Read more: Trump rampages through Florida Follow us: @politico on Twitter | Politico on Facebook Not much to add. I just loved the headline. Good Lord, did we dodge a bullet here or what!? Imagine what a Trump presidency would've been like!
HILLARY COULD STILL BLOW THIS. Even after the stuff that came out last night. OMG, everybody's all overconfident now ... We are SO screwed ...
Barring a fresh Clinton scandal at least as shocking as everything we've seen of Trump this past week? Naw. He's toast. One interesting "burn the house down" conjecture now is that he might tell his minions NOT to vote, just to spite his GOP enemies. In that case, we might see the first 50 state landslide in American history!
Maybe this Trump thing is a huge scam on Clinton's part. They are working together to make sure everyone votes for her! We totally have no choice in who gets elected anymore.
That's already a conspiracy theory in some unhinged corners of the internet. Remember, Trump was long a registered Democrat, though that seems just like something he'd do to curry favor with the 90% of NYC politicians who are also Democrats - I don't think he HAS any coherent political philosophy other than "Trump is great," but I digress... Anyway, according to this conspiracy theory, Trump is a secret Democrat and friend of the Clintons who agreed to run and take the nomination away from a Republican who could have beaten She Who Must Not Become President. And now he's imploding on purpose. Of course, this is at odds with the conspiracy theories in other unhinged corners of the internet, which hold that Trump is everything this country has ever needed, the media is out to get him, and if he loses it will only be because everything was rigged. The competing theories share a hatred of Clinton, but differ in how they see Trump. It will be interesting to see how that shakes up after the election is over. Will Trump still be the Dear (would-be) Leader that will continue to engender loyalty, or a disgraced 5th column traitor they never want to see again? I suspect that if his defeat is narrow, the sheep will gravitate towards the former, but if it's large then maybe not.
Trump used to be in WWE and all those confrontations he had there were staged and fake . This kinda feels like the same thing sometimes....(seriously, watch some of the video on YouTube) But I don't think they could pull off something like that. If they could, we would be truly screwed.
It seems about as plausible as anything else at this point, aside from the fact that Trump is plunging his own name, reputation, and legacy deep into the muck to do so (does he really love the Clintons *that* much?). No way. Plus, to quote the Turk, "He's not that clever." He was recently twitching (tweet bitching...hey, I coined a phrase!) about how shocked he was that Obama was "allowed" to campaign for her. That's not part of the act. He's genuinely pissed and perplexed, and in utter disbelief over the fact that he's losing control of what he considered to be his huuuugest moment ever.
True, but there is a large, rabid section of the country that loves it. Isn't he already planning to monetize this after he loses the election? It will apparently be Fox News on steroids (and hallucinogens). He may totally cash in, which could make it worth it to him. In Breitbart-Trump ‘Merger,’ Some See Post-Election Media Powerhouse
I believe that Trump will be about as popular as Joe McCarthy when all is said and done. I continue to hope that the GOP, or perhaps some new spinoff of it, will take the high road and start taking a more sober, adult approach to politics. Conservatives on some issues do have much to bring to the table worth considering and adding to the mix. But not this constantly combative, party of "no" nonsense they've been engaging in the last 8 years. It's going to take a lot of work, but to survive, the party will need to begin the process of becoming more inclusive, more reasonable and level headed. Playing to racism and sexism, the fear of the "other" is simply never going to work (nor should it.) This election was a "gimme" for the GOP. They are up against one of the most unpopular politicians the Democrats could have nominated and yet the Republicans somehow found someone far, far worse. They didn't get the message with Sarah Palin -- the former low water mark -- and we'll have to see if they finally get it when Trump loses. It really may require a total overhaul of the GOP or a spinoff party.
If Trump bowed out of the race today, who would be the GOP candidate? Is there some rule that the Republicans must have a running candidate?
I think that is where there is going to be a split in the GOP. There is a large faction on the right that doesn't care about facts or truth, they are governed by emotion. They are the people that wouldn't abandon Trump even if he shot somebody on 5th Avenue (or bragged about sexually assaulting women). Decency doesn't matter to them. They are angry about the brown people that surround them. They believe that the economy is crumbling around them. They believe that Democrats want to take their guns. They believe Hillary wants to kill their babies. They believe caring for the environment is akin to bowing to communism. The Trump/Breitbart/Hannity/Limbaugh crowd have learned that there is a lot of money to be made by riling these people up. The mainstream Republicans are in real trouble - their party is going to half of what it used to be pre-split. But they will probably have to move to the left, especially in social issues, in order to survive and pick-up members, which could end up being really good for them down the road actually. It will be quite interesting to watch as a split may be coming for the Democrats too, but that's a bit further down the road yet.
Still Trump. It's too late to replace him - the ballots are printed, and absentee voting is underway in several states.
Agreed. And I will add, I hope you're right. I think it would be very healthy for the radical and centrist elements in each of the major political parties to be separated.
