US Presidential Election 2020

Retr0gamer

Could they give Puerto Rico the right to vote?

namloc1980

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Could they give Puerto Rico the right to vote?

The Electoral College electors can only be chosen by States so for Puerto Rico to have a vote in the presidential election one of the following needs to happen:

a) Puerto Rico becomes the 51st State or,
b) change the constitution to allow States and US territories like Puerto Rico to have federal representation including at the Electoral College level.

Zubeneschamali

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Could they give Puerto Rico the right to vote?

There are moves to make Puerto Rico a state and to give DC senators, but they would all be Democrats, so the Rs are anti.

Igotadose

Zubeneschamali wrote: »

There are moves to make Puerto Rico a state and to give DC senators, but they would all be Democrats, so the Rs are anti.

I don't think that the residents if Puerto Rico are themselves 100% in favor of statehood. The commonwealth would have to apply to Congress and then an Amendment proposed to the Constitution and ratified by the States. I don't believe that first step's been taken.

namloc1980

Igotadose wrote: »

I don't think that the residents if Puerto Rico are themselves 100% in favor of statehood. The commonwealth would have to apply to Congress and then an Amendment proposed to the Constitution and ratified by the States. I don't believe that first step's been taken.

There's a non binding referendum on statehood there in November:

https://www.puertoricoreport.com/2020-puerto-rico-status-referendum-ballot-released/#.X1DkNchKiUk

Congress has the power to admit a state to the United States. No constitutional amendment is required.

Manic Moran

salmocab wrote: »

It’s a mess of a system. Your vote being worth more or less based on where you live is ridiculous.

Depends on if you're a member of one of the smaller constituencies or not. The EU has moved away from raw weights as per the Treaty of Niece (eg Malta's vote being worth something akin to 7 times the weight of Germany's per population) to the Treaty of Lisbon version, but it is still possible under current rules in the European Council for a majority of smaller countries to over-rule the minority of larger countries which have the majority of the EU population. This seems not very dissimilar to the US situation.

Zubeneschamali wrote: »

There are moves to make Puerto Rico a state and to give DC senators, but they would all be Democrats, so the Rs are anti.

That's fair. There are also moves to revert DC to Maryland like they did to Virginia and give the DC residents voting representation in the Senate, but it doesn't give Democrats additional senators, so the Ds are anti. No side is going to gain the 'pure as the driven snow ideology' laurels here. It's all about power in the Senate.

PR hasn't said it wants to be a State yet anyway, so it's a bit academic.

Carfacemandog

There are moves to make Puerto Rico a state and to give DC senators, but they would all be Democrats, so the Rs are anti.

Manic Moran wrote: »

That's fair. There are also moves to revert DC to Maryland like they did to Virginia and give the DC residents voting representation in the Senate, but it doesn't give Democrats additional senators, so the Ds are anti.

Which do the actual people of DC want?

Manic Moran

Carfacemandog wrote: »

Which do the actual people of DC want?

Oh, they support it, obviously. 86% in favour, as of 2017. Much as the residents of "Jefferson" want to be a new State. Why should they share senators with anyone else who may or may not agree with them?

The difference between DC and PR is both prior status (DC was part of a State before) and precedent (The VA part of DC retroceded, much as the proposal to retrocede the MD part to MD would do). There is also the third difference that PR is more a 'swing-state' than people realise, their current representative in Congress is from PNP (the statehood party) and aligns with Republicans, her predecessor, also from PNP aligned with Democrats.

There is, granted, precedent of making a new state where one was before: West Virginia, though the Civil War and secession of Virginia was a special case. MD is not planning any secession that I'm aware of.

The argument for DC is entirely over whether two Democrat senators will be added to the Senate. If it were just about representation, the Democrats would have approved the various proposals over the recent decades which would have resulted in enfranchisement. They are as vociferously opposed to anything which gives DC residents representation shy of Statehood as Republicans are against granting DC statehood.

everlast75

Timely release of a story which will no doubt further jeopardise the military vote.

