Countdown to Extinction: The 2016 Presidential Election

[Brian]

Karl has the quote I meant.

The "clarifications" issued by his campaign have NOT said he was joking - just that he was misunderstood etc.

[Todd]

Karl has the quote I meant.

The "clarifications" issued by his campaign have NOT said he was joking - just that he was misunderstood etc.

It must be tough for Donald, being misunderstood literally every time he says something.  He needs a hug.

[Brian]

It must be tough for Donald, being misunderstood literally every time he says something.  He needs a hug.

And he has all the best words, too.

[Karl Henning]

You've got to admire (in some sense) the nerve of the fellow who will run for the highest office in the land, and make a remark like this:

I don't know anything about [Russian President Vladimir Putin] other than he will respect me.

[Pat B]

You've got to admire (in some sense) the nerve of the fellow who will run for the highest office in the land, and make a remark like this:

What impresses (in some sense) me is how he can make two statements (November: "I got to know him very well"; July: "I don't know who Putin is") that were contradictory and they were both lies.

On a separate note, I thought Bloomberg was very effective tonight.

[Madiel]

I think the media is being ridiculous on this one. As much as I think Trump says some absurd things, this is one instance where people have made a mountain out of a remark that really didn't amount to much because they're perpetually looking for something to be outraged about.

[(poco) Sforzando]

On a separate note, I thought Bloomberg was very effective tonight.

Bloomberg: "Let's elect a sane, competent person."

[Karl Henning]

I think the media is being ridiculous on this one. As much as I think Trump says some absurd things, this is one instance where people have made a mountain out of a remark that really didn't amount to much because they're perpetually looking for something to be outraged about.

Well, then it's conservative voices in the media, too:

Republicans in some quarters are still trying to play the moral equivalence game. (She had email problems; he invited email hacks.) But of course a flawed, even dishonest and careless candidate is not the same as one who is racist, willfully ignorant, enamored of evil men and consciously fanning divisions in America while making it out to be a third world hell hole. If it took Trump to make liberals sound tough on Russia, tout American exceptionalism, defend the attainability of the American dream and celebrate the innate goodness of their fellow Americans, it might all be worth it — but only if he loses. Well played, Democrats. Well played.

Dems pummel Trump: A good time was had by all

[(poco) Sforzando]

The great Andrew Sullivan on the great Barack Obama (and I don't give a crap if any of you think otherwise):

10:54 p.m. I've never felt this way about a president, so I might as well admit it. Against hideously graceless opposition, in the face of extraordinary odds, facing immense crises, he stayed the course and changed this country. This election is, at its core, about not letting a bigot and a madman take that away from all of us.

11:41 p.m. It's been a long and entirely unexpected journey with this extraordinary figure. I've doubted and panicked, I've hyper-ventilated and wept, I've worried and persevered. We did a lot of that together, you and me. But I have one thing to say: he never let us down. He kept his cool, he kept his eyes on the prize, he never embarrassed and almost always lifted us up. He is a living, walking example of American exceptionalism, of why this amazing country can still keep surprising the world.

Readers know how I feel about the Clintons. But this is not about them or me. It's about an idea of America that is under siege and under attack from a foul, divisive, dangerous demagogue. If you backed Obama, there is no choice in this election but Clinton. This is not a election to seek refuge in a third party or to preen in purist disdain from the messy, often unsatisfying duties of politics. It is an election to keep the America that Obama has helped bring into being, and the core democratic values that have defined this experiment from the very beginning: self-government, not rule by a strongman; pluralism and compassion rather than nativism and fear; an open embrace of the world, and not a terrified flight from it.

But you know what Obama gave us tonight? He gave some of us hope. Again. That's what he does. And we will never see his like again.

[Karl Henning]

Amen, (poco) sfz; amen.

[bhodges]

The great Andrew Sullivan on the great Barack Obama (and I don't give a crap if any of you think otherwise):

And excellent Sullivan quotes, thank you. Saw a few last night, but not these. And I agree: Obama is one of the great ones - he's going to be sorely missed.

--Bruce

[Brian]

Sullivan's comments remind me of something I saw another commentator say - that Obama's gift for rhetoric and overall maturity are making him "the liberal Reagan," and that he will continue to build and enjoy that sort of mostly partisan legacy as a beloved optimist role model.

