Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Glad to see john eastman going through some things.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

Every day Vance writes another chapter in the book called “Worst VP Pick Ever”.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

I’m just a talker, trying to find a channel!

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

“Joe Biden deserved better than he got from some folks in his own party.”

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

Another missed opportunity for Jamie Dimon to just shut the fuck up.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2016 / Open Thread: Righteous Anger

Open Thread: Righteous Anger

by | 136 Comments

This post is in: , , , ,


(Srsly)

“Issues like my ability to milk the angry rubes who can’t understand why beating up women / people of color / gays / their kids is no longer considered acceptable. C.R.E.A.M. for Jeebus!”

Note from a hardcore religious-not-evangelical conservative Republican…


Or at least had the good sense to preserve the hypocrisy of ‘plausible deniability’.

Reader Interactions

136Comments

  1. 1.

    Jeffro

    Already saw and liked that Harwood tweet…there is absolutely no denying that Barack and Michelle Obama are stellar parents.

    Shocked to see the cracks in the dam starting to mount. Tomorrow’s debate is going to be ep.ic.

  3. 3.

    Betty Cracker

    Wait, we’re supposed to think it was wrong of grammar-school-age Hillary to punch her classmate in the nose for not protecting the rabbits? LMAO! I’m with the tweeter…

  8. 8.

    Hal

    I’m watching the reaction on facebook from Trump supporters and it ranges from; they’re both awful candidates, let’s start over, to hey, Bill Clinton sexually harassed women, so what’s the issue? Liberal hypocrisy!! Bill Clinton isn’t running for president and they haven’t got shit on Obama. Honestly the reactions are hilarious in their total resistance to reality. Hilarious and frightening.

  9. 9.

    Jeffro

    McCain’s also out.

    Well, in several ways this has been an election unprecedented in American history…who knew it would be unprecedented in ALL the ways?!?

  10. 10.

    Ruckus

    @Betty Cracker:

    I wasn’t *emotionally* invested in Hillary until I found out she cold-cocked a dude for fucking with baby rabbits.

    I laughed out loud when I read that.

  11. 11.

    scav

    I’ve seen this up close and personal with my very own Reverend Aunt, long-time Lutheran Minister. She hid it well for a long time, but is now complaining about all the hispanics around during her visit to San Diego, won’t support Hillary because HC isn’t a feminist whereas the Reverend Aunt is (while commenting about how Diane Feinstein had really let herself go) and how she didn’t care at all about any possible consequences (up to and including being an actual Godwin-event) from the election of Trump. I’m so enjoying thinking of her wreathed in her superior morality with her flutter of elderly Iowa friends watching this unfold.

  15. 15.

    Jeffro

    @Hal:

    Honestly the reactions are hilarious in their total resistance to reality. Hilarious and frightening.

    I saw a friend post something quite funny and anti-Trump on FB a bit ago…I guess one of his other friends is a Trump fan and she went ballistic, leading with BENGHAZEEE! of course and then alluding to X number of Clinton-related murders.

    They were about 4 exchanges into it when I recommended to him that “…we just let these Alex Jones fans be as their world (and candidate) collapses…eventually they’ll wonder why what their ‘news’ sources tell them keeps not squaring with reality, and think about rejoining the land of the rational…”

    Yes, she went apeshit. LOL

  16. 16.

    Matt McIrvin

    this is why Reaganites kept their distance from the evangelical nutbag wing of the party in the 80s.

    HA HA HA HA no they did not.

  17. 17.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    Trump: “I was a different person then. Classier now. Now, I would have said “carpe cattus”. “

  18. 18.

    James E Powell

    Pence out? That’s not going to help his political future.

    Who would be willing to take his place?

  20. 20.

    WereBear

    @Matt McIrvin: There was the fundamentalist wing, but also the Birchers, Jewish Banking Conspiracy theorists, the Illuminati blamers, those who wouldn’t pay taxes because of some guidebook that told them how to get away with it…

  22. 22.

    dmsilev

    @rikyrah: The TV ratings for tomorrow are going to be sky-high. Wonder whether the broadcasters are going to put in a few seconds delay just in case they need to bleep Trump.