I wonder would this influence Manic in any way...

https://twitter.com/JeffreyGoldberg/status/1301639887695773697?s=19

Muahahaha

Department of Homeland Security uncovered a plot to spread disinformation about Bidens health. But then they withheld the report

The Department of Homeland Security in July withheld an intelligence bulletin warning of a Russian plot to spread misinformation regarding Joe Biden's mental health, according to a report from ABC News on Wednesday.
In a draft of the bulletin obtained by the network and confirmed by DHS titled "Russia Likely to Denigrate Health of US Candidates to Influence 2020 Election," analysts said with "high confidence" that "Russian malign influence actors are likely to continue denigrating presidential candidates through allegations of poor mental or physical health to influence the outcome of the 2020 election," according to ABC News. The bulletin, which was produced by the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A), also raised efforts by China and Iran to criticize President Donald Trump, the network reported.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/02/politics/dhs-bulletin-russia-joe-biden/index.html

The Iran and China angle is interesting too, whatever about Iran Id imagine China has serious cyber ops resources

spacecoyote

Link may be pay-walled but an interesting take on the new polling data in the FT

https://www.ft.com/content/b3297609-e63b-4161-8287-7ab1179d0c40

For those that can't read, in a nutshell, its saying that some of the tightened polling may not be as bad for Biden as it reads.

For example in Pennsylvania, polling now shows Biden with a +4 lead. Clinton had, in late polling a +6 lead over Trump, but the differences in the actual numbers may suggest that Biden's +4 is actually a stronger lead.

for Biden its:
Biden 50%
Trump 46%
Undecided 4%

For Clinton it was:
Clinton 46%
Trump 40%
Undecided 14%

Trump beat Clinton by big pick-ups in the undecided, with the Biden polling, there is very little to pick up.

It also noted that in un-decided polling, 58% favoured Biden.

As such, it could be indicative that the tightening of polling is good, but not necessarily great news for Trump.

Another point they made is the change in polling for this cycle. In the 2016 election, polling never made any distinction for education, whereas now they are making that adjustment.

It showed that, if they took out the education adjustment, it shows a move that would put Biden further ahead, so again, we could be getting more realistic polling numbers this time around.

If you take the education adjustment out the polling changes as follows:

Pennsylvania, Biden +4 goes to Biden +6
Arizona, Biden +4 goes to Biden +8
Florida, Biden +6 goes to Biden +11

Things are definitely tightening, which could still be impacted by a slight RNC bounce, but it may not be as tight as it looks

TomOnBoard

spacecoyote wrote: »

Link may be pay-walled but an interesting take on the new polling data in the FT

https://www.ft.com/content/b3297609-e63b-4161-8287-7ab1179d0c40

For those that can't read, in a nutshell, its saying that some of the tightened polling may not be as bad for Biden as it reads.

For example in Pennsylvania, polling now shows Biden with a +4 lead. Clinton had, in late polling a +6 lead over Trump, but the differences in the actual numbers may suggest that Biden's +4 is actually a stronger lead.

for Biden its:
Biden 50%
Trump 46%
Undecided 4%

For Clinton it was:
Clinton 46%
Trump 40%
Undecided 14%

Trump beat Clinton by big pick-ups in the undecided, with the Biden polling, there is very little to pick up.

It also noted that in un-decided polling, 58% favoured Biden.

As such, it could be indicative that the tightening of polling is good, but not necessarily great news for Trump.

Another point they made is the change in polling for this cycle. In the 2016 election, polling never made any distinction for education, whereas now they are making that adjustment.

It showed that, if they took out the education adjustment, it shows a move that would put Biden further ahead, so again, we could be getting more realistic polling numbers this time around.

If you take the education adjustment out the polling changes as follows:

Pennsylvania, Biden +4 goes to Biden +6
Arizona, Biden +4 goes to Biden +8
Florida, Biden +6 goes to Biden +11

Things are definitely tightening, which could still be impacted by a slight RNC bounce, but it may not be as tight as it looks

Good, thoughtful post and a useful analysis by FT.

The narrowing of the undecideds pool compared to 2016 is the big takeaway here for me. This is the target segment for both campaigns. The Trump campaign appears to be targeting the Caucasian cohort in swing states with its current messaging. I'd be very interested in seeing an analysis of Caucasian voting intentions in each swing state at this point. If Trump's full-on FEAR message is being successful and is winning hearts and minds among those voters, the overall national picture is less relevant for the White House, although still hugely relevant for the Senate contests. To see Mc Sally trailing by 17 points in Arizona in her bid to retain John Mc Cain's seat is an example of how bad things can get for the GOP in the Senate races. Clearly, her 'Miss a Meal' title won't help, but Mitch must surely be worried about that kind of a trailing position...

everlast75

Two other publications have now confirmed the story.

