To beat the fuck out of a Republican, so they aren’t even waiting until she has the nomination.
"President Trump" is a dangerous proposition.
Mitt Romney, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio agree.https://t.co/fUkISvgaXC
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) May 4, 2016
People keep saying that Hillary isn’t going to know what hit her when Trump unloads. I think she does. She’s been dealing with it for decades.
I don’t think Trump knows what it is going to feel like to be bludgeoned by Clintonites who have had negative ad blue balls for a couple decades. They didn’t unload on Bernie and they got warned off Obama in 2008, so Trump is going to get the full treatment. It’s going to be fucking beautimous.
Jeffro
“Like”
What else is there to say? She’s going to beat him so far into the ground it’s pitiful … All of the air is going to come out of his balloon once she gets a chance to stand up to him and she’s already doing it
Corner Stone
Only idiots say that, Cole.
dmsilev
And, of course, Trump is legendary for his thick skin and ability to shrug off and ignore criticism…
Corner Stone
Just like this ad. In his own words or people who know him best.
For anyone who still gives a shit about BENGHAZIII!!, I have 11 hours of taped Congressional testimony to refer them to. If they had had something they would have put her balls in a vice.
Luther Siler
I’m fascinated by the suggestion that there’s anything Trump can hit Hillary with that she hasn’t already seen 20 years of. I just don’t see any way to move her negatives at this point. Everyone knows who she is already.
Brachiator
Hillary’s little jibe is so cute.
Trump is a master of vicious verbal counter-punching. And like the mythical giant Antaeus, knocking him into the muck only makes him stronger. You don’t win by being snarky or witty or even as nasty as he can be. You have to do something unexpected.
Maybe Clinton will have it. But this ain’t it.
Alex.S
Clinton has pseudo-abandoned the primary. She’s not advertising, but I think she’s still opening up offices (especially in blue states where they can be converted into the general election phonebanking more easily). Otherwise, just standard campaigning.
From my envelope math, Sanders could win 80% in states favorable to him, 45% in states unfavorable, and still need 62% or more of the vote in New Jersey and California to catch up.
The difference between the two is mostly a reflection of proportional delegates vs winner-take-all (or winner-take-most). Hillary has “won”, but it’s theoretically possible for her to lose. Under GOP rules, the nomination fight would be over.
srv
Mistakes were made, we must look forward.
Jeffro
@Brachiator: you must be joking … This is 20 members of his own party saying some truly historic things about their own party’s candidate . It’s not meant to convert any Trump voters – it’s meant to remind everyone else exactly what the guy stands for
Corner Stone
@Brachiator:
If you clutch those pearls any harder I don’t think they will turn into diamonds.
Gimlet
Left behind on the old thread.
http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/278702-judge-leaves-open-door-for-clinton-deposition-in-email-probe
“Based on information learned during discovery, the deposition of Mrs. Clinton may be necessary,” Sullivan said in an order on Wednesday. Discovery is the formal name for the evidence-gathering process, which includes depositions.
The order, which came in the course of a lawsuit from conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch, leaves open the possibility that Clinton will be forced to answer detailed questions on the eve of her formal selection as the Democratic presidential nominee about her creation of the server.
Any deposition would surely roil the presidential race and force her campaign to confront the issue, which has dogged her for a year.
“You have to take her deposition in this case to fully understand how it was designed and the whys and the what-fors.”
While leaving the door open to Clinton’s eventual deposition, Sullivan on Wednesday ordered at least six current and former State Department employees to answer questions from Judicial Watch, which has filed multiple lawsuits over the Clinton email case.
Wiki
Judge Emmet G. Sullivan was appointed by President Reagan to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia on October 3, 1984. On November 25, 1991, Sullivan was appointed by President George H. W. Bush to serve as an Associate Judge of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.
On June 16, 1994, Judge Sullivan was appointed by President Bill Clinton to serve as United States District Judge for the District of Columbia.
Sullivan presided over Senator Ted Stevens’ trial where his indictment was dismissed when a Justice Department probe found evidence of gross prosecutorial misconduct.[3][4][5]
Sullivan is presiding over a case, Judicial Watch v. IRS,[6] where there is an ongoing investigation into the 2013 IRS controversy, specifically attempting to determine where the “lost” emails of former IRS employee Lois Lerner went
dedc79
I’d like to see another version of this ad but with quotes from Laura Bush, Niki Haley, and whatever other prominent republican women have stepped up to bash Trump.
debbie
Trump will need to be careful in over-bullying Clinton and alienating the moderate women he claims love him. Happily, I don’t think he’s capable of any self-restraint.
Corner Stone
@Brachiator:
What do you think about her haircut? Or the length of the cut on her pantsuit?
geg6
@srv:
He also says he needs you to help him get the cash for his inheritance from a Romanian Prince uncle of his who hid it all through the Cold War and recently died. Just send him your personal banking information and he’ll give you half of that sweet $3 million!
Ultraviolet Thunder
I’ll just do this again and go find a bag of ice for my noggin.
lamh36
Amit Joshi
Heh. “…negative ad blue balls…”!
Corner Stone
@Gimlet:
Where it more appropriately belonged. Left behind.
Gimlet
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
Careful I hear that’s one way conservatives are made.
NotMax
What took them so long?
And Elton John still has made nary a peep regarding the same use.
gogol's wife
LOVE IT! Thank you, Mitt, you are a true patriot.
Davis X. Machina
@Brachiator:
Which never fails to deliver — ask Sen. Rick Lazio, for example.
The record for a gender gap in a US presidential election is 11% — Clinton in ’96. I can see that being close to doubled.
RoonieRoo
This is my favorite sentence you have ever written Cole. That one is going to carry me through my periodic freak-out for a while. God love ya!
Gian
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/05/hillarys-war/480684/
– argues that she wil attack trump early and often. of course it sources her biographies by Carl Bernstein, Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta Jr. – so take it for what it’s worth, at least it was an interesting read (this article blames her for the toe sucker, Dick Morris)
Brachiator
@Jeffro:
I mentioned before how the GOP drug out the Mittbot 2000 to slam Trump and show that he wasn’t the “good” type of Republican.
How did that work out?
But it’s cute that blog readers are impressed by this weak shit.
And note that I said that I hope Hillary has some better stuff at the ready.
AkaDad
To be fair, Trump did beat 16 qualified candidates and a woman.
geg6
@Brachiator:
Are you serious? You’re expecting what worked for him in a GOP primary against a gaggle of pygmies and with an audience made up of Stormfronters, Sarah Palins and Teabaggers to work just as well in a general election? If so, I want some of what you’re smoking. Dude can’t handle a bit of criticism. She’s going to get under his skin and the implosion will be yuuuuuge and magnificent!
Percysowner
Now, now don’t you realize that Hillary Clinton has never been vetted in her entire 38 years of being in the public eye? . Really that was the funniest thing I read today.
shomi
I don’t think it will make much difference and I mean that in a good way. Even the most idiotic of Republicans thinks Trump is a clown and an ahole. Will a lot of them vote for him anyways? Sure. It won’t make much difference though. A lot will vote for Hillary too.
So I don’t think the Hillary campaign needs to go negative. She is being well advised and you can see they know what they are doing. They are following Obama’s strategy of using hope because the only thing more powerful than fear is hope. You just know the Trump people will go full blast fearmongering negative once the general campaign starts. Like everything Trump does, it will not be tasteful or classy and will only turn off voters more.
