I've had people say it's a hardening, actually ~ US presidential election 2016 part 9/11 never forget

A goodly percentage of the white population of the USA harbors delusions that they would make a good president, despite their profound ignorance concerning almost everything a president does. They conceive of the job much as Trump seems to conceive of it, as sitting in a big chair in a fancy office being in charge of the government and whatever you say goes, similarly to how children conceive of being an adult.

some people who kinda know how our country functions

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cq4QRPXUkAAchM6.jpg

I wish the debate was 90 minutes on one question, i.e. a debate. Jumping topics every 15 minutes, you're guaranteeing superficial responses.

I don't know shit about HVAC repair but you better believe that I want the dude I'm hiring to fix my heater to be able to answer a pop quiz on the matter.

sadly becoming an HVAC tech requires much more certification and testing than becoming POTUS

i wish the debate was on Batman v Superman

My suggestion would be replacing one of the debates with something like a model UN sesh. Give the candidates a complex hypothetical problem and let them explain how they would go about trying to solve it.

https://frinkiac.com/img/S09E14/137636.jpg

i mean, everyone's right that he's going to be out of his element if it really is a silent auditorium and he's expected to expound on his "ideas" and "policies" and stuff.

i'm imagining a donald trump shreds video now. someone must have done this.

There are also record numbers of undecided and third-party voters, and the candidates are unpopular to record levels - so variability abounds.

this is a good point.

a preview of the upcoming debate:

https://vine.co/v/553HYQBZvjg

https://twitter.com/BillCorbett/status/779383929669169156

More baffling to me than the idea that people agree with Trump is that anyone who's been exposed to Trump's rhetoric could have no strong opinions for or against him. Feel like the undecideds this year have been paying basically zero attention to election coverage and/or have no strong convictions about anything at all.

This thread moves too fast for me to remember if I saw the Daily Kos piece I'm about to quote here. So if I'm posting info everyone already has, sorry.

Trump remains underwater in too many key battleground states to be truly viable: Colorado (38 percent), Michigan (37 percent), New Hampshire (37 percent), Pennsylvania (39.8 percent), Virginia (38 percent), and Wisconsin (37 percent).

Trump could win every other battleground state, but without winning at least one of the above, he cannot win. Or put another way, to get to 270, Trump needs to win at least one state in which he is mired below 40 percent.

link

I genuinely do not understand what Cruz has to gain by endorsing Trump.

ignominy

he thinks he has a chance now so he doesn't wanna get left behind?

More baffling to me than the idea that people agree with Trump is that anyone who's been exposed to Trump's rhetoric could have no strong opinions for or against him. Feel like the undecideds this year have been paying basically zero attention to election coverage and/or have no strong convictions about anything at all.

this is why I think Hillary will get more of the undecideds. a lot of people I know hate both but at least recognize that Hillary would probably not be a disaster while with Trump everything up to and including nuclear war is on the table

anyway while I'm on the subject I think this is the greatest vine I've ever seen

https://vine.co/v/5qJzmjUrzqv

okay so, case in point

http://i.imgur.com/cHekK4r.png

yeah but what % of those ppl like the idea

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mwAntNGz9k

have been having weird microfantasies of trump calling for the red button and his generals just straight up turning round and executing him julius caesar style, and everyone celebrating, and oprah is president now

at which point of that fantasy do you cum

Ok good thread *everyone picks up and leaves*

yeah but what % of those ppl like the idea

― Mordy, Friday, September 23, 2016 3:27 PM (fifteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Among those who say they will vote for Trump, 48 percent say he’ll create a database to track Muslims; 36 percent say there will be race riots; 33 percent say the government would default on its debt; and 32 percent say Trump would punish his political opponents and authorize internment camps for illegal immigrants.

Only 22 percent of Trump supporters believe he will start a nuclear war.

presumably his voters think those are all good things.