Trump is out stating that he never called John McCain a loser...

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1301710818267074560?s=19

The desperation is tangible.

It would be nice if Mattis and Kelly confirmed it but I strongly suspect they will keep their mouths shut.

Good thing we have proof in writing...when he tweeted it

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/622522682245033984?s=19

And video footage....

https://twitter.com/IslandGirlPRV/status/1301826769826316289?s=09

looksee

everlast75 wrote: »

...And video footage....

https://twitter.com/IslandGirlPRV/status/1301826769826316289?s=09

Watching that video shows that Trump has no understanding even of what is expected of him - if he had a glimmer of intelligence he would fake it, he doesn't even have the sense to pretend empathy.

He really is not absorbing the implications of the discussion, it feels 'smart' to say he prefers people who don't get captured, so he says it. That is as far as he is understanding anything.

I suppose one take away from that is that he is not as devious as he could be, as politicians usually are - and of course he is not a politician. What you see is what you get. I don't find this reassuring.

StringerBell

It isn't reassuring, it's deeply concerning for the future once the strategists work on and put forward a candidate along the blueprint of trump but who is actually politically capable too.

Retr0gamer

StringerBell wrote: »

It isn't reassuring, it's deeply concerning for the future once the strategists work on and put forward a candidate along the blueprint of trump but who is actually politically capable too.

That's the most worrying thing.

Look at how easily and absolute moron like trump and his cadre of despots has managed to get so called patriots cheering for an end to everything the american political system stands for and calling for an autocratic political system.

Now imagine it's a Putin type. Someone who wants the same autocratic system as Trump but actually has the brains to pull it off.

Trump really has shown how fragile the political system is in america and also how easy it is to tarnish the media with lies and propaganda.

Quin_Dub

Retr0gamer wrote: »

That's the most worrying thing.

Look at how easily and absolute moron like trump and his cadre of despots has managed to get so called patriots cheering for an end to everything the american political system stands for and calling for an autocratic political system.

Now imagine it's a Putin type. Someone who wants the same autocratic system as Trump but actually has the brains to pull it off.

Trump really has shown how fragile the political system is in america and also how easy it is to tarnish the media with lies and propaganda.

Pompeo.

People talk about Ivanka or Nicki Haley and even Mike Pence.

But Pompeo absolutely wants the gig and he would be immeasurably more dangerous as a Commander in Chief than Trump.

That's why some of the recently opened house investigations into him are quite important.

Igotadose

Quin_Dub wrote: »

Pompeo.

People talk about Ivanka or Nicki Haley and even Mike Pence.

But Pompeo absolutely wants the gig and he would be immeasurably more dangerous as a Commander in Chief than Trump.

That's why some of the recently opened house investigations into him are quite important.

Tom Cotten, fortunately he put his foot deeply into his mouth recently and garnered a bunch of bad pub. But, Pompeo is scarier too, evangelical rapturist trying to bring the end times. It's amusing to see him called "Trump's Evangelical Enforcer" by the UK press.

Quin_Dub

Igotadose wrote: »

Tom Cotten, fortunately he put his foot deeply into his mouth recently and garnered a bunch of bad pub. But, Pompeo is scarier too, evangelical rapturist trying to bring the end times. It's amusing to see him called "Trump's Evangelical Enforcer" by the UK press.

Bit early for Cotton - He's more of a 2028 possibility.. He's only in the Senate a wet week and he talks too much.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/02/politics/georgia-voter-rolls-report/index.html

313,243 voters purged from Georgia rolls for having changed address and no longer living at registered address. Bit of analysis suggests 198k were wrongly removed.

Carfacemandog

Deleted User wrote: »

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/02/politics/georgia-voter-rolls-report/index.html

313,243 voters purged from Georgia rolls for having changed address and no longer living at registered address. Bit of analysis suggests 198k were wrongly removed.

Probably the right time to remind people that this is Georgia's governor, who as Secretary of State (and when running for said governorship) purged a further 340,000 from the voter rolls, and then when Governor killed the state investigation into this.

