Republican Election 2016 - Donald Trump Megathread [OFFICIAL]

[Tijuana]

I wonder, how fast could I shovel 30+ years of shit when people are taking away my shovel constantly?

He had two years to do whatever he wanted. At some point he is responsible for his own failures. At some point, blaming someone else forever is just childish.

However, in 32 tries, not one single quarter did the economy grow 3% more than the prior quarter. So, blaming Bush isn't mathematically relevant.

You guys are de-railing though.

[belfpala]

You guys are de-railing though.

Meh. I've been on MMO-C since 2008. The two mega-threads will collide.

As for your other comment, he was opposed at every turn. He still doesn't have positions filled, and is still missing a SCOTUS Justice.

[Tijuana]

Meh. I've been on MMO-C since 2008. The two mega-threads will collide.

As for your other comment, he was opposed at every turn. He still doesn't have positions filled, and is still missing a SCOTUS Justice.

If you say so. I heard the Republicans hated Clinton too. Yet, bills were passed, things happened.

You guys fail to realize that the only way a president can impact the economy is sign legislation that either gets in it's way, or get's out of it. Since Obama has no interest in government getting out of anyone's way, there are no tools for him to use to make a positive impact on the economy. That is why he has the worst economic record in US history.

Also, I said Obama and Bush were arguably two of the worst, but feel free to not actually argue that point, since you are disregarding the rest of the context I said it in.

But again, we are still de-railing. Talking about Obama has nothing to do with either election mega thread.

[s_bushido]

You guys are de-railing though.

"How dare you ask me to substantiate what I'm saying?!"

[Spectral]

Talking about Obama has nothing to do with either election mega thread.

What makes you say so? It seems to me that one's opinion on Obama should be a pretty important determinant for who they vote for this time around.

[belfpala]

But again, we are still de-railing. Talking about Obama has nothing to do with either election mega thread.

Then we should perhaps talk about the RNC elite shifting focus to maintaining an obstructionist Congress rather than supporting Trump (which, by the way, is what I was talking about Re: Obama).

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What makes you say so? It seems to me that one's opinion on Obama should be a pretty important determinant for who they vote for this time around.

Am I going to vote at all?

[Tijuana]

"How dare you ask me to substantiate what I'm saying?!"

I did substantiate it. I just don't see the point in making this in to an Obama thread. My original reference to Obama was merely off handed, and had little to do with what I was saying. Ergo, I don't think we need 3 pages of it, when the original point was relevant to the thread.

[belfpala]

I did substantiate it. I just don't see the point in making this in to an Obama thread. My original reference to Obama was merely off handed, and had little to do with what I was saying. Ergo, I don't think we need 3 pages of it, when the original point was relevant to the thread.

The current President is always relevant to discussion of the next President.

[Spectral]

Am I going to vote at all?

Maybe! It's kinda fun.

[belfpala]

Maybe! It's kinda fun.

I know, right? Although, my state is going to Hillary and my district is going to people with "D" by their name. So I mostly just vote on local things.

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Also, I'm amused how this should be the thread of crazies, but they're all on the Democrat thread.

Let's reform the GOP, @Spectral. I think we could do it.

[Felya]

I know, right? Although, my state is going to Hillary and my district is going to people with "D" by their name. So I mostly just vote on local things.

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Also, I'm amused how this should be the thread of crazies, but they're all on the Democrat thread.

Let's reform the GOP, @Spectral. I think we could do it.

Vote Garry Johnson if you plan to skip voting for general. Libertarians only need 5% popular vote and they are the by far closest to it of all third parties. I'm sorry Jill Stein fans, but Johnson is too far ahead for the third party protest vote.

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Also, I'm amused how this should be the thread of crazies, but they're all on the Democrat thread.

Let's reform the GOP, @Spectral. I think we could do it.

Actually, @Skroe has been talking about changing GOP in this thread somewhere. I liked what he was saying a lot. Pretty much in total agreement.

[GennGreymane]

[DeadmanWalking]

He had two years to do whatever he wanted. At some point he is responsible for his own failures. At some point, blaming someone else forever is just childish.