Doug Henwood, in his book, on why "Hillary is not The Problem."

https://twitter.com/leducviolet/status/779355983793446912

Please let those % be joeks

Xxp

Nerp. As I keep asserting, most Trump supporters are basically self-loathing nihilists.

ted cruz, everybody

Purely as a piece of trivia, I wonder at what point in Trump's political "career" he started wearing a flag pin on his lapel whenever he appears in public. Wearing the flag pin has now become 100% obligatory when running for any office higher than school board and it could provide a marker for when Trump became serious about trying to win.

what a hideous person in every respect

xp

I'm going to tell you what I really think of Donald Trump. This man is a pathological liar. He doesn't know the difference between truth and lies. He lies practically every word that comes out of his mouth.

but i'm going to vote for him because of his promises https://www.facebook.com/tedcruzpage/posts/10154476728267464

wonder if he made some deal w/ trump or something. dunno what he gets from this otherwise, he's throwing away a lot of future credibility.

Can't wait for the first presidential candidate who shows up onstage wearing a red white + blue crocheted dick cozy and challenges his opponent's patriotism because he (or she, tbf) isn't likewise wearing a red white + blue crocheted dick cozy because naturally that's been an indicator of one's patriotism since time immemorial or maybe since five minutes before the debate when a dude spontaneously decided to put on a red white + blue dick cozy and make a thing that had never been a thing into a thing and pretend it had always been a thing.

maybe trump agreed Cruz could have Eowyn to do with as he pleases once Trump takes Rohan.

xpost

Theory: Trump will never have the chance to prove he can't deliver on any of his promises, so he will never bear any blame for making them. Since those promises (build the wall and make Mexico pay, kill family members of ISIS fighters) are wildly popular in the GOP base Cruz wants to woo, he's coming around to think Trump will still be very popular with the base even after he loses the election. Endorsing Trump now might allow Cruz to continue to play his national ambitions.

If Clinton wins, we know — with 100% certainty — that she would deliver on her left-wing promises, with devastating results for our country.

oh tedpaws

I think Cruz was being threatened by Reince/RNC and he's up for re-election in 2018 iirc.

oh my goodness look: an article about policy!

http://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/hillary-clinton-policy-agenda/

uh I didn't know this but is anyone surprised?

n early September, the Washington Post reported that Trump’s policy advisers had quit en masse because not only had the campaign failed to pay them, but he had also made it clear he wouldn’t be requiring their services to prepare for the presidential debates.

look an undecided voter!

http://jezebel.com/for-some-reason-kim-kardashian-is-on-the-fence-about-w-1787013470

"Wouldn’t it be fun if your country’s political future was an abstract, somewhat irrelevant little game to briefly ponder in between million dollar paychecks?"

Hillary Clinton's campaign is getting a jump on fact-checking Donald Trump's debate performance.

On a conference call with reporters Friday, Clinton communications director Jennifer Palmieri laid out what they are calling Trump's "seven deadly lies." Palmieri said there should be heightened scrutiny at the first general election debate Monday because "his level of lying is unprecedented in American politics."

The first item on the list is Trump's false statement that he opposed the war in Iraq. Palmieri said that letting false statements go unquestioned would give Trump an "unfair advantage." She said the campaign expects the debate moderator to "call out those lies and to do so in real time."

Palmieri declined to say who is playing Trump in their debate preparations.

looking forward to Hillary's "You supported the Iraq War just like I did" angle *rmde*

I'll take any opportunity to resurrect this Tweet: https://twitter.com/jillbidenveep/status/756315385075466240

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/moderator-first-presidential-debate-just-204610290.html

The three topics to be discussed during the debate, held at Hofstra University in New York, will be "America's Direction," "Achieving Prosperity," and "Securing America," per a release from the Commission on Presidential Debates.

gee, I'm kind of bummed that "keeping regular" isn't included there

I think America should head west on Route 66

america: great country or greatest country?

america: great country or greatest country?