The SOS who took his place is also a hardcore Trumper it would appear. Trump has a narrow 1.4% lead on Georgia right now but it doesn't matter, that state is completely lost as republicans aren't really even trying to pretend there will be fair elections there.

Carfacemandog

Carfacemandog wrote: »

Probably the right time to remind people that this is Georgia's governor, who as Secretary of State (and when running for said governorship) purged a further 340,000 from the voter rolls, and then when Governor killed the state investigation into this.

The SOS who took his place is also a hardcore Trumper it would appear. Trump has a narrow 1.4% lead on Georgia right now but it doesn't matter, that state is completely lost as republicans aren't really even trying to pretend there will be fair elections there.

Yup, Texas is probably unwinnable this year as well but in a fair election I'm convinced it would be a very close-run thing.

briany

Trump's got his nickname together anyway - Hidin' Biden.

Quin_Dub

briany wrote: »

Trump's got his nickname together anyway - Hidin' Biden.

A new nickname for the Election and this as the details of what he'd like to accomplish in his second term.

But so I think, I think it would be, I think it would be very, very, I think we'd have a very, very solid, we would continue what we're doing, we'd solidify what we've done, and we have other things on our plate that we want to get done.

Awesome.

Itssoeasy

Well more of that from joe Biden would be good. He’s isn’t someone who seems mentally deteriorated like the turmoil crowd want you to believe.

everlast75

briany wrote: »

Trump's got his nickname together anyway - Hidin' Biden.

Trump yet projecting again.

Re Trump - BunkerBoy was trending for quite a while. And remind us, who has a large wall built around the White House?

Here's a hint. If you have to change the nickname from Creepy Joe, to Sleepy Joe, to Hidin' Biden, maybe your strategy of "schoolyard wit" isn't quite hitting the mark.

Biden is giving a press conference. He was asked a question on QAnon supporters. This was his response;

"I've been a big supporter of mental health. I'd recommend people who believe it should take advantage of it while it still exists under the Affordable Care Act."

briany

everlast75 wrote: »

"I've been a big supporter of mental health. I'd recommend people who believe it should take advantage of it while it still exists under the Affordable Care Act."

QAnon's basically what you get when you have a generation of people who get all their news off of social media where there is no journalistic oversight. But they'll believe it because it confirms their biases.

These are people who have lost or discarded the ability to differentiate between information and entertainment because they're having too good a time listening to any old yarn that takes their fancy.

briany

Quin_Dub wrote: »

A new nickname for the Election and this as the details of what he'd like to accomplish in his second term...

Quote:
But so I think, I think it would be, I think it would be very, very, I think we'd have a very, very solid, we would continue what we're doing, we'd solidify what we've done, and we have other things on our plate that we want to get done.


Awesome.

He's been a long time in getting there, but to be totally fair to Trump, he has finally put out something resembling a list of 2nd term aims.

JOBS

Create 10 Million New Jobs in 10 Months
Create 1 Million New Small Businesses
Cut Taxes to Boost Take-Home Pay and Keep Jobs in America
Enact Fair Trade Deals that Protect American Jobs
"Made in America" Tax Credits
Expand Opportunity Zones
Continue Deregulatory Agenda for Energy Independence

ERADICATE COVID-19

Develop a Vaccine by The End Of 2020
Return to Normal in 2021
Make All Critical Medicines and Supplies for Healthcare Workers in The United States
Refill Stockpiles and Prepare for Future Pandemics

END OUR RELIANCE ON CHINA

Bring Back 1 Million Manufacturing Jobs from China
Tax Credits for Companies that Bring Back Jobs from China
Allow 100% Expensing Deductions for Essential Industries like Pharmaceuticals and Robotics who Bring Back their Manufacturing to the United States
No Federal Contracts for Companies who Outsource to China
Hold China Fully Accountable for Allowing the Virus to Spread around the World
HEALTHCARE

Cut Prescription Drug Prices
Put Patients and Doctors Back in Charge of our Healthcare System
Lower Healthcare Insurance Premiums
End Surprise Billing
Cover All Pre-Existing Conditions
Protect Social Security and Medicare
Protect Our Veterans and Provide World-Class Healthcare and Services