  23. 23.

    James E Powell

    @chris:

    Poor Paul Ryan, booed and heckled in Wisconsin.

    I watched that on MSNBC. Someone yelled “You turned your back on him!” The talking head made no note of it or any other heckling but I could hear very clearly.

  24. 24.

    Jeffro

    Btw may have been mentioned earlier, but even Tic Tac is disavowing Donald Trump on Twitter. True!

  26. 26.

    p.a.

    Banana Republican Party has now turned this into a banana republic election. Photoshop tRump’s face on every one of these fuckers. They made it (him). They own it (him).

  27. 27.

    Ruckus

    @James E Powell:
    Not out as in not running, but out as in not supporting the top (?) of the ticket. IOW he’s publicly dising the man he was hoping to be his boss.

  28. 28.

    WereBear

    A earlier thread touched on how religion of all kinds are losing adherents these days, and I wonder if it is this kind of blatant hypocrisy that just mounts up and overwhelms religious defenses.

  29. 29.

    mayyouliveininterestingtimes

    @scav: “For a man to become a Christian, he must first pluck the eyes out of reason.” – Martin Luther.

  31. 31.

    Ruckus

    @dmsilev:
    I hope not. That would be grand to have him run on in a profanity laden remark and have all those supposedly religious bigots who still support him heads splode.

  32. 32.

    Keith G

    Swear to god this is happening:

    I am scanning online commerce sites for post-op supplies that will make a few upcoming weeks of my like less onerous. (Things relevant to having a catheter). The seemingly endless stream of Tweets – profound, profane, and/or hilarious – is keeping me giggling as I plan out some challenging times ahead.

    Tweeters who are rocking it are TBogg, Jon Favreau, Dan Pfeiffer, David Plouffe, Jon Lovitt, and Patton Oswald. Fuck, this is an awesome weekend in American history – and at least parts of it (most of it?) are amazeballs funny.

  33. 33.

    dmsilev

    Make sure to tune in at the beginning of the debate tomorrow:

    Clinton will address the comments and Trump’s fitness for office at or near the beginning of the debate, the aide said. The aide spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe some of the internal discussion.

    The debate is expected to draw significant viewership, which figures in the strategy for Clinton’s in-person response.

    9 PM Eastern.

    Edit:

    With Trump’s support among Republicans eroding rapidly, and the GOP nominee rejecting calls for him to drop out, several Democrats said they believe he will come into the debate with the mind-set of a “wounded animal” — a factor that they say could make him more dangerous.

    “I’ve never seen a candidate walk into a debate with this much at stake,” Carville said. “He’s overweight, he’s old, he’s tired and he’s crabby. And he’s going to have a very long hour and a half.”

  34. 34.

    sam

    It might be a sign of who I’m friends with, but the baby rabbits story was all over my facebook page yesterday (before trumpmageddon), posted lovingly and approvingly by all of my female friends, as possibly the most endearing thing we had all ever seen about her.

    My contribution was wanting to know when they were going to make an American Girl doll with this precise backstory.

  35. 35.

    Jeffro

    Apparently all Mike Pence events have been removed from the Trump website…holy moly Trumpman…

  36. 36.

    Elizabelle

    @efgoldman: Paul Ryan losing his seat would be ab fab.

    Give him more time for the gym and Ayn Rand.

    I want to see BoehnerCam today and tomorrow. Bring it on!

  37. 37.

    Ruckus

    @p.a.:
    Judas is right. It’s not like Ryan was going to actually govern (minimally such as it would be) any different that Trump, he just wasn’t going to say it out loud.

  38. 38.

    Roger Moore

    As racism and sexism came to be considered impolite, a lot of Republican voters decided politeness itself was a problem.

    Only very narrowly. They’re more than happy to hide behind a need for civility when somebody calls them a liar, bigot, misogynist, etc. Remember that calling somebody a racist is the real racism.

  39. 39.

    hovercraft

    @Jeffro:
    Wake up!!
    Those children were stolen from their parents. Barrack and Michael are holding them prisoner. We must all do our best to get them back to their real family.