Corner Stone
@AkaDad:
Kind of like how Cruz continued beating his wife last night after suspending his campaign?
Ryan
I’d pay to be in the room when Trump finds out that he got less of a share than Goldwater, but I don’t want to curse this. Mark Penn is still on this earth after all.
Aqualad08
@Brachiator:
Oh, no, this is just an appetizer. Bait him into going too far for the general public who already hates him as much as they hate herpes. Your analysis is duly ignored because it’s pedantic. “mythical giant Antaeus?” Who the fuck are you trying to impress?
gogol's wife
@Brachiator:
For the general election, this is a brilliant ad. Not only is the content of Mitt’s comments damning, he just looks so much more serious as a potential president — and he lost.
Brachiator
@Corner Stone: RE: And like the mythical giant Antaeus, knocking him into the muck only makes him stronger. You don’t win by being snarky or witty or even as nasty as he can be.
No, baby. There’s a fainting couch waiting for you.
So far, Trump has laid out the 17 GOP pretenders. He had Cruz wailing like a little b#tch the other day, defending his father.
He made Jeb! run back to his momma. Rubio came close to landing something on Trump, but ended up looking like a wrung out little rat in big boy boots.
Pay attention. And even look at the goddam myth of Antaeus. How did Herakles ultimately defeat that little shit?
Hillary will have to be just as smart. Let’s see if she figures it out.
feebog
Two words; tax returns. Trump is not going to release them, and Clinton as well as an army of Dem surrogates should raise a shitstorm of speculation, innuendo and accusations.
geg6
@AkaDad:
Well, to be fair, my dogs could have beaten those qualified candidates and that particular woman.
Baud
@Brachiator:
They were a deep bench.
Corner Stone
@Brachiator: Holy shit. Once i was confused but it took another men to make me see finally light.
AkaDad
@Corner Stone: That gif will never get old.
Corner Stone
@Brachiator:
I am Joe Biden Literally fucking speechless.
geg6
Oh, and Cole? The blue balls thing is brilliant. Made me lol.
Brachiator
@gogol’s wife:
I hope that Clinton is not paying a lot of money for the crappy advice she is getting.
Brilliant ad? Who is it aimed at? Trump’s base don’t care. And most GOP regulars fear and hate Clinton anyway.
@geg6
That’s right. This stuff just sets him off. He thrives on it.
JPL
This is my chat with son earlier..
son
haha yeah
and I saw that Kasich had dropped out
i honestly hoped that would have happened because i think trump is easily beatable
but now that it’s real it’s a irky feeling
mom
no shit..
we could have a president that is comparing penis size with putin..
son
they’d get along great
honestly nothing would happen
mom
not if trumps isn’t bigger
Okay.. I’m not as refined as John’s mom..
Gimlet
@Baud:
They used a wide spectrum of tactics to unsuccessfully try to bring him down.
Corner Stone
@feebog:
The electorate does not give one darn about tax returns.
bemused
@debbie:
Considering Trump’s propensity to repeat anything on the internet (Rafael Cruz Pres Kennedy), I would not be shocked if he trotted out the Clinton Body Bag story which has been making the wingnut circuit recently.
Schlemazel Khan
@Brachiator:
I do not see this this tweet as a shot at Drumpf directly. It is putting all the big names who claimed they could never support the DumpsterFire on notice that they will not now be able to pretend they have no problem with him. They are now going to have to abandon the parties candidate or publicly confront the change from “no, never, he is insane” to “Vote for our guy!” This is clever & we need more of it
Baud
@Gimlet: A wide spectrum is what deep benches employ.
bemused
@NotMax:
About time! I just seethe when R’s use some of my favorite band’s songs.
TaMara (HFG)
I see the trolls are out in force.
Ad is a thing of beauty.
scav
@Baud: Well, hey, he’s a meta-pretender, pretending to be a businessman, pretending to be a GOP candidate, pretending he has hair, pretending he was married for his personal charms — they were just pretending to be relevant and electable. In the deck of pretend jokers at least, he had the larger hand.
dedc79
@Brachiator:
Don’t keep us waiting. Share some of the brilliant strong shit you’ve worked up.
Gimlet
@Baud:
So what will Baud’s approach be?
Baud
@Gimlet: Baud can do the math and is looking for the most graceful exit possible.
geg6
@Brachiator:
Personally, I think she’ll take the Percy Jackson method to killing Antaeus. Much more satisfying, IMHO.
Brachiator
@Corner Stone:
What evs, dude.
You’re impressed by this weak sauce. I’m not. It ain’t the end of the world, and in the end I expect that Clinton will prevail. But I don’t have to be astounded by shit that would be weak for a middle school class presidency battle.
different-church-lady
I’ve a feeling there’s going to be a lot of “rope a dope” involved.
Mary
@shomi: It may not change any minds, but it helps to keep reminding folks of who Trump is, just in case anyone is tempted to buy into any attempt that he makes to appear more “presidential.”
Gian
@bemused:
I expect him to say she’s for sale (crooked Hillary is already his attempt at branding her)
and he knows because he’s bought her in the past when he gave her money, and then go into the wingnut stories about the foundation.
and recycle Bernie’s bits about goldman sachs speeches.
but I’m just guessing based on what he did during the GOP primaries.
Gimlet
@Baud:
Dense mist and a trap door in the stage.
Baud
@different-church-lady: Now with more dope!
Baud
@Gimlet:
Too Carly.
geg6
@Brachiator:
And that’s what has gotten him that stellar approval rating with women, African Americans and Hispanics, right?
different-church-lady
@Brachiator: She’s going to go Bugs Bunny on his ass.
geg6
@Schlemazel Khan:
This. Which is why it’s brutal and brilliant.
Corner Stone
@TaMara (HFG): Where?
Cacti
@srv:
You missed this part, lil’ fella:
bemused
@Gian:
What is predictable about Trump is that he won’t be able to stop himself from being offensive.
Corner Stone
@Brachiator: It’s a good ad. It’s not for the voting R primary electorate.
Brachiator
@Schlemazel Khan:
Or more likely they will pretend that there was never any doubt and Trump was always their man.
Isn’t that how politics works?
@geg6
You got it!!
And the Percy Jackson version of Antaeus fits Trump in a lot of ways.
different-church-lady
@Cacti: In Romania, computer hack you.
AkaDad
Trump will create lots of jobs. He believes there will be great opportunities for women, specifically in the resteraunt sector, to work in kitchens and serve food.
Cacti
@bemused:
I predict that the Clinton camp will bait him into letting his freak flag fly as often as possible.
West of the Cascades
I feel like President Obama is going to be the ace-in-the-hole for the Clinton campaign around personal attacks, largely because he already has both of Trump’s testicles in a jar in his desk drawer after removing them at the WH Correspondents’ Dinner in 2011. Trump can rail against the President all he wants, but the President made him look … really small. And I think the President will remind him over and over in the coming months about his smallness (even if not explicitly about his emasculation).
Emma
@Brachiator: Do they pay you much or is it a labor of love?