However, in 32 tries, not one single quarter did the economy grow 3% more than the prior quarter. So, blaming Bush isn't mathematically relevant.

You guys are de-railing though.

He had two years to do what ever he wanted and didn't take away your guns, ban Christianity and install a Muslim dictatorship? O.O

Oh my god! Reality is collapsing in on me!!! Can't handle... Facts.... Must... Swallow... Lies to... Compensate... "Obama worst president ever!".... Ahhhh, there we go... Much better!

[Bollocks]

What confuses me the most is when you see his base and how they think on specific issues they are worlds apart from each other. Some think he is an ancap others that he is the end of corporations and their influence. It's pretty contradictory.

[Ripster42]

If you say so. I heard the Republicans hated Clinton too. Yet, bills were passed, things happened.

You guys fail to realize that the only way a president can impact the economy is sign legislation that either gets in it's way, or get's out of it. Since Obama has no interest in government getting out of anyone's way, there are no tools for him to use to make a positive impact on the economy. That is why he has the worst economic record in US history.

Also, I said Obama and Bush were arguably two of the worst, but feel free to not actually argue that point, since you are disregarding the rest of the context I said it in.

But again, we are still de-railing. Talking about Obama has nothing to do with either election mega thread.

You saying the bolded, after what you just typed, is hilarious.

Addressing the post: the congresses that were in power during bills presidency didn't literally have the stated goal to do nothing to try to ensure he was a one term president, and then spent his second term doing the same thing out of, what, habit?

He had two years to do whatever he wanted. At some point he is responsible for his own failures. At some point, blaming someone else forever is just childish.

However, in 32 tries, not one single quarter did the economy grow 3% more than the prior quarter. So, blaming Bush isn't mathematically relevant.

You guys are de-railing though.

I've already corrected you on the bolded enough times that I really shouldn't have to do it again.

What made Obama one of the worst presidents in the history of the US?

I don't even like bush and he wasn't one of the worst presidents in our history. Grant/hoover say hello. I'd put him in the bottom quartile, but not bottom three or anything.

[fengosa]

He had two years to do whatever he wanted. At some point he is responsible for his own failures. At some point, blaming someone else forever is just childish.

However, in 32 tries, not one single quarter did the economy grow 3% more than the prior quarter. So, blaming Bush isn't mathematically relevant.

You guys are de-railing though.

Obama's approval rating is equal to Reagan at the same point in their presidencies. Your going to need a better argument.

[Orbitus]

What made Obama one of the worst presidents in the history of the US?

Obviously Tijuana is one of those "feelings over facts" people.

[Pangean]

Interesting comments form a Utah Republican and politician.

Op-ed: This lifelong Republican will be voting for Hillary Clinton


I spent the past few weeks tramping through the ruins of lost empires. There's a Planet of the Apes surrealism to ancient Corinth, and it's hard not to see parallels between the Delian League and NATO. Delos, Ephesus and Mycenae are the rubble of once-powerful civilizations.

It's impossible to survey the deserted landscapes and not ponder the causes of decline and collapse. Natural disasters made their unique contributions, but military/political strategic disaster and ruler ineptitude play out again and again. Scipio Africanus is said to have wept as he inflicted Roman vengeance upon Carthage because he foresaw a similar fate for Rome. Americans like to think we are exceptional, but that's a fraught assumption.

An airport layover in Dusseldorf left me with some time to kill. There were a couple of women sitting nearby reading German newspapers, which prompted me to ask them what they thought about the American election and Donald Trump. Their responses were carefully measured, but here's the gist: "Why would your country elect such a dangerous person — not just such a danger for you, but such a danger for the rest of us?" "He's just not a serious person; he doesn't seem to know much about the rest of the world." "He is a crazy man."