    My schaden is overflowing, I can’t contain it, the republicans in disarray is just so delicious. We’ve got back stabbers, rats scurrying off the ship, the last stand at the Alamo, people denying reality, it’s all there. Everywhere I turn there’s another fire breaking out, and the fire brigade is overwhelmed.

  41. 41.

    ? Martin

    @efgoldman: His district is R+3. I don’t know anything about his challenger other than he’s an Iraq war vet. Ryan won by 18 points in 2014. He should be fairly safe, but who the fuck knows this year. And I suspect this is all pretty calm and predictable relative to what’s yet to come.

  42. 42.

    James E Powell

    @dmsilev:

    I will be very disappointed if she does not use the word deplorable. In fact, if that is all she says, I’d be happy.

  44. 44.

    patrick II

    @Ruckus:

    I agree with you domestically, but I think Ryan is at least rational on foreign relations. I have no idea what Trump would do — break up NATO?, encourage nukes in japan and south korea? be putin’s stooge? Hit on Angela Merkel? strke the last, she’s not a 10. Anyhow, Ryan is devious but Trump is oblivious.

  45. 45.

    Lizzy L

    Yeah, it’s all fun. The Republican nominee for President has been revealed to be a foul-mouthed racist misogynist. Except that he’s always been a foul-mouthed racist misogynist, his voters LOVE it that he is, and the Republican establishment is between a rock and a hard place. Per Sam Wang:

    “… the idea that the recording comes as a surprise does not make sense. Trump’s record of misogynistic comments is abundant, and his unfiltered comments are part of his core appeal. As a reality television star with thousands of hours of candid footage, it was inevitable that such comments would come to light…though it’s taken a while.”

    He won’t resign. They can’t dump him. If they continue to try they will piss off his voters, and the down ticket races might suffer. If they continue to support him, they will look like what they are, greedy, unprincipled hypocrites, and the sane portion of the country [I continue to believe that the country has a sane portion] will recoil from them and look for other options. And the emessem will continue to sell tickets to the show. Karma’s a bitch.

  46. 46.

    catclub

    @sam:

    My contribution was wanting to know when they were going to make an American Girl doll with this precise backstory.

    Our family always wanted a Molly Maguire American girl, in a pose to throw an old-fashioned bomb with lit fuse.

  47. 47.

    Calouste

    @Jeffro: I checked the waybackmachine, there were never any Pence events scheduled past 10/7. Which raises the question why not, with a month to go to the election.

  48. 48.

    Jeffro

    @hovercraft:

    My schaden is overflowing, I can’t contain it, the republicans in disarray is just so delicious. We’ve got back stabbers, rats scurrying off the ship, the last stand at the Alamo, people denying reality, it’s all there. Everywhere I turn there’s another fire breaking out, and the fire brigade is overwhelmed.

    I agree, I’m there with ya…

    The one thing I’m trying to take it easy on is rubbing it in with friends and relatives who kept justifying their support for this clown. I’m trying to keep it to, “This was always going to happen with this unprincipled clown – maybe next time, y’all could stand on principle, outcomes (and opposition party) be damned.”

  49. 49.

    ? Martin

    @gogol’s wife: I’m not looking forward to it, to be honest. Trump has a serious personality disorder and is under unimaginable levels of stress right now. Depending on how the next 24 hours go, this could be like throwing a hand grenade into a fire.

  50. 50.

    hovercraft

    @sigaba:
    Roy Blunt is one of the ones who is standing by his man Trump right? If he is we need to make him live to regret it. Donate, volunteer, lets get him out of there.

  51. 51.

    catclub

    @? Martin:

    I suspect this is all pretty calm and predictable relative to what’s yet to come.

    Another poster put it: “The october surprise is that every day in October is going to be like this.”

    Given the way the Clinton campaign has made ads about how Trump talks about wormen, it is either very lucky or part of the plan to have this come out.

    very lucky is admirable, and usually shows good preparation.

  52. 52.

    Jeffro

    @efgoldman:

    Grandpa Walnuts has bailed. His internal state polling must be really scary.