EDUCATION

Provide School Choice to Every Child in America
Teach American Exceptionalism

DRAIN THE SWAMP

Pass Congressional Term Limits
End Bureaucratic Government Bullying of U.S. Citizens and Small Businesses
Expose Washington’s Money Trail and Delegate Powers Back to People and States
Drain the Globalist Swamp by Taking on International Organizations That Hurt American Citizens

DEFEND OUR POLICE

Fully Fund and Hire More Police and Law Enforcement Officers
Increase Criminal Penalties for Assaults on Law Enforcement Officers
Prosecute Drive-By Shootings as Acts of Domestic Terrorism
Bring Violent Extremist Groups Like ANTIFA to Justice
End Cashless Bail and Keep Dangerous Criminals Locked Up until Trial

END ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION AND PROTECT AMERICAN WORKERS

Block Illegal Immigrants from Becoming Eligible for Taxpayer-Funded Welfare, Healthcare, and Free College Tuition
Mandatory Deportation for Non-Citizen Gang Members
Dismantle Human Trafficking Networks
End Sanctuary Cities to Restore our Neighborhoods and Protect our Families
Prohibit American Companies from Replacing United States Citizens with Lower-Cost Foreign Workers
Require New Immigrants to Be Able to Support Themselves Financially

INNOVATE FOR THE FUTURE

Launch Space Force, Establish Permanent Manned Presence on The Moon and Send the First Manned Mission to Mars
Build the World’s Greatest Infrastructure System
Win the Race to 5G and Establish a National High-Speed Wireless Internet Network
Continue to Lead the World in Access to the Cleanest Drinking Water and Cleanest Air
Partner with Other Nations to Clean Up our Planet’s Oceans

AMERICA FIRST FOREIGN POLICY

Stop Endless Wars and Bring Our Troops Home
Get Allies to Pay their Fair Share
Maintain and Expand America’s Unrivaled Military Strength
Wipe Out Global Terrorists Who Threaten to Harm Americans
Build a Great Cybersecurity Defense System and Missile Defense System

DEFEND AMERICAN VALUES

Continue nominating constitutionalist Supreme Court and lower court judges
Protect unborn life through every means available
Defend the freedoms of religious believers and organizations
Support the exercise of Second Amendment rights

spacecoyote

Love that...end dependence on China. He came in on a promise to get rid of the trade deficit. Almost 4 years later and that deficit has gotten worse with the worst month on record for goods deficit as far as I know in he latest numbers.

Capt'n Midnight

Deleted User wrote: »

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/02/politics/georgia-voter-rolls-report/index.html

313,243 voters purged from Georgia rolls for having changed address and no longer living at registered address. Bit of analysis suggests 198k were wrongly removed.

You can argue about people not sending back the form and how likely they were to vote. But it's in the magnitude that could affect the result.

4% of all registered voters in the state removed. Clinton lost Georgia by 5%.

StringerBell

They have a massive fight on their hands in Georgia no doubt.

TomOnBoard

StringerBell wrote: »

They have a massive fight on their hands in Georgia no doubt.

The only thing is that, if the Dems do badly in GA, it'll mean no change in either the Senate or WH. If, however, Reps do badly enough, either or both switches from GOP to DEM would be YUUUGE!

So, GA is worth the fight for the Dems- absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain... For the Reps, it's everything to lose and nothing to gain... Sweet!

TomOnBoard

StringerBell wrote: »

They have a massive fight on their hands in Georgia no doubt.

The only thing is that, if the Dems do badly in GA, it'll mean no change in either the Senate or WH. If, however, Reps do badly enough, either or both switches from GOP to DEM would be YUUUGE! And I don't see anyone figuring GA as being one of the swing states currently..

So, GA is worth the fight for the Dems- absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain... For the Reps, it's everything to lose and nothing to gain... Sweet!

Faugheen

da_miser wrote: »

he is a disaster every time he goes of script, he is even messing up reading of a teleprompter.

https://youtu.be/Cr4wosNO1oo

I agree, total disaster.

If you think Trump will eat Biden alive you have another thing coming. Biden is one of the best in the business.

ancapailldorcha

Mod: Please do not just paste links here. Post deleted.

briany

Faugheen wrote: »

If you think Trump will eat Biden alive you have another thing coming. Biden is one of the best in the business.