[Mirror Image]

Obama's speech was indeed outstanding and he really knows how to inspire a crowd and get them on their feet cheering. I liked Bill Clinton's speech as well, but I've always liked Bill anyway. During his eight years as our president, we had some of the best years in recent American history without a doubt. I always admired this quote from him: "There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America."

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

The great Andrew Sullivan on the great Barack Obama (and I don't give a crap if any of you think otherwise):

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.

[Ken B]

I think the media is being ridiculous on this one. As much as I think Trump says some absurd things, this is one instance where people have made a mountain out of a remark that really didn't amount to much because they're perpetually looking for something to be outraged about.

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.

[Karl Henning]

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.

Fair enow.

[Todd]

I think the media is being ridiculous on this one. As much as I think Trump says some absurd things, this is one instance where people have made a mountain out of a remark that really didn't amount to much because they're perpetually looking for something to be outraged about.

Not just this one.  The press coverage has almost been of the hyperventilating sort at times.  Trump is a demagogue!  Trump is dangerous!  Trump is abandoning our allies!  (And on the internet Trump is a fascist, Trump is Hitler, Trump is Drumpf (get it, it's German!), and so on.)  What I find more generally troubling - though admittedly entertaining - is that Russia really is the Bad Guy again.  Leon Panetta, when interviewed by Chuck Todd last night, brought up the phrase "Cold War".  (The use of the phrase came after Mr Todd reminded him that in 2012, Mitt Romney said that Russia was the primary geopolitical threat faced by the US, and Obama and Democrats mocked him.)  Nothing focuses the mind quite like a bad guy, even for a country with military and economic superiority that is devastatingly lopsided.  I get it, Putin is mean and nasty, and now he's meddling in the US election.  The best part of all this, from an entertainment perspective, is that many on the American left who engage in this hyperbole actually believe they are behaving reasonably.

The round-the-clock focus on specific stupid things Trump says - and he does say a good number of them - has made this a purely personality driven campaign.  Someone may mention a policy proposal here or there, but they don't really matter anymore.

I await Ms Clinton's speech just to see if she can deliver a good one.  Last night was a bummer.  Uncle Joe shouted too much.  Mr Kaine's speech was decent and pleasant toned, but tended toward blandness.  And Obama's speech was middling for him, with only uninspired references to TR, the Declaration of Independence, and "Yes We Can!", and even Reagan, though only to attempt to draw a contrast with Trump.  It was not like 2004 or 2008.  Michelle Obama's speech will probably be the best of this convention.  Cruz's was the best of the Republican convention, though for different reasons.

[Brian]

(And on the internet Trump is a fascist, Trump is Hitler, Trump is Drumpf (get it, it's German!), and so on.)

Though we have different views on a number of things in this post, I'm dropping in here to say that "Trump is Drumpf" did not come from some general desire to make him sound German/Nazi - it is his actual ancestral family name, pre-Anglicization. The appeal to people who use it is not the Germanness, but the inherent silliness of it.

[Todd]

Though we have different views on a number of things in this post, I'm dropping in here to say that "Trump is Drumpf" did not come from some general desire to make him sound German/Nazi - it is his actual ancestral family name, pre-Anglicization. The appeal to people who use it is not the Germanness, but the inherent silliness of it.

I understand the origin of his name, and I also understand that some people other than you are using it precisely to create a link to his German heritage, and some of what that might imply to certain readers, particularly when combined with specific traits assigned to Trump.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Not just this one.  The press coverage has almost been of the hyperventilating sort at times.  Trump is a demagogue!  Trump is dangerous!  Trump is abandoning our allies!  (And on the internet Trump is a fascist, Trump is Hitler, Trump is Drumpf (get it, it's German!), and so on.) 

There was an interesting case a while back, where a Vox writer was suspended for apparently advocating riots against Trump. I think a lot of people missed his point: if you really think Trump=Hitler (or maybe Mussolini), then you basically have a duty to oppose him violently.

It was a test of whether people believe their own rhetoric. See here:

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/vox-editor-suspended-encouraging-riots-trump-rallies