    Should be exciting to see McCain singled out by The Donald for some special criticism in the next few days, deepening the divide in the GOP…other relatively sane Rs will use this as an excuse to dump Trump, when they couldn’t find it in themselves to do the principled thing earlier this year (re: POW comments)

  53. 53.

    Fair Economist

    @efgoldman:

    From our Wisconsin contingent, any chance at all that he loses his seat?

    Not from Wisconsin, but the short answer is: it’s a very special case. He’s in a marginal district for this election, R+3 IIRC, which after this would suggest “probably out”. However, he’s personally popular and his opponent has no electoral experience, although some as an activist and volunteer. So the question is whether the Republican implosion gets bad enough to outweigh his substantial edge in fundraising and recognition.

  56. 56.

    catclub

    @Jeffro: I was thinking along lines of “You know, if Trump had some real added value in foreign policy or other useful expertise, this might get overlooked. But he doesn’t”

  57. 57.

    hovercraft

    @Jeffro:
    You’re right, we have to kind to the people we know in real life, because we still have to deal with them. But on the internets we can rub their faces in the shitstorm that they’ve created for themselves.
    I’m waiting for someone with the stomach for it to venture into the conservasphere and bring back reports. I ventured over to FOX last night, and Kelly did cover it, but she put it on par with the new wiki dump, and then they focused on Matthew.

  58. 58.

    sigaba

    @hovercraft: yup.

    So why are they all freaking out at Puzzygate? When Trump has said so many things? What is it about this?

    Sam Wang speaks sense: it’s not about this revelation, it’s because Republicans realize the door has shut, he has less than a 10% chance of winning, his polls have collapsed. This latest story just happens to be the nearest exit.

    I would argue that this weekend’s public blowback is triggered by a growing realization of what will happen on November 8th. After the first debate, it became obvious that Trump was going to lose the general election. Clinton’s bounceback is small, but by modern (i.e. post-1996) standards it looks large. There isn’t enough time for opinion to shift back (for instance, within my random diffusion assumption), especially given the natural setpoint of the race (my Bayesian prior that assumes regression to the mean). In other words, people’s intuitions started telling them that time had run out for Trump.

    If Trump had been holding the race close they wouldn’t be bailing. To quote one of my favorite films, the issue here isn’t pussy.
    (True, this scene takes place in a men’s locker room.)

  59. 59.

    catclub

    @Hal: I thought it would be a reprise of Melania’s ( whatever happened to her?) convention speech that ended with Rick Astley’s rickroll tagline. Didn’t Trump have that in his apology?

  60. 60.

    dmsilev

    @catclub:

    Another poster put it: “The october surprise is that every day in October is going to be like this.”

    Someone (on Twitter I think) described it as being an October Advent Calendar.

  61. 61.

    realbtl

    I just had an inadvertent brain bleach moment. If (shudder) Trump was elected, what would be his Bush/Merkel/backrub moment?

  62. 62.

    Millard Filmore

    @efgoldman:

    For the sin of wanting to control her own body.

    I do not remember where I saw this, but a good replacement for “anti-abortion” is “pussy-police”

  63. 63.

    Iowa Old Lady

    Can an post in an open thread be OT? This is totally about me so ignore and continue to rant, please. But I’ve seen the cover blurbs for my new book:

    “Winsor is a meticulous writer who expertly balances intelligence and delight.” –Saladin Ahmed, author of THRONE OF THE CRESCENT MOON, Finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, Gemell, and British Fantasy Awards.

    “This story is all heart. Dorothy Winsor’s DEEP AS A TOMB is a poignant coming of age adventure that explores the bonds of friendship, the demands of family, and the responsibilities of heritage and community. I couldn’t stop reading.” –Amy Bai, author of YA fantasy SWORD.

  64. 64.

    Joyce H

    @sam:

    but the baby rabbits story was all over my facebook page yesterday (before trumpmageddon), posted lovingly and approvingly by all of my female friends, as possibly the most endearing thing we had all ever seen about her.