Punchy
How does Trump expect to debate her on foreign policy? He’s absolutely clueless; shes a former SoS. It’d be like me debating an Eskimo on the finer points of blubber harvesting…
Applejinx
@Corner Stone: Nobody makes a vice that big XD
I am, shall we say, not worried about Team Clinton’s ability to fight the Republicans, pretty much no matter how dirty the Republicans want to get with it. I don’t think there’s a thing they can do that Hillary can’t do harder, better, faster and stronger.
Cacti
@different-church-lady:
Over at DU(mb), the Bernfeelers were so orgasmic at the headline, none of them seemed to make it down to paragraph 6.
lamh36
I think the ad is fine. Mother Jones headline called it brutal. I wouldn’t call it brutal (that John Bel Edwards prostitution ad against Vitter, now that was “brutal”).
The ad is fine as an opening salvo, so I don’t know what some folks expect from HRC right now.
I guess they want her to what talk about his womanizing (ummm hell. she’s married to Bill C), his small hands, call him Lil Donald, um, accuse da Donald of being the love child o IDK Hitler (allegedly)..IDK…essentially, that is what Trump did to the other field. She bully and insulted his way to the nomination.
Is that what folks want from Hillz? Because I don’t think it’d work for her the same way…
bemused
@Cacti:
Hillary and staff would be foolish not to push his hair-trigger buttons.
Corner Stone
@Punchy: He’s going to use the phrase, “Believe me, believe me” about every other sentence when answering.
Baud
@lamh36:
I agree. Another instance of Internet hyperbole.
Cacti
In case anyone needed another reason to hate Notre Dame football:
Lou Holtz has endorsed Donald Trump.
hellslittlestangel
A great ad, but I wonder how many of the Republicans in it will disavow their remarks with the old, “politics ain’t bean bag” refrain.
Roger Moore
@Cacti:
I’m sure the anti-Hillary media will happily miss that part, too.
Gimlet
@lamh36:
She can attach a string to the long form of Obama’s birth certificate and drag it across the stage in front of him.
Emma
@lamh36: No. She should absolutely stay away from personal life issues. It’s his negligible intellect and his ignorance she should attack, fast and furious.
Turgidson
@Brachiator:
The ad is aimed at everyone else. Literally, everyone else.
Jeffro
@Brachiator: I already told you who it’s aimed at: the 73% or so of general election voters who aren’t Trump’s base
bemused
@West of the Cascades:
Obama is great and hilarious at making R’s look small and petty. I hope he and Hillary will be coordinating their jabs, tag team.
Corner Stone
@Baud: The ad worked fine for what it was about. It wasn’t a “Daisy” level extinction event that some people apparently are demanding from here on out.
Mary
@lamh36:
I don’t think so. I think the smart strategy, and one they’ve employed so far, is to stick with his own words and what others say about him.
Mike J
@Baud:
I’m hoping Baud will be attack dog surrogate.
Felanius Kootea
@Brachiator: The general election is not the Republican primary. The audience is very different. And Hillary will have one thing that Trump does not, a popular current president campaigning for her, someone who knows how to get under Trump’s skin, based on his performance at the White House Correspondents Dinner in 2011. You seem to know a lot of women who are planning to vote for Trump. I know of none. Maybe we are both in bubbles? I do know though that very few women like bullies and Trump isn’t going to be able to dial back the sexism against Hillary. Remember Rick Lazio in New York? Weird how all the women who didn’t say much about his aggressive anti-Hillary tactics showed up at the polls and he lost.
Cacti
@lamh36:
Nah, won’t work for her.
Her best bet will be to make Trump look like an offensive, dimwitted, hot head. The sort of guy a middle of the road voter would wonder “Is this who I want having the nuclear launch codes?” Or that reminds women voters of every a-hole boyfriend, spouse, male relative, or male boss they’ve ever had.
His goose is already cooked with Hispanic voters.
? Martin
@Cacti:
We will have the classiest torture chambers and debtors prisons on earth.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Brachiator:
I think you missed the plot here, notice the word in your quote that bolded.
Baud
@Mike J: You bet. Trump is a Chump!
Shell
Copying from a previous thread.
Reince Preibus was on CNN this afternoon, mouthing some nonsense about unity now in the Republican party. . He looked like he was making a hostage video.
Davebo
It’s a pretty good ad especially as there isn’t a single democrat in it.
And it makes a lot of the Republicans in it look pretty bad, especially Carly.
Davis X. Machina
@Baud:
You spelled ‘derp’ wrong.
Baud
@? Martin: Man, I knew I should have invested in golf courses and hotels rather than colon cleansing franchises.
Not that they aren’t first class.
? Martin
@Turgidson:
Yep. Hell, Clinton doesn’t even need to convert independents so long as she can turn out Democrats at the same rate as Republicans. If she can do that, the GOP will even need to do a little defense in places like Georgia.
feebog
@Corner Stone:
Normally, I would agree with your assessment. But this is a guy who has bragged about how much money he has, how fabulously wealthy, yada yada yada. He is leveraged up to his eyeballs and I’d be surprised if he is even worth a billion. After bragging about all this endlessly, it is going to raise some real questions when he does not release several years worth.
Face
@Brachiator: HOLY FUCK IT’S DAY FUCKING ONE. GIVE IT FUCKING REST. WE GET IT; YOU HATE CLINTON. DULY NOTED.
Christ.
BR
As much as we partisans may likre it, there’s a lot of hard data that negative ads don’t work at moving the needle.
What does work is ground game and positive person-to-person outreach.
Our task is not to rely on Clinton to “do” anything to win this. We need to collectively win it on the ground.
Corner Stone
@bemused:
Like when he had that round at the health care summit, “I hope this isn’t political theater,” President Obama said.
Cacti
@Felanius Kootea:
Anecdotes are anecdotes of course, but the polling shows that 70 percent of women voters view Trump negatively. That’s not just Democratic women, that’s all of them.
When Dubya won the White House in 2004, he took 48 percent of the women’s vote.
Now, raise your hand if you think the Donald is going to approach that number.
different-church-lady
@BR:
She’s got this locked up then.
Schlemazel Khan
@Brachiator:
It is one thing to disagree & even have a bit of dirty fighting but there has never been a case on the national stage were significant politicians have said they could never support a guy & the guy was unqualified & the guy isn’t a conservative & the guy is insane and then campaigned for that guy. This will be a wedge between some number of voters and the dumpster fire.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: Pursued by a bear?
AkaDad
When Trump nukes Iraq to take out ISIS, WWIII will commence. USA vs the world. I think we can take ’em.
Baud
@AkaDad:
And the NYT will write an article about how Hillary would have been even more hawkish.
smith
Trump thinks he’s a genius. Anything the Dems can do to point up his stupidity and ignorance will drive him bonkers. He’s good at bluster but even he knows that he can’t fake expertise.
He’s also the kind of man who can’t stand to have women laughing at him. That should stand Hillary in good stead — she doesn’t have to be aggressive, just dismissive.
BillinGlendaleCA
@West of the Cascades:
You mean like ‘Trump hands small’? That tiny?
Corner Stone
@Felanius Kootea:
Which begs the question – who is Trump going to pull out of his ass to campaign for him in the GE? GW Bush? DeMint? Brownback? Sessions? WHO?
lamh36
Gimlet
@different-church-lady:
Trump could tag her as the ultimate politician and Washington insider responsible for the plight of today’s American worker while he is the outsider nonpolitician.