Trump will just come out with bile and bluster, and presume that Biden will just stand there trying to look dignified while Trump does his thing. Then, while Biden is speaking, Trump will attempt to cut across, interject and land a "....'cause you'd be in jail!" type zinger. That's about the totality of Trump's debate strategy in my opinion. Certainly, he's not changed his rhetoric much in the last 3 and a half years to suggest that he'll come to speak calmly.

So Biden will have to be prepared to give a bit back and stand up to the bully.

Water John

Trump team have already complained about the choice of moderators. For the first debate, I presume.

briany

correct horse battery staple wrote: »

All Biden has to do is ask him over and over why he hates us military and why is he so weak on Putin.

Trump wouldn't answer that. He'd just respond with "Why do you hate the police and why are you so weak on ANTIFA?"

briany

correct horse battery staple wrote: »

The military is held in reverence, that can not be said for police.

I had thought that myself, but Trump openly shat on the institution of the U.S. military twice (belittling McCain's status as a war hero, and giving no respect to the gold star parents who spoke at the DNC), and he still became president.

Trump's past trying to appeal to the broad electorate anyway, so normal rules don't really apply. He's just trying to rile up his base who appear to hold no higher reverence than for Trump himself, and stoke FUD in the rest of the population about the street violence, as well as laying groundwork for the idea that losing the election would be the result of a rigged count or voting process.

Rjd2

briany wrote: »

I had thought that myself, but Trump openly shat on the institution of the U.S. military twice (belittling McCain's status as a war hero, and giving no respect to the gold star parents who spoke at the DNC), and he still became president.

Their is a sizeable percentage of normal Americans who loath these forever wars so weren't clutching their pearls when Trump taunted that war monger Mc Cain.

Depressingly though looking at all the neo-cons who have lined up behind Biden who is anything but a dove, it will be business as usual overseas, although like with Obama nobody will give a ****.

That's one of Trump's greatest mistakes, he could have done something astounding and brought troops home, but he didn't really because he surrounded himself by Bush also rans and was scared Maddow would scream PUTIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN @!!!!!! at him.

I think we will probably have to wait best case scenario 2024 for an American president who is not a hawk.

rossie1977

Rjd2 wrote: »

Their is a sizeable percentage of normal Americans who loath these forever wars so weren't clutching their pearls when Trump taunted that war monger Mc Cain.

Depressingly though looking at all the neo-cons who have lined up behind Biden who is anything but a dove, it will be business as usual overseas, although like with Obama nobody will give a ****.

That's one of Trump's greatest mistakes, he could have done something astounding and brought troops home, but he didn't really because he surrounded himself by Bush also rans and was scared Maddow would scream PUTIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN @!!!!!! at him.

I think we will probably have to wait best case scenario 2024 for an American president who is not a hawk.

Its completely inaccurate to say nobody cared re Obama. Obama was constantly criticised for drone usage yet we hear nothing about it now despite huge increase under Trump.

everlast75

Rjd2 wrote: »

Their is a sizeable percentage of normal Americans who loath these forever wars so weren't clutching their pearls when Trump taunted that war monger Mc Cain.

Depressingly though looking at all the neo-cons who have lined up behind Biden who is anything but a dove, it will be business as usual overseas, although like with Obama nobody will give a ****.

That's one of Trump's greatest mistakes, he could have done something astounding and brought troops home, but he didn't really because he surrounded himself by Bush also rans and was scared Maddow would scream PUTIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN @!!!!!! at him.

I think we will probably have to wait best case scenario 2024 for an American president who is not a hawk.

This makes no sense to me.

Firstly, he did what he wanted on the world stage, be damned to any "advisers". If it was in his own interest, then he did it. That self interest determined and continues to determine his foreign policy.

And frankly, I have no clue why he would give two ***** as to what "Maddow would scream"?

I accept that America is far too concerned with waging war, but we got this BS re Clinton being a war monger as a reason to vote trump, and frankly, things are a ****ing mess right now, so I do not expect that things are better on the world stage because people didn't vote for her, nor am I buying any criticism of Biden until after this abomination has been hurled from the White House.

briany

Rjd2 wrote: »

Their is a sizeable percentage of normal Americans who loath these forever wars so weren't clutching their pearls when Trump taunted that war monger Mc Cain.

Depressingly though looking at all the neo-cons who have lined up behind Biden who is anything but a dove, it will be business as usual overseas, although like with Obama nobody will give a ****.