    I had exactly the same reaction. And little girl Hillary punching the guy over the baby rabbits proves something I’ve suspected for a while.

    Hillary is Hermione.

  67. 67.

    The Golux

    @Keith G:

    …relevant to having a catheter.

    As someone who had to endure that a couple of years ago, you have my utmost sympathy. Aside from the discomfort and inconvenience, a male member with a catheter is one of the most pathetic looking things I’ve ever seen. Sad!

  69. 69.

    Roger Moore

    @dmsilev:
    I would not be at all surprised to see Trump storm out in the middle of the debate if he’s unhappy with the questions. I also wouldn’t be surprised to see him become physically violent. He’s completely unpredictable at this point, except that he’s extremely likely to lose it one way or another.

  73. 73.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Matt McIrvin: I believe Reagan told the Moral Majority: ” you can’t endorse me, but I can endorse you.” When he was running for president.

  74. 74.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @efgoldman:

    From our Wisconsin contingent, any chance at all that he loses his seat?

    I could see some Trumpites voting for Trump and leaving the rest of the ballot blank, but I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up about Ryan losing. I’d laugh my ass off it it happened though.

  76. 76.

    Medicine Man

    It is interesting how conservatives like Tom Nichols are so good at bluntly stating what is really motivating (many) Trump voters.

    Regarding durable evangelical support for Trump: “Their hatred and resentment of others is stronger than their religious beliefs. They won’t let go of their supposed instrument of revenge.”

  80. 80.

    Roger Moore

    @Lizzy L:

    The Republican nominee for President has been revealed to be a foul-mouthed racist misogynist. Except that he’s always been a foul-mouthed racist misogynist

    No. The Republican candidate has admitted to being a sexual predator, corroborating all the women who have accused him of being one. That’s a big Biden deal.

  81. 81.

    ? Martin

    @catclub: The Clinton campaign should now start going after Pence hard. There’s a pretty undignified opening to suggest that if the Republican Presidential candidate raped your daughter that the Republican Vice Presidential candidate would oppose letting her get an abortion.

  82. 82.

    Lizzy L

    Josh Marshall:

    The last 24 hours has probably lost him significant support in the race against Hillary Clinton. Perhaps he’s fallen from the low 40s to the very high 30s. Just a guess. But in the context of intra-Republican politics that leaves him with massive levels of support intact. This is a pivot establishment Republicans tried to pull off at numerous points on the road to October. They were never able to do so. Indeed, realizing the scope of the challenge they essentially never tried. Despite the news of the last 24 hours, there’s little reason to believe they’ll be successful now. And by ‘successful’ I mean leading a party abandonment of Trump as opposed to ripping open a massive hemorrhage in the party just weeks before the election.

    If any part of Trump was buckling or feeling he had to give way (which I think is unlikely), these boisterous voices claiming betrayal will stiffen his resolve. They will make him want to fight and convince him – correctly – that many are on his side.

    We haven’t seen the level of intra-party civil war that this looks like it might become at any time in recent political history. If it does it could radically alter what we’ve expected to see as the outcome of the 2016 election.

  83. 83.

    Bruce K

    So help me FSM, I just saw this in my Twitter feed. It’s too bad I have no idea how to search old comments here, because I have this desperate need to crow “I called it”…

    .@realDonaldTrump My Lord, I have a cunning plan…— Tony Robinson (@Tony_Robinson) October 8, 2016

  85. 85.

    Lizzy L

    @Roger Moore: Not to his supporters. They will insist it’s locker room talk, that all men talk like this, and that Bill Clinton argle bargle Vince Foster Benghazi. It will prove nothing to them.

  86. 86.

    dmsilev

    @Roger Moore: His only real chance is to show up and calmly and soberly answer questions, reassuring the audience that he has the temperament to be President.

    Given who he is and how the last day or so has gone, that’s about as likely as all the gas molecules in a room suddenly and spontaneously ending up in one corner.

  87. 87.

    Jeffro

    @Lizzy L: A GOP civil war was inevitable here from the moment Trump got nominated. They could have gone down in flames on principle back in March, but they all thought they were just. So. SMART. that they could thread the needle as they always have – grab the voters without delivering the goods. They forgot: they haven’t delivered in over 30 years.