JustRuss
Trump has spent the last few decades being fellated by a media that either fears him or wants a piece of celebrity or his money. He is in for such a rude awakening, couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
different-church-lady
@Gimlet: Yes, but he’ll need a majority.
Baud
@Gimlet: Anyone “could” tag anyone with anything.
Mandalay
@BR:
Really? Link?
Schlemazel Khan
@BR:
Negative ads do a couple of things really well. They drive down enthusiasm for a candidate making that persons voters more likely to stay home. That would be great in this case. They convince some number of people that the lesser evil is not so bad and that will help a lot this year too.
We should apply every lever to move the bolder that is Drumpf.
geg6
@BR:
Much as I agree that GOTV is how you win elections, advertising is a factor in GOTV. Especially when you can steer conversations to the points the ads make and reinforce, through face to face encounters, those very points in the ads. You have to take everything into account.
scav
Rather like that it’s almost not so much about Trump the individual as the entire party doing most of the talking. Re-enforces the perception that they always talk big and never deliver and play the flippity-flop with the most flippity of floppers. Because Trumpity was supposed to be the anti-them, and now he’s on the inside with the usual crowd (presumably) as a supporting cast.
Just Some Fuckhead
Oh John? Butterfly kisses down your spine. This post was the most wonderful thing you’ve ever done.
Emma
@Gimlet: And she can point out that more than 2/3 of his “brand’ products aren’t made in the US.
bemused
@Corner Stone:
Someone needs to compile a collection of Obama’s best lines in a book. There are so many, it would have to be a book.
Fascinating just skim reading the Health Care Summit and I will read in depth when I have more time. It’s no surprise that the Republicans haven’t changed their tunes at all (their plan will come out any day now) but still head smacking to read.
Schlemazel Khan
@Corner Stone:
“who is Drumpf going to pull out of his ass to campaign for him in the GE?”
is not petitio principii, therefore no question is “begged”
Gimlet
@Emma:
And he can retort with “NAFTA”.
lamh36
Someone on MSNBC said, that Trump has a handle on social media and so he’s been able to change the narrative due to a tweet or two. Umm, more like, Trump is able to change the narrative anytime he wants cause the media, like lapdogs, run and fetch whenever he calls or throws a stick
Aqualad08
I hate Tweety, but watching him skin Jeff Weaver alive over this bullshit speeches ad is a delight…
SiubhanDuinne
@Punchy:
No worries, that’s all taken care of. John “Sunday Morning” McCain has offered to brief Trump on foreign policy. He’ll be up to speed in no time!
different-church-lady
I’m telling you folks, there comes a moment towards the end of every Bugs Bunny cartoon where Bugs just sits back and lets Yosemite Sam defeat himself.
Baud
@Gimlet: And then she can retort with his foreign made clothes, and on and on and on….
different-church-lady
@lamh36: How many electoral votes does Twitter have?
A Ghost To Most
@BR:
Lee Atwater and
Willie HortonMichael Dukakis on lines 2 and 3 for you.Cacti
Sanders challenges Clinton to a California primary debate.
It’s over, Bernie.
Let it go.
pseudonymous in nc
@Corner Stone:
Maybe sphincter pressure will do it.
The way you deal with Trump is to roll your eyes. He’s not big, he’s not clever, he’s not talented, he’s not important, he’s not really that rich. (Yes, I know, don’t underestimate him. But we should publicly estimate him accurately.)
Corner Stone
@bemused: The visuals were even better. About a dozen of the R’s showed up with a stack of paper about 18 inches high, supposedly the ACA printed out. Obama coolly surveyed each one with a small degree of scorn, and then was all like, “The fuck you’re going to get by with that shit.”
debbie
@geg6:
Especially Lovey!
SiubhanDuinne
@Corner Stone:
Alternating with “This I will tell you. I will tell you this.”
Cacti
@Baud:
Or how many undocumented laborers work on the housekeeping staff at Trump hotels.
Thoughtful David
@Cacti:
I think it would be perfect for her to get him in one of the debates and just mention something like “no one really believes Trump is worth maybe more a billion.” He’s shown really thin skin, thinner than usual, at hints about his wealth. He’d start frothing and ranting about blood out her whatever and that she should stop barking and how he’d like to get behind her on her knees and… He wouldn’t be able to stop himself. And you would be able to watch his female support drop into single digits in real time.
bemused
I’ve noticed that Pivot channel has been showing the doc “You’ve been Trumped” often in the last several months. Good doc if you haven’t seen it showing how Trump treats working class folks in Scotland when they get in the way of his golf course.
bemused
@Corner Stone:
I had forgotten that. Ah, memories.
debbie
@bemused:
I had to Google that. Christ, people are nuts.
Corner Stone
@pseudonymous in nc:
Unpossible! That would require Brachiator removing the stick lodged firmly up his ass.
Gimlet
@Thoughtful David:
I think Trump University is his weak spot. It epitomizes the man.
Cacti
@Thoughtful David:
When he elicited an eyeroll from Chris Christie’s wife when he started on a sexist rant about Hillary, it was an eye opener for me. Women really do not like the guy.
SiubhanDuinne
@Corner Stone:
I’ve seen reports that Ben Carson is either in charge of, or at least a member of the team deciding on, Trump’s VP selection.
One can only dream.
AkaDad
@Baud:
With lines like this, how are you not the nominee?
El Caganer
@Baud: If it had been any deeper they would have fallen in.
Gimlet
@SiubhanDuinne:
I hear they are vetting Baud.
gf120581
@SiubhanDuinne: In all seriousness, John McCain is probably in full-blown panic right now along with all the rest of his fellow endangered GOP senators. This is like getting handed their execution date and we’re going to see some rather humiliating and pathetic attempts to save themselves from getting sucked down with the Trump electoral black hole (witness Kelly Ayotte and Rob Portman today for an example of how bad it’s going to get).
Or maybe McCain’s too busy trying to talk Lindsey down.
pseudonymous in nc
@SiubhanDuinne: oh please let him Cheney himself into the Veep spot.
Applejinx
@Emma: It’s very simple. Intellect, ignorance, yes, but Trump is a blowhard. He’s a fake, with multiple bankruptcies, who’s conned the worthless media into a car-accident-gawker blitz on his behalf. He’s bullshitting.
Not all of us love all Hillary’s policies (especially past policy she’s now repudiating) but by God she gets things done. Bernie would have flattened her if she wasn’t good at this. And so she ought to be, by now. And she can claim, to more or less of an extent, that she’s learned SO MUCH from her worthy primary opponent and is just as much of a transformative candidate as any of ’em… though I’m probably reading too much into it, because I want to believe because I DON’T WANT Trump to be President. I don’t want him to run a ‘you’re establishment, one way or another you gotta go’ thing on her, when it’s true that all the establishment things are crumbling.
Point being, he’s totally bullshitting and she is another Maggie Thatcher ‘Iron Lady’, personality-wise. I hope like hell that doesn’t describe her politically, but in terms of being an alpha AND a leader able to inspire others, Hillary is no joke. Her allies are supremely committed, and you don’t get that by being a betraying weasel. Trump doesn’t have allies like that, just the grudgingly obedient and yes-men.
