Can a Republican explain this to me?

The BBQ Pit
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So after Trump’s wife gave a speech blatantly plagiarizing one Michelle Obama gave eight years earlier, conservatives appear quick to excuse the whole thing. Christie says he didn’t see a similarity, which means he is either illiterate or retarded, and either way is not competent to run a bake sale, much less a state. But my favorite was Manafort: “This is once again an example of when a woman threatens Hillary Clinton, she seeks out to demean her and take her down. It’s not going to work.”

Now, I thought I had reached a point of acceptance with Trump’s nonsensical bullsgit, but this made me angry on a level I have not felt in a long time.

So someone, please explain this to me: Trump’s campaign fucked up. Blatantly. Publicly. And the first thing they do is blame Hillary Clinton. I am struggling to comprehend how this is Hillary’s fault in any way, shape, or form.

But that’s not the part that I need explained. Republican Dopers, please tell me:

Do you not hear the words coming out of Manafort’s mouth? Do you not hear him trying to put the blame on literally anybody rather than admit his campaign fucked up? I mean, seriously, is there even a single human being out there that genuinely heard this and accepted his thesis that Hillary Clinton is to blame?

Why does that not outrage you? Manafort is either the stupidest human being alive, or he thinks you are all idiots. Does that not click in your head? Even a little bit?

Or how about the guy that said Obama was definitely a Muslim, or the people that cried about how Hillary caused Benghazi. These are the same lies people have been peddling for YEARS without even a tiny bit of proof. The Republicans are putting people in stage to recite lies that THE REPUBLICANS THEMSELVES have already demonstrated to be false.

Does none of this compute for you? Do you just ignore it? How does anyone make sense of the obvious bullshit and the blatant lies and still come out of it thinking, “Yep, this is the person that deserves to be President?”

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Reality/facts have a liberal bias.

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Well, what do you expect them to do? Vote for a Democrat?

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Hank Paulson, GWBush’s Secretary of the Treasury (and a top investment banker and philanthropist), is choosing country over party: his words. [INDENT]Let’s start by talking about his business acumen. When Trump assures us he’ll do for the United States what he’s done for his businesses, that’s not a promise — it’s a threat. The tactics he has used in running his business wouldn’t work in running a truly successful company, let alone the most powerful nation on Earth.[/INDENT] The last paragraph is a real zinger: [INDENT][INDENT] When it comes to the presidency, I will not vote for Donald Trump. I will not cast a write-in vote. I’ll be voting for Hillary Clinton, with the hope that she can bring Americans together to do the things necessary to strengthen our economy, our environment and our place in the world. To my Republican friends: I know I’m not alone. [/INDENT][/INDENT]

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What’s crazy is that all Trump has to do is pay a staffer nobody knows to take the fall and have his Mrs admit that maybe she had a little help. It would’ve blown over by noon, since she’s a hot model with a cute accent. But Trump has to double down. He knows nothing about how politics works.

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Yup, he’ll never win that GOP nomination.

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He knows quite a bit about how the GOP primary works; his instincts served him well.

But a general election is 10 times harder than a primary. And the Presidency is 1000 times harder than a general election. This silly story actually has some substance to it. There are free resources online to check against plagiarism. Using these tools is SOP for political campaigns. (Presidential speech writing adds even more filters.) The fact that the Trump campaign made this newbie error during a high profile speech suggests terrible management. The fact that they haven’t chosen a sacrificial lamb to take the fall also shows a lack of accountability.

h/t James Fallows Trump Time Capsule #45: Why Melania's Convention Speech Matters - The Atlantic [INDENT][INDENT]These are not the “rules” of politics in some crusty, due-to-be-overthrown sense. They are signs of basic operational competence. There is absolutely nothing to be gained by a plagiarism controversy, or a spat with the host-state governor, or a Tebow-type flap. These are the equivalent of not getting your permits before breaking ground on a building, or of screwing up the plumbing plans. [/INDENT][/INDENT]

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The best part is the varied, highly contrived explanations coming out of the campaign, the Trumpbots on news shows with varied, highly contrived explanations and GOP officials with varied, highly contrived explanations.
None of which match.
I’d swear there’s easily 15-20 different stories and excuses/rationalizations out there.
At least come up with one ridiculous excuse and have everyone stick to it.

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Yeah, either it was pre-planned, coordinated plagiarism, or it was spur-of-the-moment plagiarism incited by a youtube video.

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Not wishing to be paranoid, but maybe this is actually tactical, like; with all these explanations flying about, do we really know what happened? In which case maybe nothing happened at all.

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Your first mistake is assuming that in order to appeal to this particular Trump-supporting demographic, something actually has to make sense. It doesn’t. Forget about logic. Just think of them as a cult in the thrall of a demagogue. Here is their ideology: Their cult leader is the greatest. Anyone who opposes him is evil. Hillary is evil. Hillary channels Lucifer. Everything bad is Hillary’s fault. Trump is the Savior. Trump’s wife is the wife of the Savior and can do no wrong. Now chant “Make America great again” three times.

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I’d love to see how Steven Colbert’s character from The Colbert Report would cover this mishap.

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<trumpbot>
Don’t you get it? It was all planned, he dominated the media cycle! Trump is playing 5D korean starcraft, you can’t even comprehend his master plan! Loser! low energy! Build the wall 10 feet higher!
</trumpbot>

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How difficult is it to write a short speech on a topic you’re passionate about?

I officiated my nephew’s wedding last Saturday. The twenty minute ceremony brought tears to some folk’s eyes. Anything that I did not author (Irish Wedding Blessing) was attributed. Including edits, I probably spent three hours on the ceremony.

Sheesh.

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The speech that was plagiarised was apparently written by a former Hillary Clinton speechwriter.

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Wasn’t he on the stage at one point? Perhaps he somehow caused the whole thing. That would help explain the Rickroll, anyway.
ETA: There he is, during an intermission, standing at the podium, scratching out a line here, scribbling some words there, all the while humming to himself “Never Gonna Give You Up”.

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Dubya worries (yes, I know) that he’ll be the last ever Republican president, after Trump finishes the process of destruction that he was so much a part of.

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And so it ended with a whimper instead of a bang.

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I’m not sure what you are confused about. In the 2004 election, Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry had to endure almost a year of attacks by the ironically named Swift Boat Veterans for Truth over his military record, awards, and conduct, even though the vast majority of their accusations were clearly contradicted by Kerry’s official military record and by his crewmates. While the Bush campaign never formally supported or endorsed the group, several of his biggest backers (Harold Simmons, Bob Perry, T. Boone Pickens) basically bankrolled the organization as a 527 PAC, so for all practical purposes it was an extension of the Bush campaign that was expressly spreading falshoods to discredit Kerry, who inarguably served in a wartime combat role under direct and regular fire, to enhance George W. Bush, who inarguably took a politically appointed Texas Air National Guard position that he was questionably qualified for to avoid the draft and purportedly did not meet all service commitments (though he was honorably discharged in 1973 into the Air Force Reserve, and from thence discharged in 1974, so the two services apparently decided that he’d met requirements).

Turning a vulnerability or error into an attack by manufacturing controversy about the other candidate’s culpablity or qualification is nothing new, even (or rather, especially) within recent memory. As with many things, Trump’s campaign has just taken the general Republican strategy and dialed it up to 11. And honestly, this is just about the lease unctuous thing that the Trump campaign has done to date.

Stranger

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The other thing is that Melania saying “yes, I hired a speech writer to help me compose something to say on a national stage in a language that isn’t my native tongue” actually makes her look smart. Unless of course you’re insanely wedded to self-sufficiency and would rather swallow your tongue than ask for help.