    Enjoy your Trump death-spiral, GOP die-hards, he’s all yours.

  94. 94.

    bemused

    OMG, the bunny story is supposed to prove Hillary is dangerous! These people are batshit crazy.

  95. 95.

    Matt McIrvin

    @gogol’s wife: The Republicans do–they’re entertaining bizarre fantasies about somehow slotting in a replacement candidate, and without the Trump loyalists it would be just another way of massively losing.

  97. 97.

    Suzanne

    I don’t think I have ever heard a story about a politician that makes me love that person more than hearing about how Hillary Rodham punched a boy in the nose in order to protect some baby rabbits. HOLY SHIT. That is incredible.

    When someone shows you who they are, believe them.

  98. 98.

    Splitting Image

    I went to bed early last night and have been spending the whole day getting caught up. The thread that keeps going through my mind is how successful Reagan’s “11th Commandment” was for so many years and how important it was to the conservative movement’s success: “Thou shalt not speak ill of another Republican”. Or in plain English: “Everything bad in the world is somebody else’s fault”.

    For years, they were able to paper over all the cracks in the party just by invoking this rule. Was a Republican a thief? An adulterer? A pedophile? Didn’t matter. Every Republican had dozens of comrades who would call him a devoted family man and turn every negative story, no matter how true, into a “partisan attack”.

    This wasn’t just about presenting a united front to the world. It ensured that the party faithful had only one group to blame for everything bad in the world: Democrats. As soon as you have two groups of Republicans, each group will blame the other for everything that is going wrong. At this point I’m not sure it even matters which faction wins. Trump will certainly attack every Republican who abandons him and will blame them for his loss. His die-hard fans will follow suit, and will be blamed in turn for any down-ticket losses the GOP suffers in November. Those losses don’t even have to be large. Losing one or two Senate seats could put Merrick Garland on the Supreme Court, and the fur will fly when that happens.

    I thought things had settled into a “more or less the same as 2012” map with maybe one or two states flipping, but that depended on the GOP maintaining a united front. That train just left the station and only the Trickster God knows where it is going.

  100. 100.

    Elizabelle

    @Iowa Old Lady: I have a small amount of compassion for DJ Trump. He’s so outlandish, and human, even while saying all these inhumane things. There is something — a lot of things — not right with that man. Then think I should reserve my compassion for the Haitian hurricane victims and survivors, etc.

    Trump has been entertaining, but he’s been demoralizing too, with how fatuous American politics has become. Institutional fail. Media fail. Idiocracy nation, a lot of it.

    I feel a great amount of compassion for Hillary, reaching a pinnacle — first woman nominee of a major political party — and she has to wade around the mud, day after day. And get told she’s unlikeable and untrustworthy while doing it.

    We all need cleansing after this.

    Mostly, I still can’t believe the Trump family let him run. How could this stuff not come out? And what else is coming out? He is a tower built on sand.

    You would not believe this plotline in a novel, and it would not be edifying or pleasurable enough to finish it.

  101. 101.

    Matt McIrvin

    @bemused: They’re in such a bubble that they read a story like that and all they get out of it is “she’s alarmingly unladylike”.

  102. 102.

    Lizzy L

    @gogol’s wife: Don’t say that, please. We live in the same country — in many cases, on the same block. Our kids go to school together, we sit in the same church pew, when our houses catch fire, they burn side by side. We have to find a way through this that doesn’t require us to write each other out of the story.

  103. 103.

    Jeffro

    Would love to see an article or piece (Wang? Silver?) about what happens if half of GOP voters go with Senate candidates who’ve repudiated Trump and the other half don’t (maybe they write in Pepe the Frog?)

  105. 105.

    Feebog

    @Roger Moore:

    He can’t afford to walk out or become physically violent onstage. Clinton is going after him in her opening statement and try to completely flummox him. I think it will work. He will mostly just repeating talking points to every question he gets and checking his watch repeatedly to see how much time is left.

  106. 106.