Hillary’s allies have sometimes run amok and caused her problems, but in some ways I prefer that to if they were just half-assing it. I would suggest looking at Bernie’s allies: same deal, we have TWO charismatic pols with frothingly loyal constituencies. Trump has a hairpiece and a crippled party, and a media that will be just as thrilled to write the story of his decline and fall. They only love the circus, and they’re rooting for injuries.
But the biggest thing to consider? Trump (and Bernie) are running a ‘shit sucks!’ campaign. I want Hillary to notice that shit sucks, but politics is advertising. Hillary is pandering, taking pains to claim ‘America is great, GREAT! It just needs proper governing and everything will be fine! Nothing broken here!’
Her GOVERNING needs to be cognizant of the reality that shit sucks. I think that can happen.
Her POLITICKING has to tell the pretty lies. America is great and fair, aspire and love one another, etc etc etc. Know who else ran that way?
I’ll give you a hint: ‘Morning In America’. Hillary won’t be the first to run on bullshit and then govern based on her party platform in a more reality-based way. You have to be able to sound the ‘yay america’ notes. Because if you’re running on an ‘everything SUCKS’ platform, and then you can’t even plausibly be the one who’ll fix anything, you’re fucked.
All Hillary has to do is scorn Trump and his bullshitting. She and her team clearly know her way around a government and a political party. She can be gentle with the loser Republican voters and try to tell them that what they want is actually achievable through a progressive Dem platform, apart from the racism and injustice about which, fuck them, they can’t have that in her country: but we will have prosperity and do business and be a strong America. The hippies actually want her to be a lot weaker, in foreign policy! *shrug* sorry!
And she has been in the White House before. Back in the early nineties: when business boomed, median wages grew, poverty declined (do NOT mention extreme poverty, Bill made that worse) and unemployment dropped to under 4%.
What was Trump doing at the time?
Going bankrupt.
(see how it’s done? yes, her actual governing can do better than Bill did, but HOLY FUCK could she devastate this clown in a debate. He is bullshitting. We can gripe about Bill Clinton throwing poors under the bus, but had they chosen differently that degree of competence would’ve been a great thing)
D58826
@geg6: I was wondering why he stopped calling me to tell me my version of windows was infected.
And Hannity has been push John in Iowa who claims to have been a drone operator over Benghazi and he saw things that have not been reported. Gowdy of course wants to talk to John of Iowa. DOD can’t find John of Iowa in its military personnel file and has told Gowdy they have all of the video from that night. If the committee wants to see what happed just look at the video. But I guess John of Iowa has special x-ray eyes that can see things that are not on the video.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Cacti: I think the only folk that want more debates now are the BernieBros; they want to cheer him on, the rest of us don’t give a shit.
Mike J
gf120581
@Cacti: I heard two of his superdelagates switched to Hillary today. Expect more to follow.
Now that Trump’s assured of the nomination, everyone wants to go towards to the GE and as such, no one is going to pay much attention to the cranky old man on a ego trip. No matter how much his increasingly ridiculous wife squawks.
Matt McIrvin
@Turgidson:
Clinton doesn’t actually need to reduce Trump’s level of support. It’d be nice if she could, but all she has to do is keep it from increasing too much.
Ben Cisco
@SiubhanDuinne: Shuffling til the end. i almost feel sorry for him.
singfoom
She can also go after Drumpf for this:
http://www.vice.com/read/vice-on-hbo-dubai-workers-trump-international-golf-club
Though most Drumpfians won’t give a shit because they don’t care when brown people are mistreated, only their own. But maybe some of them will.
Cacti
@gf120581:
I think the uncommitted supers are going to start thinking more strongly about getting off the sidelines too.
bemused
@debbie:
Yes but it’s what they want to believe.
A tiny town near me has a weekly paper with an owner/editor who is a typical 70 something white, dimwit Republican male who thinks he is wicked smart. He recently put a paragraph in his editorial about getting email concerning the Clinton Body Bags. Yup, he believes it. Oddly, he hates Trump, thinks he’s a braggart which is hilarious coming from this newspaper guy.
SiubhanDuinne
@Gimlet:
Seems as though Trump is planning to haul out a lot of legislation and policies from Bill Clinton’s administration which will be 20-25 years in the past by the time the next administration starts. I hope and assume Hillary has a couple of dozen variations on “I’m not my husband, this is my campaign not his, let’s debate what I am proposing, this is 2016 not 1996, etc.” Trump and his minions are going to find it irresistible to attack Bill, but I think Team HRC is ready.
goblue72
@Cacti: You’re a one note moron, let it go.
AkaDad
After his second wife, it must have been so hard choosing between Melania and Ivanka.
Yeah, I went there. There is my favorite destination.
singfoom
@Mike J: Shit, you know Drumpf LIVES, fucking LIVES for that “You’re fired” scene every week. You think it’s easy to give that kind of satisfaction up easily? I think not.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@Cacti:
Sanders “unqualified” remark really was a turning point in that campaign. Men have no idea what kind of impact that dismissiveness has on women. It’s a deal breaker, for every woman who doesn’t hate Muslims and Mexicans more than they hate being dismissed. Which I think is probably all except 27% of women.
lamh36
@West of the Cascades: Added bonus, Trump pisses off Obama voters, especially AA women, who consistently vote Dem in large enough numbers to make a difference
Cacti
@goblue72:
Shoo, Reaganite/Clinton penis shamer.
lamh36
SiubhanDuinne
@Gimlet:
Baud is clean as a whistle. Plus, he has far too much personal dignity to link his name and reputation with Drumpf.
bemused
@lamh36:
Shouldn’t he have given this some thought a bit earlier?
Cacti
@BillinGlendaleCA:
What could they possibly discuss at this point that hasn’t been covered at length in the 9 previous debates?
different-church-lady
@lamh36: Donald Trump: first person to bankrupt a Super PAC
SiubhanDuinne
@gf120581:
I expect you’re right.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Mike J
@SiubhanDuinne:
Inside and out, since he misunderstood what “Fleet week” meant.
BR
@Mandalay:
http://rap.sagepub.com/content/3/1/2053168015625078
I can dig up the other studies when I have time, but this is a big one.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@Cacti:
The only way to tolerate Sanders now, is if you think of him as the Black Knight in the Holy Grail.
Cacti
@the Conster, la Citoyenne:
Probably also didn’t help when just days later, one of his BernieBros got up to a mic and called her a whore.
SiubhanDuinne
@pseudonymous in nc:
I know. It would be so beauty, so very beauty.
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne:
I owe it to my first class colon cleansing franchises.
Gimlet
@SiubhanDuinne:
I think she has flip-flopped on the new NAFTA or TPP so she’ll need to be careful not to give Trump any openings.
Here are some of the words she used to describe the TPP before she left the State Department in 2013: “exciting,” “innovative,” “ambitious,” “groundbreaking,” “cutting-edge,” “high-quality,” “high-standard” and “gold standard.” She also publicly encouraged more nations to get involved, such as Japan, the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia, and she expressed hope that the negotiations would wrap up by the end of 2012.
Since she started running for President
Since the start of her 2016 campaign, Hillary Clinton hasn’t taken a strong position on the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal — saying she would reserve judgment until the deal was finalized.
Well, the negotiations recently came to a close, and Clinton promptly announced that she opposes the deal.
“As of today, I am not in favor of what I have learned about it,” she said in an Oct. 8 interview with PBS Newshour’s Judy Woodruff, adding, “I don’t believe it’s going to meet the high bar I have set.”
