Todd]

I am skeptical that this episode adds any outrage towards Clinton beyond what was already there.

I don't see how it could.

anytime this happens, he digs a trench and starts fighting siege warfare in the media, rather than refocusing on his campaign's messages.

Was he wearing his Maga hat?  That is the entirety of his message.

[(poco) Sforzando]

OK, but I've always found Sullivan too credulous and emotional to be taken seriously. His political writing is a record of a series of infatuations (Reagan! Thatcher! Bush! Schwarzenegger! Obama!), in each case usually followed by disillusionment, with both sides of the process being expressed in the purplest of prose.

I've doubted and panicked, I've hyper-ventilated and wept, I've worried and persevered

Yes Andrew, we know.

So he's emotional. BFD. After eight years, his position on Obama can be taken as settled, and his final judgment ("the greatest president in my lifetime") is the opposite of disillusionment.

[Ken B]

Maybe, but we'll see. Partisan outrage is hardly a new phenomenon, and Republicans have their share of it. I am skeptical that this episode adds any outrage towards Clinton beyond what was already there.

But a Republican cozying up to Russia -- and even if you can convince people to parse this instance as a joke, that has become a recurring theme for Trump -- is another move into uncharted waters. I'm not sure that the contents of the emails are still the issue.

All that said, Trump has certainly proven to be extraordinarily slippery.

I don't disagree with a word of that.

[Brian]

I don't disagree with a word of that.

Close the thread, we all reached a consensus!

[Pat B]

I don't disagree with a word of that.

Okay, I will reconsider.

[Todd]

Bernie, we hardly knew ye.

[Eli]

http://dailycaller.com/2016/07/28/bill-clinton-apparently-falls-asleep-during-hillarys-convention-speech-video/

[Ken B]

http://dailycaller.com/2016/07/28/bill-clinton-apparently-falls-asleep-during-hillarys-convention-speech-video/

To be fair, he's been watching her run for president every day since he was first elected. Gotta get dull.

[Karl Henning]

The word "loser" is spoken with such contempt these days, a man might like to forget the losses in his own life that taught him something about good judgment. The money he invested in that casino in Atlantic City that went bust, the university course he enrolled in that promised to teach him the secrets of success but instead he wound up unemployed and 40 grand in debt, the candidate whose hat he wore who turned out to be tone-deaf and deluded — dumb, dumb, dumb, and yet his loved ones did not chortle and point and do the nyaa-nyaa. They put an arm around him and said, "This is how we learn." And it is.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/god-help-us-were-in-trouble-down-here/2016/07/26/989cde08-535d-11e6-b7de-dfe509430c39_story.html?tid=hybrid_experimentrandom_1_na

[kishnevi]

When I envision a Trump Presidential Library, I see enormous chandeliers and gold carpet and a thousand slot machines.

But it will be huuge,  believe me!  And magnificent and so gorgeous, almost as gorgeous as Ivanka and Melania combined!  Magnficent! I promise you!

[Karl Henning]

He'll stiff the contractors, and he'll have all the books (which he doesn't read anyway) printed in Canada.

[Todd]

I suspect one's impression of Hillary's speech depends largely on whether one is already inclined to vote for her or not, but I will say that the juiciest tidbit for me, and one that got a roaring cheer, was the line about amending the Constitution to overturn Citizens United.  I hope she goes through with her promise and pushes for it if she wins.  That'll result in some awesome political combat!

[Ken B]

I suspect one's impression of Hillary's speech depends largely on whether one is already inclined to vote for her or not, but I will say that the juiciest tidbit for me, and one that got a roaring cheer, was the line about amending the Constitution to overturn Citizens United.  I hope she goes through with her promise and pushes for it if she wins.  That'll result in some awesome political combat!

Censors of the world unite! You have nothing to gain but your chains!

[Karl Henning]

I suspect one's impression of Hillary's speech depends largely on whether one is already inclined to vote for her or not [...]

Whether this falls under that heading or not, I am uncertain.  But my intention had been (since Massachusetts is safely in the blue column) to write in Sen. Sanders;  but Clinton's speech left me entirely willing to cast my vote for her.  This was not only the speech, of course;  but also the insight afforded by both the latest episode in the Benghazi witch-hunt, and the "lock her up" chants in Cleveland, of just how deranged the obsession is on the Right with stopping at nothing to try to drag her down.  That's a crowd I never want to be mistaken for condoning.

[Brian]

After Khizr Khan finished his short speech, asking Muslims and immigrants to take the election seriously and vote, Google reports that searches for the phrase "register to vote" went through the roof, reaching their highest point all night.

[Todd]

Whether this falls under that heading or not, I am uncertain.

Her speech did not change my mind.  Write in it is.  Don't know who yet.  If William Weld had been the top of the ticket instead of the Veep selection, I would have gone Libertarian.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

  If William Weld had been the top of the ticket instead of the Veep selection, I would have gone Libertarian.

I'll probably go that way anyway, since it makes no difference in the real world who is top of the Libertarian ticket.

[Todd]

I'll probably go that way anyway, since it makes no difference in the real world who is top of the Libertarian ticket.

True, but there's just something about Gary Johnson I don't like.  Oregon is going Clinton no matter how I vote.