    Roger Moore

    @Lizzy L:

    Not to his supporters.

    They aren’t enough to win the election, not by a long shot. He needs to convince waffling Republicans and undecideds, and this is going to hurt him badly with both groups.

  111. 111.

    Ella in New Mexico

    @Roger Moore:

    I would not be at all surprised to see Trump storm out in the middle of the debate if he’s unhappy with the questions. I also wouldn’t be surprised to see him become physically violent. He’s completely unpredictable at this point, except that he’s extremely likely to lose it one way or another.

    We have a pool at work: 25% of my money’s on him not showing up entirely, 25% he has a massive stroke/cardiac event somewhere around the first 15 minutes and the rest is that he doubles down on Bill’s being a houndog/Hilary the angry wife.

  116. 116.

    Roger Moore

    @Feebog:

    He can’t afford to walk out or become physically violent onstage.

    I don’t trust him to have the self control necessary to do what’s in his long-term best interest. I sincerely think he’s going to lose it in the middle of the debate and do something stupidly impulsive.

  120. 120.

    Sloane Ranger

    @Hal: I think what you’re forgetting is the hardcore mysogany of these people. Just as Southerners during Reconstruction believed that the African Americans elected to political office were front men for Northern Carpetbaggers because those people were too simple to have ideas of their own and,even in the 21st century, some thought the same about President Obama, there are people who think that Hilary is simply Bill’s mouthpiece allowing him an unconstitutional 3rd term. Therefore attacking Bill is relevant as he is the ‘real’ candidate.

  123. 123.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Betty Cracker: Hillary was in charge of the rabbits. She delegated the authority to look after the rabbits to a subordinate, with specific instructions on what to do. The subordinate ignored the instructions. There were consequences for the subordinate for abusing the authority that they were delegated.

    She was acting like an actual leader even then!

  125. 125.

    Feathers

    @Lizzy L: What you are missing is that they have already written us off. The Republicans have always been the party of respectability. From their founding as abolitionists, through Prohibition, up to Nixon’s Law and Order and Pat’s “good Republican cloth coat” and the Wars on Drugs and Terror. That’s who they’ve claimed to be. But they aren’t, not at all. So there really can’t be reconciliation until they let go of that.

    ETA the MSM is a huge part of the problem and until they start to let go of both siderism it will be hard for individuals Reps
    To let go

  126. 126.

    bemused

    @Matt McIrvin:
    @hovercraft:

    People who read people like Klein and Trump fans are actually quite creative. It’s not ordinary minds that can dream up fantastical reasons to believe bizarre nonsense….and completely reject reality.

  127. 127.

    bemused

    btw, my local PBS station is re-airing Frontline Choices, Clinton and Trump lives, before the debate tomorrow night.

  128. 128.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @efgoldman: I’m timid over there but the discussions are good.

    @? Martin: My past life. That was fun.

    @MisterForkbeard: The new one (Deep as a Tomb) won’t be out for another week or so. With small presses, these things are flexible.

    Thank you for all the good wishes. I’ll tell you when it comes out and then try to shut up about it.

  129. 129.

    Joel

    @sigaba: sam’s wrong. The difference is that Trump is explicitly describing himself as someone who commits criminal, violent acts. This is a different shade than the other stuff.

  131. 131.

    sukabi

    @raven: My Dear Raven, In light of current revelations you might want to rephrase your sentence… purely revolting imagery springing forth from that sentence.

  132. 132.

    satby

    @efgoldman: Fuck John McCain. He says he “won’t vote for a Democrat” so he’s going to write in the name of a qualified Republican. Party first!
    Fuck him with a chainsaw.

  134. 134.

    Ruckus

    @Elizabelle:

    Mostly, I still can’t believe the Trump family let him run.

    Donnie is the supreme human being. If you don’t believe that just ask him. No one is going to tell him he can’t. Not family, not his lawyers, not anyone.

  136. 136.

    Bruce K

    @cynthia ackerman: Oh, Lord, I didn’t even think about that. I was geeking out too much about the man who played Baldrick voicing a Blackadder scenario for the yam…

Comments are closed.