BR
@geg6:
Ads are a factor in GOTV, but positive ads are more effective according to the data than negative, though neither does as much as even lowly lawn signs.
pseudonymous in nc
@SiubhanDuinne:
The trumpenspokesminion clarified her ‘never been vetted’ line by saying that the youngs may not remember the 90s. So it’s definitely going to be re-litigating the WJ Clinton presidency, NAFTA and blowjobs and welfare reform, oh my.
So maybe he will pick Newt for Veep.
different-church-lady
@BillinGlendaleCA: What’s he going to do, bleed on her?
Ian
@Corner Stone:
Have you finally seen the light? Holy shit, this has been a good political year. The trolls are becoming Democratic voters.
Applejinx
@SiubhanDuinne: Bill turned around the economy, turned deficits into surpluses AND generated amazing wealth boosts for the 1% WHILE taxing them harder. In so many ways, that is a briar patch Hils should want to be thrown into. Please oh please.
Again: he whacked the super rich with taxes AND ended up making them even richer, because economics. And ran surpluses, not deficits.
All Hillary has to say is, we’ll do that again and this time nobody gets left behind.
Miss Bianca
@different-church-lady: Usually after he’s twirled his whiskers and drawled, “Of course you know…this means *war*.”
SiubhanDuinne
@Ben Cisco:
Yeah, no. He had an excellent reputation as a skilled surgeon and gentle healer, and in a matter of months he pissed it all away in full public view by being an out-of-touch, uninformed, forgetful, somnambulant, in-over-his-head, over-ambitious climber.
O/T, how are you doing? I think of you often and hope your own life is returning to normal, or at least creating a new normal in which you can be comfortable.
Jeffro
@SiubhanDuinne: Somehow I don’t think Trump – or Manafort, or Lewandowski – are going to let Carson onto the ticket. Trump seems to have divided his slurs between ‘regular’ name-calling/insults and charges of mental illness as he winnowed the “deep bench”. Folks who suffered the former (Rubio, Kaisch, etc) I can see being on the ticket. Folks who were treated as deranged (Carson, Cruz, etc) are not going to make the cut.
Matt McIrvin
@the Conster, la Citoyenne:
Did it lose him any actual votes? He kept going up in the national primary polls for weeks after that.
goblue72
The attacks aren’t going to matter. What’s going to matter is Trump has poisoned the well with women and Latinos – and nobody is getting elected President doing as poorly with both women and Latinos as he is doing. And no matter how much he attempts to clean up his act, his long run of “Mexicans are rapists” and “build a HUGE wall” and complete inability to NOT be a sexist douche is going to kill him with those voter constituencies. A GOP candidate does not have to win the majority of Latinos or women. But they do need to hit a threshold of support from them and he is nowhere close enough.
George W. Bush pulled 44 percent of the Latino vote in 2004, pretty much the high point of Latino support for a GOP candidate in the 21st century. And Bush was about a Latino-friendly a GOP candidate as the GOP has put up in ages. Romney pulled 27 percent and its a big part of what killed him. And Trump’s numbers with Latinos are going to make Romney look like his name was El Romney. Dude is so repugnant to that voter group he is actually getting folks with green cards to apply for citizenship now just to vote against him. And his numbers with women are gonna make John McCain look like an Emily’s List candidate.
This is all over. He will still pull probably over 40% of the popular vote – Crazification Factor plus the not immaterial number of GOP voters who won’t vote for Democrat even if you stuck a shotgun up their anus. But its over.
Gin & Tonic
@Gimlet: Do you ever wonder why there’s a “link” button right above the comment box?
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@Ian:
CS has been a pro-Hillary troll here for years. It’s just now his time to shine.
Mike J
@Ben Cisco: BTW, I think it was you who asked about a troll filter for mobile. Chuck’s *should* work on firefox mobile with greasemonkey installed. I changed the user-agent on my desktop browser to trick b-j into serving the mobile version and it worked fine, but I haven’t actually tried it on a real mobile install.
BR
@Applejinx:
I’m not much of a Bill Clinton fan, but actually the 90s economic recovery was the only one in the last 40 years where everyone rose together. So she can actually point that out.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@Matt McIrvin:
With whom?
goblue72
The only part of the upcoming 6 months of inevitability (that the MSM will attempt to gin up into an actual race) that will be at all enjoyable will be when Trump announces he’s having a reality TV special a la The Apprentice to pick his VP.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mike J:
Aaaaaaaarrghhhhh! My eyes cannot unread that sentence, my brain cannot unsee that image!!
Miss Bianca
@Omnes Omnibus: More like this, I’m thinking:
Thunder. Enter DEVILS.
O, mercy, heaven! look not so fierce on me!
Adders and serpents, let me breathe a while!
Ugly hell, gape not! come not, Lucifer!
I’ll burn my books!—O Mephistophilis!
[Exeunt DEVILS with FAUSTUS.]
Ken
@Schlemazel Khan: A typical speech at the Republican convention (I posted this over at LGM):
“Just eight short weeks ago I called this man a pustule on the backside of humanity, an unqualified and incompetent idiot whose candidacy would destroy the Republican party and whose election would destroy America itself, and even Lucifer incarnate. Now, I am proud to call him the next President of the United States.” (Wild cheering from the floor)
Davis X. Machina
@Cacti: It’s not up to Bernie… you got issues, talk to the dialectic.
Corner Stone
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: The fuck?
Bernie Forever, Clinton Never!
The Thin Black Duke
Thing is, Hillary Clinton has dealt with rich white loudmouth dicks like Donald Trump for most of her professional life. However, because Trump has lived in a gold-plated bubble for most of his professional life, has never dealt with a woman like Hillary Clinton before. I think Trump is going to find out that campaigning against Hillary Clinton ain’t no reality TV show.
SiubhanDuinne
@pseudonymous in nc:
Denny Hastert not available?
Oh wait.
lamh36
@pseudonymous in nc: also too, the younguns today, have a more liberal view on marriage and fidelity, and such, it seems to me.
different-church-lady
@The Thin Black Duke: Most people have never dealt with a woman like Hillary Clinton before.
SiubhanDuinne
@different-church-lady:
You silly. That’s Megyn Kelly’s job.
SFAW
@Baud:
Perhaps you misread, and invested in semi-colon franchises? I heard those were half-assed.
Ben Cisco
@Gimlet:
OK, throw me a bone here, am I missing something? She said she would wait till they were done, she did, she’s against. Where’s the problem part of this at, exactly?
the Conster, la Citoyenne
What would Trump have to do with all of his business enterprises if he were elected? Under what authority would a divestment or blind trust situation be enforced?
aimai
@Schlemazel Khan: Precisely. This is aimed at making the entire of the remaining Republican hierarchy look like morons. So that the sliver of the Republican voters who used to think that their party stood for something will get discouraged and disgusted and stay home. Nothing will affect Trump’s true believers. But peel off five percent of regular, upper class, former Republican voters and Trump is toast.
Omnes Omnibus
@SiubhanDuinne: Thank dog, someone made that joke so I didn’t have to.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ben Cisco:
She is Hillary Clinton.