I've been an active Republican for all of my adult life. That this venerable political party, once home to visionary thinkers and leaders, could hand its presidential nomination to Trump, who seems not to know how much he doesn't know and could not care less, is unfathomable to me. It is unfortunate that so many of those who claim to be leaders of the congressional and presidential wings of the Republican Party have long since made their Faustian bargains and are actively endorsing a totally self-centered know-nothing who behaves like the caricature of a banana-republic dictator.

That only shows that there are no Republican leaders of Lincolnian stature. It is especially dissonant when they have to distance themselves more than once per week from the outrageous statements of a man who even disparages the sacrifice of a heroic Army officer's Muslim family. There's a point where this failure to withdraw an endorsement becomes a self-indicting embrace of a demagogue's values.

Trump is riding astride the Four Horsemen of Calumny he has resurrected from an earlier and equally dismal Republican playbook: Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry and Smear. Then-Sen. Margaret Chase Smith, R-Maine, coined the phrase on June 1, 1950, as the first in the Senate to oppose Sen. Joe McCarthy. Smith's "Declaration of Conscience" laid out four fundamental American values that McCarthyism and now Trumpism seek to trample: (1) the right to criticize, (2) the right to hold unpopular beliefs, (3) the right to protest and (4) the right of independent thought.

Some retired military flag officers, for whom I have high regard, contacted me about endorsing Hillary Clinton, which I've agreed to do. There's irony here, because 98 percent of them are either Republicans or unaffiliated voters. That they feel so strongly about this election says a lot.

We see this as a matter of high stakes when it comes to national security and which candidate has the temperament to make critical decisions about war and peace. Trump revels in being a bull in a china shop, but that mentality scares seasoned national security hands to death.

Elections are always gambles; candidates are rarely perfect. George Washington came as close as perfection gets; few would have guessed that Lincoln would become a giant. The nation has been blessed at critical junctures with presidents of good heart even though there have been a lot of clay feet.

Most Utahns loathe Trump, for admirable reasons. Yet we live a political reality that unless Hillary Clinton gets more electoral votes, Trump and his tweeting fingers will be moving into the White House, where the nuclear codes also reside. There have been Utah voices urging Utahns to either not vote or vote for a third-party candidate — on "principle" — but it's really a binary choice.

It's entirely possible that this election could turn on Utah's electoral votes. Recognizing that reality, every Clinton vote is crucially important. A nonvote or a Johnson vote is a vote for Trump.

David Irvine is a Salt Lake City attorney, a former chairman of the Davis County Republican Party and a former Republican member of the Utah House of Representatives.

http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/422291...blican-will-be

[Theodarzna]

Evan McMullin Says Donald Trump Will Lose 2016 Election

'It's so likely that Donald Trump will lose, my entrance into the race doesn't affect that'

Evan McMullin, the former Republican policy guru who launched an independent bid for presidency, said his campaign won’t hurt Donald Trump’s chances because the Republican nominee is going to lose.

“It’s so likely that Donald Trump will lose, my entrance into the race doesn’t affect that,” McMullin said during an appearance on ABC’s This Week, noting Trump’s recent campaign missteps.

Calling Trump a “not credible candidate,” McMullin pointed to low poll numbers and the Trump’s inability to “control what he says” to illustrate that Trump will lose whether McMullin entered the race or not.

“He’s never had to control what he says … it’s unrealistic to expect him to do that now,” McMullin said.

McMullin, who formerly served as a CIA operative and Republican House chief policy director, said his candidacy provides a change many citizens want, saying “82% of Americans think we’re on the wrong track.”

“I am the only candidate in this race now that has any firsthand experience fighting terrorism,” he said.

McMullin’s comments echoed his words when he announced his candidacy last week. In a letter on his campaign website, the candidate said he believed Americans need an alternative to Clinton and Trump.

(Source)

Sorry Trumpeteers but there will be no President Trump it seems. Between Johnson and the party against him, Trump is not winning.

[akris15]

Interesting comments form a Utah Republican and politician.

I can't wait to see in November how Utah is going to vote. Its no secret that Mormons hate Trump probably more than your typical liberal out there. I would love to see how many votes Johnson can steal from Trump especially if the Trump Trainwreck continues.