That's one of Trump's greatest mistakes, he could have done something astounding and brought troops home, but he didn't really because he surrounded himself by Bush also rans and was scared Maddow would scream PUTIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN @!!!!!! at him.

I think we will probably have to wait best case scenario 2024 for an American president who is not a hawk.

Trump wasn't mocking McCain for being a hawk, he was poo-pooing McCain's tribulations in the Vietnam war. I doubt any Trump supporters were going, "Haha! That'll show that war monger McCain!", I think it much more likely they have greater priorities than decency, and that whatever comes out of Trump must be good.... so long as Trump keeps on about building the wall and protecting the guns.

As for US presidents promising to bring the troops home - Eisenhower seemed to be right when he warned of the military-industrial complex gaining too much influence. That appears to have come to fruition, and where troops are brought home, they will just be sent out to elsewhere.

johnnyskeleton

Mod note:

Ok folks, as the primaries are now over and the election proper is heating up, the former "Beating/Losing to Trump in 2020" Thread is now the official US Presidential Election 2020 Thread.

Remember there are other elections going on too with the Representatives and Senate. If anyone wants to discuss these, they can be done in a separate thread.

All the usual rules still apply - keep it country, no link dumps, no personal abuse, soapboxing or trolling etc. Try to keep the one liners to a minimum, and if, for example, you are commenting live on a debate, please post the context of your comment e.g.:

johnnyskeleton wrote:

Donald Trump wrote:

If elected I will give tax breaks to elderly people

An interesting policy by Trump

Has context.

johnnyskeleton wrote:

OMG Trump just wiped the floor with Sleepy Joe

Does not.

Happy hunting!

droidus

After taking a bit of a battering last week, Biden has bounced back with a bunch of +10 national polls and is leading at about an average of 4 points in all swing states apart from Iowa, Ohio and Texas where Trump leads each by about 1 point.

Given that the % of undecideds is now about 5% (Clinton was at about 16% at this stage), Biden's lead seems big enough to overcome various GOP vote suppression tactics, and the 'shy trump' voter theory, if real, seems not to amount to a lot of voters, the question is:

As time runs out and Trump becomes more desperate, what can he do to shift such a large amount of voters before November?

Igotadose

droidus wrote: »

As time runs out and Trump becomes more desperate, what can he do to shift such a large amount of voters before November?

Nothing. We've been discussing for over a year here how there aren't any undecideds left. So.he'll have to cheat. Poll watchers. Voter roll shenanigans. All backed up by Barr.

On a lighter note, I wish I had a lawn to put this on:

droidus

Well, there's always the possibility he'll start a war.

Muahahaha

Theres always the inevitable October surprise, Id expect something to come out about Hunter & Ukraine (whether true or not) in the last 3 days before polling. Its hard to see anything major coming out about Joe himself, he seems to be a known quantity in that regard. Presumably he has already been super vetted by the Obama admin before he was selected for VP in 2008 and vetted by the DNC again when contesting the primaries. I get the feeling Bidens transgressions are all public already and theres nothing left in the closet. That still wont prevent Trump making stuff up though.

Trump on the other hand is the more likely to be a victim of the October surprise.He has a four year track record in the White House and during that time he has sacked almost 20 of his own inner circle so you would expect more detail of what was going on in the Oval Office to emerge. I'd expect more details of his dealings with Putin or other foreign leaders to come out in the final days of the election campaign.

droidus

Yup. The curious thing about the Belleau woods scandal is that it happened in 2018 and only came out now. They sat on the story for 2 years, which, to me, indicates that people have been waiting until it could do the most damage.

Hopefully there'll be more where that came from.

looksee

droidus wrote: »

Yup. The curious thing about the Belleau woods scandal is that it happened in 2018 and only came out now. They sat on the story for 2 years, which, to me, indicates that people have been waiting until it could do the most damage.

Hopefully there'll be more where that came from.

The battle of Belleau Woods happened in 1918 so 2018 was the anniversary, at which Trump failed to go to the ceremony for frivolous reasons. It was not 'sat on' it was reported at the time, but with the 'Drama a Day' of Trump's tenure as President it just got lost under the mountain of other stuff. It was recalled as one of the many times Trump disrespected the military.