SiubhanDuinne
@Applejinx:
Yes, thank you. I think Hillary will skillfully navigate the areas of Bill’s administration with which she’d like to be identified, the areas that made sense then but not now, and the areas where she would plain flat-out do things differently. She’s a smart woman; she can negotiate that maze.
different-church-lady
OT: Why does the entire internet suddenly care what Marsha Brady looks like now?
Applejinx
@The Thin Black Duke: I dunno, Joan Rivers won Celebrity Apprentice one year. But it’s different when that ball-breaker intelligent and fierce woman is gunning for YOU. Joan beat a much younger, prettier, absolutely ruthless card (pool?) hustler woman who probably tickled Trump’s fancy, but there was no denying how badass she was.
Clinton’s every bit as sharp and determined, but now Trump is the bimbo.
SiubhanDuinne
@Omnes Omnibus:
Happy to oblige.
Corner Stone
Reihan Salam. What the absolute fuck is wrong with a person in that spot.
WarMunchkin
Does anyone not like the thesis for this ad? I don’t want an ad of Republicans distancing themselves from Trump. I want the Republican Party to be equal to Trump in the eyes of everyone who is not a Republican. Republican = Trump, not Trump is so bad, even Republicans won’t take him. That implies there’s some space in between the two.
SiubhanDuinne
@different-church-lady:
Do they? Link?
Gimlet
One more example of why you shouldn’t underestimate Trump.
Who would have thought he’d take it to Jeb when he mumbled that Dubya kept us safe after 9-11?
different-church-lady
@Gimlet: Jeb is a marshmallow.
Applejinx
@SiubhanDuinne: Also it’s like with the TPP.
So, she was pushing for it hard but has now identified people are hating it, so now she’s against it? GOOD. For once people are demanding decent things from their government and being heard.
Same with the early 90s boom and government budget surpluses, taxing the rich AND making them far richer than they were. There’s no reason she can’t run that play again but adjust it for current conditions. The fact is, Bill Clinton’s terms were very effective at doing what they did, and that’s what people wanted at the time. There’s no reason Hils can’t do likewise but make some changes. The overall effect would still be an economic boom, and that’s exactly how Bill made the rich richer. people sometimes act like he cut taxes on the rich or something. He didn’t, he just made them more money than they lost, in that 90s way.
Meanwhile, Trump was declaring bankruptcy. Oh, did we mention?
Corner Stone
@WarMunchkin:
The more that prominent republicans try to convince everyone that Trump is not a real republican makes it more awesome that Trump is the R nominee.
ThresherK
The lowest thing I’ve seen from a Berniebro so far: Someone quoting a “Hillary as told to Dick Morris” bon mot. Jeebus Cripes, that’s believable.
Gimlet
@different-church-lady:
Jeb is a marshmallow.
That wasn’t the point.
Ben Cisco
@SiubhanDuinne: Thanks! I’ve slowly started to adjust to my life as it is now. I’m in contact with family members on either side on a nearly daily basis, I have friends both at work and outside of it checking in on the regular, doc gave me a (relatively) clean bill of health, and I’ve made adjustments in diet and activity level to address what issues remain. The pain of losing her has become…not quite as overwhelming. Learning of Patton Oswalt’s loss in more or less the same manner (his wife passed in her sleep as well)…that was a tough day. Expressed my sorrow for him on the Twitter machine, and then…well, you know.
Going to be taking a couple of weeks off to go home to my parents at month’s end. The trip was originally planned to celebrate Mrs. C being done with rehab from her back surgery; it will now be time for decompression and spending time with my dad, who was too sick to make the trip for the funeral.
All in all, I’m just trying to survive this. I’m thinking I just might.
Applejinx
@WarMunchkin: Yes, but Trump is their nominee. Therefore, they all hate him but they are SO WEAK that they are bootlicking and submitting to him.
That’s deadly, especially for Republicans. They HAVE to endorse and run with him now, and every one will look like Chris Christie. He’s just as shit as they said he is, and now look at them, licking his boots, the establishment toadies.
opiejeanne
@Corner Stone: W said today that he wasn’t interested in commenting on Trump nor attending the convention. I think the Bush family is not going to endorse Trump, let alone campaign for him.
MomSense
I think John Cole is becoming a Hillzilla. Yes!
Miss Bianca
@Ben Cisco: Good to hear.
Ben Cisco
@Mike J: Thank you! I’ll be giving that a shot.
gogol's wife
@Cacti:
I got a good e-mail from Hillary this evening saying something like, can you imagine him grieving with the nation after a school shooting, or encouraging young girls to follow their dreams, etc. It was effective.
Corner Stone
@opiejeanne: Yep. Point being, who are the attack surrogates for him? Who are the beloved stand-ins for him? Who will venture out and work the crowds in his stead?
MomSense
@Ben Cisco:
Wishing you peace and lots of restorative time with your family.
gogol's wife
@Baud:
You said it.
gogol's wife
@lamh36:
She actually said that?
Corner Stone
I just don’t want David Brock anywhere near the D campaign, no matter who his PAC is supporting. He’s a fucking creep and he fucking creeps me out. Go away.
The Thin Black Duke
@Applejinx: Oddly enough, in some respects I think of Joan Rivers as being a tragic figure. Although it’s true that Rivers was a smart, fearless and important comedian, she also purposely sublimated herself seeking the approval of Daddy figures who weren’t worthy to carry her purse. In a just world, Joan Rivers would have been the authority figure to tell Donald Trump, “You’re fired!”
Omnes Omnibus
@Corner Stone: Pat Buchanan and Sarah Palin.
gogol's wife
@Schlemazel Khan:
I knew I could count on some pedant BJ commenter to make this point.
Just was trying to drum that into my students’ heads this very day.
scav
@opiejeanne: I somehow don’t think the Bushes campaigning with the TeamTrump would be that much of a benefit. Not a patina of WIN chez Arbusto, not recently. Not even spray- of tanning-bed-win.
Gimlet
@Corner Stone:
who are the attack surrogates for him?
Judicial Watch will be one.
AkaDad
@gogol’s wife:
To be fair, Trump does encourage young girls to enter beauty pageants.
Corner Stone
@Gimlet: Yes, Gimlet. We understand you’re a big fan of Judicial Watch and what they have to say.
Gimlet
@Corner Stone:
Just can’t resist, can you?
Cacti
@gogol’s wife:
A message from President Trump, encouraging young women:
“Keep them figures thin and them chests perky, girls. Then one day, you might be the future ex-Mrs. Trump.”
Ben Cisco
@MomSense: You are most appreciated, and your words are most kind.
Origuy
Neither President Bush will endorse Trump.
aimai
@Ben Cisco: I am terribly sorry to hear about your wife. I can’t even imagine what you are going through. I will keep you in my thoughts.
Corner Stone
@Gimlet: You’re free to stop uttering nonsense at every opportunity.
Judicial Watch has been sniffing the fomunda since the early WJC presidential election in the ’90s.
gogol's wife
@Ben Cisco:
I’m so sorry about your wife. You have all my sympathy.
catclub
@Corner Stone: But it does care about an email server?
I think saying that Trump isn’t releasing his tax returns because the system is rigged and that is how he got rich, by paying no taxes, would have some effect.
BR
This needs more widespread coverage — at least a front page mention:
The Media Keeps Letting Trump Get Away With His Iraq Lie
Omnes Omnibus
@Ben Cisco: Holy shit. I missed that. My condolences.
