Curb Your Authoritarianism? The 2016 Conventional Wisdom Thread (Elections, Part 6)

was kinda on and off twitter last night but sounds like they are off to a smashing start

this is the best

I almost feel like this was a trap set by the Trump campaign to minimize discussion of the insane alarmism and fascist rhetoric that had happened earlier in the night.

― based stress reduction (crüt), Tuesday, July 19, 2016 7:35 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

naw being ridiculous is much worse for a politician than being blood thirsty

Every bit of air time spent saying Melania did not copy the speech is air time that Trump and the GOP are reacting, rather than controlling the conversation. Taking time to deny it and explain it away means that they are losing the media cycle. You can bemoan that this is the state of the discourse just now, but it is the world in which we live. And right now I'm loving this: "New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), a staunch Trump ally, defended the campaign Tuesday, saying that '93 percent of the speech is completely different than Michelle Obama’s speech.'" So, 7% is a nothingburger, but if it were 9% or 12%, well then, maybe you'd have something. But it's only a trifling 7% so shut up.

i have a sense that melania doesn't give a fuck about any of this and that she is in existential danger of not caring about anything at all.

Sounds like Christie's cribbing his numbers from the roll call vote yesterday:

Seven states needed to submit signatures from a majority of their delegates in order to force a roll call vote. Nine states did so, but the chair said three states had withdrawn their requests. Manafort said there were actually four that withdrew.

http://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/anti-trump-republicans-call-roll-call-vote

Melania was there to be a lightning rod the media's attention regardless of what she said.

Most of all I like the idea of Bill Kristol talking some tech guy into uploading "the newest draft" onto the teleprompter, Iago-style, right before she spoke.

I'm guessing like 90% of the 93% of the speech that is completely different than Michelle Obama's speech was cribbed from sources we haven't tracked down yet.

https://twitter.com/danmericacnn/status/755379238312693760
https://twitter.com/phil_mattingly/status/755371223413121024

Philip Bump ‏@pbump 17m17 minutes ago
“She’s comfortable that the words she used are words that were personal to her.” - Manafort on Melania

the best part is how the plagiarized material is sheer boilerplate. their team couldn't find another way to get her to say she was raised to respect others? or that she believes the nation's kids should be taught to work hard and reach for their dreams?

lol trump camp has no plan

Sam Stein ‏@samsteinhp 1h1 hour ago
Manafort: Melania did not plagiarize

Christie: Sure she plagiarized. But just 7% of the speech

Priebus: I’d fire the speech writer.

I will have the best words, believe me.

Re that Dan Merica tweet, I think the relevant maxim is not to interrupt your opponent when he's in the process of making a mistake.

lol

i'm a fan of melania tbh

between the plagiarism and the rickroll there cant really be any doubt that its sabotage no

― lag∞n, Tuesday, July 19, 2016 1:33 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

standing by this btw

I'm going to submit a few existing books whose words are personal to me for publication under my name. I guess that's kosher now in our brave new world.

melania "pierre menard" trump

I bet it's Peter thiel behind all this

hes innovating

speech prob written by a bot

maybe kenneth goldsmith was hired to be the speechwriter

Gideon Resnick ‏@GideonResnick
Ben Carson's spin on the Melania plagiarism situation: It shows "we share the same values."

The absurdity quotient is so high at this point that I almost expect reality to melt like an old filmstrip any day now.

the obvious course of action is to make a fall guy out of some scrub which means trump will prob not do that

I have a feeling the media spin on the convention was all set to be, "Wow, Trump pulled off a pretty okay convention after all the handwringing" but now the amateur hour narrative will continue.

There are lots of poems that express my values and feelings. But I didn't write them.

Robert Costa ‏@costareports 2m2 minutes ago
Trumpland quickly turned from ebullient to dark after the convention ended Monday and cable went big on plagiarism. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/republican-national-convention-scrutiny-of-melania-trumps-speech-follows-plagiarism-allegations/2016/07/19/3efc4208-4da4-11e6-a7d8-13d06b37f256_story.html

ha of course they thought they were doing good

Benghazi, e-mails, plagiarism, it never stops:

The Trump campaign now says any allegations of plagiarism are "crazy" — and that any attacks Melania has received are the result of her criticizing presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

"Once again, this is an example of when a woman threatens Hillary Clinton, she seeks to demean her and take her down," Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort said in an early Tuesday morning interview with CNN.

http://www.vox.com/2016/7/19/12222276/melania-trump-plagarism-clinton-rnc

oh boy these ppl are messy

Just in case one is presented with the "just a coincidence / these are common words and sentiments" defense, I find this comparison helpful:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics-live/wp-content/uploads/sites/53/2016/07/melania-trump-speech-cropped.jpg

ben carson:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cnu3OgbUMAAglT7.jpg:small

John Perkins • 8 minutes ago
Given that both our current President and Vice President are well known for their plagiarism when running for the office of President, having a candidate for First Lady reading lines similar to the current First Lady's is at best a minor inconvenient.

People who liked Melania Trump based on her reading will continue to do so.

yeah they were talking about that on NBC but it's like, since when has this campaign done anything sensible, they're all gonna say different things and ultimately Trump is going to deny that plagiarism ever occurred and ultimately denounce the media for going after his wife

many xps, wow

of course they're trying to spin it into "wow CROOKED HILLARY is really going after her, WOW what won't she do!?"

Yes, Ben, we share the same values, e.g., we want our children to know that they should be willing to work hard.

For example, they should be willing to google up some content that was widely publicized, change a few words, and then submit it as their own work!

xxp, and John Perkins brings the boring kneejerk tu quoque! Right on schedule!

but yeah the plagiarism thing is a distraction

the cheer for the acquittal of baltimore cops was revolting

I hope the focus will shift away from the plagiarism to the campaign's response to the plagiarism. This level of baldfaced disregard for basic facts needs to be hammered home with every undecided voter (i.e. everyone who hasn't already seen this happen dozens of times during the campaign).

agreed 100%, the fact that this campaign is blatantly lying about essentially everything ought to be raising way more alarms than it is

like the first rule in crisis communications is get in front of the story and apologise if at all possible

they are so, so bad at this

my god, imagine if CROOKED HILLARY was the one who didn't release her tax returns. what a fiasco that would be.

Pro or con, people are talking about Melania instead of Benghazeeleventy!!1.

For a campaign that's supposed to be media-savvy that should be called a loss.

“Talking to operatives here, the mood is something between grim resignation and the Donner Party,” said veteran GOP consultant Mike Murphy on Tuesday morning.

omg, just saw this

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CnqzYFQWIAAKUxQ.jpg

I don't care if your elevators are white, black, yellow, green or purple.

We should judge them by the content of their character, amirite?

Probably not as prescriptive as it is just a matter of fact. The whitest convention, so white it'll make your head spin.

We don't have white elevators and black elevators and red elevators and purple elevators--we just have the United States of America elevators.

ha how many ppl involved in setting that up thought this doesnt look good then just shrugged and carried on w their lives