2016 United States Election

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I'm not sorry for him at all.

This, however, is truly appalling:

Video Shows Black Woman Being Repeatedly Shoved, Followed At Kentucky Trump Rally

[Dave_LF]

Me, too. There's just no mistaking his expression. He can't even fake a smile. I am sorry for him, with no element of Schadenfreude.

You do have to wonder what promises or threats led him there.

[Frelga]

Well, it's possible that he just had a back spasm or something.

But it looked exactly like tormented conscience.

[Dave_LF]

But then where was his conscience a couple days ago? And if it's tormenting him so much now, why doesn't he recant and leave? The whole thing is very weird.

[Primula Baggins]

Christie has to have been suppressing his conscience for a long time. Maybe he's had a recurrence.

Thanks for posting that video, Voronwë.

The open threats and physical force being used against nonwhites and non-Christians at Trump rallies are disturbing at any level. What's worse is that they're very likely to get more intense and more widespread as Trump continues to incite them and smile upon them. I don't see it stopping anytime soon. I certainly don't see the candidate stopping them. It's more time on camera for him, and a message that reaches the voters he needs to excite.

[Maria]

Cristie just looks like he has one of those faces where he looks unhappy when his face is at rest. An RBF, as they say.

[Primula Baggins]

I've seen him on camera a lot and have never seen him look openly miserable before. His standard expression in public is either jovial or annoyed.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Carson is out, or at least has told supporters that he sees no road ahead, and has withdrawn from the next debate, though he has not formally suspended his campaign yet.

One thing that I read recently makes me wonder with the GOP really is as over as most assume. Apparently, in most of the states that Trump won, other than MA, he benefited from early voting, but did not do well with late deciders, which suggests that perhaps the various controversies at the attacks on him are having some effect. If that continues into the races over the next two weeks, culminating in the winner-take-all races in Rubio and Kasich's home states of Florida and Ohio, respectively, along with Illinois and North Carolina, on March 15. If Trump loses those states, it has hard to see him steamrolling to a majority of delegates before the convention (even if he has the most delegates) which opens the door to a contested or brokered convention.

[Dave_LF]

I concur, unsurprisingly.

[Cenedril_Gildinaur]

I really do not understand Ben Carson. I can get all the rest in both parties, but not Carson.

Yes, Bush Jr. had a speech impediment. Maybe Carson also has one? I do know that unless he's an autistic savant he cannot be as slow as he appears because he is a brain surgeon.

I know a story from pre-med. A student asked "why do we have to take calculus?" The teacher said "it keeps dummies out of med school."

[superwizard]

And he didn't "ask"; they were made to leave.

Sorry for not being clear, yes similar to V I meant that he wasn't the one physically escorting them out but thanks for clarifying!

One thing that I read recently makes me wonder with the GOP really is as over as most assume.

Ok first things first, what I'm saying mostly comes from what the people on 538 are saying as a lot of my coverage comes from there. V I think you're right in that it is not as fait accompli as most pundits make it out to be. At the end of the day Trump is still not getting anywhere close to the majority of the vote (he is getting ~35% of it) and it does seem that many, many republicans simply do not like him. That said, the fact that there is really no sign of coalescence around an 'anti-trump' makes me think that the way the election is going is working out amazingly for Trump. Cruz and Rubio have not gotten enough delegates to be on track for the nomination and I think hoping for a contested convention is always going to be a bit of a hail mary. If I had to guess I think Trump has ~ 80% chance of winning the GOP primary (I think betting markets currently have him at about that as well).

[Voronwë the Faithful]

That sounds about right, s'wiz.

[Frelga]

The first NY Times reference to Adolf Hitler, in 1922, via a tweet by @jonostrower.

uploadfromtaptalk1456994122326.jpg (122.04 KiB) Viewed 3036 times

[Impenitent]

America seems likely to have a corporate psychopath as nominee for the Presidency. I can't imagine the aftermath if he succeeds.

[Cerin]

I'm somewhat confused by that tweet. If Hitler's anti-Semitism was a facade, why did he engineer the murder of 6 million Jews?

edit

Or is the point of the tweet that some people falsely believed that Hitler's anti-Semitism was a facade?

Or just that the NYT mentioned Hitler?

[CosmicBob]

I think that it is posted because people are saying that Trump is being racist only to get votes, which is what the NYT said about Hitler's anti-Semitism. And it wasn't true then, so why should it be true now?

I think Trump is actually racist, but he's more interested in getting money.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I think the point is that people refused to believe that Hitler's anti-Semitism was real. I don't really think that has any bearing on anything going on now, but obviously other people do. I think if people want to look for a historical comparison that has bearing on Trump's candidacy, a much better example is Italy's Silvio Berlusconi.

And for those who think that Trump might be better in some ways than other GOP candidates because of various more progressive statements that he has made in the past, one only has to look at the health care plan that he just released to see how true that it is. Despite his various statements in the past supporting universal health care and saying that people shouldn't be dying in the streets, his plan is basically the same as the other GOP candidates, and would return many millions of people to the ranks of uninsured, actually more than before the ACA because it would strip Medicaid not only from those who got it through the ACA's Medicaid expansion but also many who had it under the old system. A Trump presidency would look much like a Cruz or Rubio presidency, just with the added uncertainty of an individual with no government experience and who (as Mitt Romney apparently plans to say in a speech today) "has neither the temperament nor the judgment to be president."

Cross-posted with CB.

[Cerin]

Thank you for the explanations on the tweet!

I was one who said Trump would be better than the others because he isn't a true believer in the radical principles the others espouse. I believe he would be less ideologically rigid in choosing advisers, and would be more open to suggestions outside the radical right orthodoxy.

Regarding the release of this Trump health care plan, why would one believe it actually represents something he would implement? Perhaps he's just trying to quiet the fears of the Republican establishment so they'll ease up on their efforts to derail him. I think it's probably more reliable to look at what he's said in the past, than what he's saying today in an effort to garner support (same with all the other candidates, Dem. and Repub.).

[CosmicBob]

I agree with you about Trump. He isn't driven by ideological or religious fervor. He's driven by greed and ego (I think). Which is not a great quality for a president, but I think it's better than the zealotry shown by Cruz or Carson.

And I also agree that there's no reason to accept his newly released health care plan as indicative of what he will do. It seems his mind changes all the time and who knows what he will actually do as president?

But, I also believe he is very reactive and would be pretty dangerous as a Commander in Chief. Again, though, this is my opinion.

[yovargas]

The point of the Hitler tweet is that saying "don't worry, he can't really be that crazy" isn't a very good argument.