Corner Stone
Ted Cruz is the fucking worst.
gogol's wife
@Corner Stone:
What prompted that?
Corner Stone
@catclub:
Nope. No it does not.
Gimlet
@Corner Stone:
@Gimlet:
Didn’t read the thread, did you?
Corner Stone
@gogol’s wife: It’s true, isn’t it?
But I was flipping back through MSNBC and they had clips of Cruz praising Trump as a good friend before they transitioned to Cruz punching/elbowing his wife so he could embrace his dad.
Corner Stone
@Gimlet: I did. And?
catclub
@aimai:
Also anyone in the middle who voted for Romney.
Rolling Along
Heard through the grapevine that Trump is going to shift gears, hire campaign pros, spend real money, fundraiser, and even get his own Super PAC for the general.
Good news! He needs to come around on trade and entitlements though, but he’s moving in a good direction!! More promising than I thought.
He definitely needs the campaign pros to deal with Billary.
gogol's wife
@Corner Stone:
When did he praise Trump as a good friend? Now, or some time in the past?
gogol's wife
Christ, give me strength. Sweet Jesus, come to my aid.
Omnes Omnibus
@Rolling Along: Not even 24 hours.
aimai
I think its very hard for political junkies like us to realize how few people are really paying attention to the race for President at this point. There are lots of people who really only focus after the primary, and then they only focus on the person they think they might vote for (that their friends are talking about voting for). They look for confirming evidence that the choice they are already leaning towards is a good one, and they look for evidence that will convince them that the other party’s candidate is no good.
So it makes good sense to run a bunch of ads trying to define your opponent the way you want to–to reintroduce him or her to the public just as they start to pay attention. Trump has his lines already stored up for Clinton, no doubt. But I think its a mistake to think that because people already know Donald Trump that they have really thought about Trump as President. Even the people at his rallies probably haven’t. They have very hazy ideas of “businessman” and “gets things done” and “not an ordinary politician” and “talks just like I do” but they haven’t yet thought about it really in terms of the presidency. The more people who go on record with their discomfort with Trump’s obvious personality traits/flaws the better.
Matt McIrvin
@different-church-lady: The power of clickbait, probably.
Rolling Along
@Omnes Omnibus:
I’m not for Trump. I’m strictly neutral in this one.
Just noting some faintly positive news.
scav
@Omnes Omnibus: It’s not as though there’s anything else to him. Couple of lines of code would exhaust his depth.
Gin & Tonic
@Rolling Along:
Like the blood-soaked mercenary scumbag Manafort? Old news, dude.
Gin & Tonic
@Rolling Along:
You’ll be on your knees sucking his dick before the end of the month.
RL Harrington
@Brachiator: they couldn’t hit him hard for fear of alienating his 25%
Hillary doesn’t need the GOP primary base to win
she will gain the votes of Indies and the GOP folks who didn’t primary or voted for Kasich etc
Corner Stone
@gogol’s wife: Chris Hayes just ran a whole segment on Cruz calling Trump a good friend. He liked Donald, thought he was bold and brash.
It was in the earlier cowardice stage of the primary.
Rolling Along
@Gin & Tonic:
So vulgar and childish. Get back to me when you can communicate in a mature, adult manner.
Rolling Along
Anyway, I think Billary has real weaknesses even Trump could exploit. Rasmussen even has her down to Trump already!
Strictly neutral, but noting interesting developments.
Remember they laughed at Reagan once. And Dukakis was up 15 in the spring and summer of ’88…
Matt McIrvin
@Omnes Omnibus: Thank God! I was thinking Trump might actually win, but now that guy’s adopted him.
Omnes Omnibus
@Rolling Along: Your predictive record rivals Bill Kristol’s.
Miss Bianca
@Ben Cisco: In case it wasn’t clear earlier, I meant “good to hear” that you were doing better.
Bob in Portland
@Gin & Tonic: You guys can’t help yourselves. You really have a thing that gay sex is something terrible or shameful.
I bet if you think hard enough you can come up with something that doesn’t involve dicks or tits.
NotMax
@(t)Rolling Along
Racist, sexist, anti-Semitic Nostradamus wanna-be weighs in. Your track record speaks for itself. And it ain’t pretty.
What a maroon.
Gin & Tonic
@Bob in Portland: For that troll I don’t have to think very hard. But feel free to search the B-J archives for evidence of my homophobia.
Applejinx
@Rolling Along: Yes, but in this election Trump is carrying the Carter message, and Hillary is carrying the Reagan “America is awesome!” message.
Yes, things do suck, but this is politics. Hils is right to be upbeat, play her cards right and it will be true.
Trump’s “Everything sucks and you’re all idiots!” is a good way to spank Republicans who have totally failed to either govern a country or deliver the right wing goods to their tea partiers, but it’s a guaranteed lose in the general election. (which is also why it’s just as well we’re not going to be running Bernie: again, good in the primary and accurate but not good enough for the general)
Rolling Along
@Applejinx:
Billary and the Democrats think America is a racist, sexist, homophobic, bloodthirsty Ghenghis Khan style rogue Empire founded on genocide. That’s as negative as it comes.
Gravenstone
@goblue72: Your lack of self awareness remains astonishing.
Ben Cisco
@aimai: @gogol’s wife: @Omnes Omnibus: @Miss Bianca: Thanks to all of you.
Joel
@Brachiator: Someone piss on your cheerios this morning?
Uncle Cosmo
@Rolling Along bka Ripe2Rot:
FTFY in the interest of accuracy.
Uncle Cosmo
@Rolling Along bka Ripe2Rot: Ah, Ras, the Pushmepollyu of Dr Doonothing’s GOP.
Uncle Cosmo
@Boob in Putinland:
When I see your nym the expression flaming arsehole immediately comes to mind. Which involves neither.
Ruckus
@Ben Cisco:
This is good news to hear. As the saying goes , keep on keeping on.
Ruckus
@Uncle Cosmo:
And really flaming arsehole probably didn’t require much thought to come up with either. I mean it rolls right off the tongue in this case doesn’t it?
Elie
@Brachiator:
Man, its setting up easy traps. Its not one trap for his thin skinned ego — like he has had with the current crop of pygmies — its multiple, subtle traps. I agree that getting into name calling with a pig is a waste. It won’t be that. It will be things that he HAS to react to that put him into a series of intellectual and character telling boxes that will be distracting and very tiring for someone who is emotionally labile, not that bright and old (70 +). They need to run him every which way — from policy to strategy to personality booby traps and back.
Bill however, needs to stay home and mind his knitting. He cannot do his own thing and go off script. HIs script should be nothing.
Elie
@Ben Cisco:
Survival is good and it gets better and better, praise be. You sound good.
Elie
@Rolling Along:
Nope. Maybe the Bernistas do though.
different-church-lady
@Bob in Portland:
You’re an asshole.
[And that took hardly any effort at all…]
[ETA: ah, I see Cosmo beat me to it]
Panurge
@shomi:
Don’t forget Bill: “I still believe in a place called Hope.”
As for Sanders, you could probably win with his positions if you ran in a Clinton/Reagan-like way. It’s worth exploring why the extremists (or at least the progressives) in American politics are generally less competent campaigners than the moderates. (For all that, I remember seeing the Sanders “America” ad and thinking, “That’s a winner’s campaign.”)