the Trump Phenomenon

[detbuch]

Originally Posted by spence

So I'm watching the republican front-runners on the stump this week. Primary campaign issues appear to be bottled water, spray tans, pathological dishonesty and hand size.

WTF is wrong with the GOP?

Maybe you should start by figuring out what is wrong with your "perspective."

[spence]

Originally Posted by detbuch

Maybe you should start by figuring out what is wrong with your "perspective."

Why do you assume my perspective is wrong?

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by spence

Why do you assume my perspective is wrong?

Perhaps because you can't do something as morally obvious, as admitting that Hilary lies.

Spence, she flip-flopped many times on the cause of the Benghazi attack. You chalk it all up to fog of war, and conflicting reports. That may be. But boy, isn't it interesting that in every private conversation, she seemed to admit it was terrorism, and in every public statement, she relied on the video protest theory (and therefore, the attack was spontaneous and not in any way her fault).

Now, it's possible, that every time she was about to have a private conversation, she got a report saying that it was terrorism. And then just before each scheduled public statement, those same intelligence folks said to her "look, we know we just told you it was terrorism, but forget that, now we believe it was a video protest, so we want you to go with that".

That's certainly possible. But I asked you several times for some kind of timeline (who briefed her, and when) to support that notion. And you provided zip. So it appears you are accepting her explanation without any skepticism.

How fortunate for her, that every time the intelligence community told her what the cause was, it worked out in such a way that every time she made a public statement, she was reporting that she was not to blame.

We should all be so lucky.

[spence]

Originally Posted by Jim in CT

Spence, she flip-flopped many times on the cause of the Benghazi attack. You chalk it all up to fog of war, and conflicting reports. That may be. But boy, isn't it interesting that in every private conversation, she seemed to admit it was terrorism, and in every public statement, she relied on the video protest theory (and therefore, the attack was spontaneous and not in any way her fault).

You sure throw out a lot of "every" for someone who can't even piece together a basic timeline on their own.

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by spence

You sure throw out a lot of "every" for someone who can't even piece together a basic timeline on their own.

That's the best you can respond with?

You were the one, not me, who said that her flip-flopping was not self-serving deceit, but rather, her innocently responding to conflicting intelligence. Do you deny saying that?

Sure I can. In a private call to Chelsea, and in a private call to the leader of Egypt, she said it was terrorism. In between, and certainly afte, she (and her staff) said it was a video protest.

[detbuch]

Originally Posted by spence

Why do you assume my perspective is wrong?

Quote Spence: "So I'm watching the republican front-runners on the stump this week. Primary campaign issues appear to be bottled water, spray tans, pathological dishonesty and hand size.

WTF is wrong with the GOP?" End quote.

There are more important "issues" being addressed in the Repub. primary than you portray. But reducing the campaign to your parody dismisses them to your version of nonsense.

Jim says you're better than that. What's wrong with you?

[PaulS]

Trump did disavow Duke's support after Rubio laid into him.

I'm suprised he knew nothing about "David Duke or white supremacy or white supremacists"

LEESBURG, Va. — Republican front-runner Donald Trump drew sharp criticism from his rivals in both parties Sunday for refusing to denounce an implicit endorsement from former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, raising the specter of racism as the presidential campaign hits the South.

Trump was asked on CNN's "State of the Union" whether he rejected support from the former KKK Grand Dragon and other white supremacists after Duke told his radio followers this week that a vote against Trump was equivalent to "treason to your heritage."

"Well, just so you understand, I don't know anything about David Duke. OK?" Trump said. "I don't know anything about what you're even talking about with white supremacy or white supremacists."

Trump's comments came the same day he retweeted a quote from Benito Mussolini, the 20th century fascist dictator of Italy. And in a boost for his campaign in the South, he scored the endorsement of Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, one of the most strident opponents of immigration reform on Capitol Hill.

But it was Trump's statements about Duke that sparked a wave of censures with just two days to go before 11 states hold GOP primaries involving about a quarter of the party's total nominating delegate count. Several states in the South, a region with a fraught racial history, are among those voting in the Super Tuesday contests.

Marco Rubio quickly pounced on Trump's comments, saying the GOP "cannot be a party who refuses to condemn white supremacists and the Ku Klux Klan."

"Not only is that wrong, it makes him unelectable," Rubio told thousands of supporters gathered in Leesburg, Virginia. "How are we going to grow the party if we nominate someone who doesn't repudiate the Ku Klux Klan?"

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz called Trump's comments "Really sad."

"You're better than this," Cruz wrote on Twitter. "We should all agree, racism is wrong, KKK is abhorrent."

Trump has won three of four early voting states, roiling a party divided over the prospect of the brash billionaire becoming its nominee. Late Sunday, Nebraska's Ben Sasse became the first sitting Republican senator to say explicitly that he would not back Trump if he does win the nomination.

"If Trump becomes the Republican nominee my expectation is that I'll look for some 3rd candidate — a conservative option, a constitutionalist," Sasse wrote on Twitter.

With a strong showing on Super Tuesday, Trump could begin to pull away from his rivals in the all-important delegate count.

In the Southern states that vote Tuesday, Republican candidates will face an electorate that is overwhelmingly white. In South Carolina, the only Southern state to have voted so far, 96 percent of the GOP primary electorate was white, while 6 in 10 voters in the Democratic race were black.

While the South was once a Democratic stronghold, many white conservatives who backed the party started moving toward the GOP during the civil rights movement. Trump has borrowed from the rhetoric former President Richard Nixon used during that time to appeal to working-class white voters, describing his campaign has a movement of the "silent majority."

Trump holds commanding leads across the South, with the exception of Cruz's home state of Texas, a dynamic that puts tremendous pressure on Rubio and Cruz as they try to outlast each other and derail the real estate mogul.

Trump was asked Friday by journalists how he felt about Duke's support. He said he didn't know anything about it and curtly said: "All right, I disavow, ok?"

[detbuch]

Originally Posted by PaulS

Trump did disavow Duke's support after Rubio laid into him.

I'm suprised he knew nothing about "David Duke or white supremacy or white supremacists"

Should "white supremacists" or black racists not be allowed to vote? Why should a candidate have to disavow a vote? It's going to count in the tally whether its disavowed or not. And candidates who win election don't have to, nor could they, make into law every desire of all who voted for them.

The guilt by association thing didn't sway Democrats from voting for Obama even though he was closely associated with radical anti-American, Marxist/communist people. He was actually more directly associated with those people than Trump is with so-called white supremacists.


In the Southern states that vote Tuesday, Republican candidates will face an electorate that is overwhelmingly white. In South Carolina, the only Southern state to have voted so far, 96 percent of the GOP primary electorate was white, while 6 in 10 voters in the Democratic race were black.

While the South was once a Democratic stronghold, many white conservatives who backed the party started moving toward the GOP during the civil rights movement. Trump has borrowed from the rhetoric former President Richard Nixon used during that time to appeal to working-class white voters, describing his campaign has a movement of the "silent majority."

The irony in the notion that the "Southern Strategy" was racist is that the South became less racist as the South became More Republican and less Democrat.

Trump was asked Friday by journalists how he felt about Duke's support. He said he didn't know anything about it and curtly said: "All right, I disavow, ok?"

There you have it. He disavowed Duke's support. But Duke's vote will count anyway. Happy now.