# Clinton v Trump - The Stretch Run Thread

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277>\
**Category:** Politics & Elections\
**Created:** [September 30, 2016, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277 "2016-09-30T11:21:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 209

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**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\
**Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/4165 "2016-10-30T21:40:56Z")

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> [@John\_Mace](#):
>
> … But it seems to me that all the networks are invested, not so much in fall-equivalencey, but in making this seem like a horse race. …

Nate Silver seems to think so, too:

> [@](#):
>
> Nate Silver ‏@NateSilver538 · Oct 28  
> The FBI story also broke at the exact time when the media was eager for a dramatic twist/complication in the “Clinton coasts” narrative.

> <https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/792154084698689537>

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**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\
**Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/4166 "2016-10-30T22:31:38Z")

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> [@Derleth](#):
>
> Wang is right again: Most of the electorate is too polarized for anything except a political neutron bomb to sway opinion meaningfully, and Trump isn’t a nuclear power now, so he won’t become one in November.
> 
> Or like a stereotypical gangster.

Or Sean Connery in _The Untouchables_:

> [@](#):
>
> You wanna know how to get Capone? They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. _That’s_ the _Chicago_ way! And that’s how you get Capone. Now do you want to do that? Are you ready to do that? I’m offering you a deal. Do you want this deal?

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**Author:** ![Neo-Calredic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/96bed5/32.png) [@Neo-Calredic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neo-Calredic)\
**Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/4167 "2016-10-30T23:13:17Z")

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> [@F.U.Shakespeare](#):
>
> That’s an important point that a lot of Trump supporters don’t seem to be aware of. Ask people what they think of when you say “billionaire”, and a lot of people imagine a guy who likes luxury: mansions, yachts, the finest foods, etc. Think Thurston Howell III.
> 
> But a lot of very rich guys are driven more by the ability their money gives them to dominate people. And Trump is very much in that category. He buys and displays expensive stuff, but that seems almost for show. He admitted as much in his _Playboy_ interview, claiming that the trappings of his wealth meant less to him than the pursuit of it.
> 
> An even more disturbing wrinkle to this side of Trump was revealed in [something said by actual billionaire Richard Branson.](http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/10/richard-branson-tells-world-about-his-weird-vindictive-lunch-donald-trump)
> 
> Branson claimed that Trump once invited him to lunch, where he told Branson that there were five people whom he had vowed to destroy. His reason? They had refused Trump’s request for financial help when he was failing in the 1990’s.
> 
> Trump frequently admits that he “hit(s) back ten times as hard” when someone hits him. His poorly-educated base hears this and pictures a tough version of Thurston Howell. _But Trump considers it ‘hitting’ him if you turn down his request for charity. And he will destroy you for it._ That’s less like Thurston Howell than Saddam Hussein.

Oh, but dude, none of that matters because someone said that someone might have e-mails from Hillary on a device. ☹

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**Author:** ![Ambrosio\_Spinola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de0a6/32.png) [@Ambrosio\_Spinola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambrosio_Spinola)\
**Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/4168 "2016-10-30T23:18:48Z")

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Harry Reid blasts the FBI Director, accusing him of treating Clinton’s e-mails differently [than the allegedly hugely “explosive” investigation of Trump and Trump’s advisors’ connections with Russian interests](http://www.cbsnews.com/news/harry-reid-letter-fbi-james-comey-clinton-emails-trump-russia-ties-hatch-act/). Which if true I guess may make Reid liable for disclosing confidential information he’s received about ongoing investigations; but he’s retiring anyway so I guess he doesn’t care.

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**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\
**Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/4169 "2016-10-30T23:42:38Z")

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The answer would be, or at least should be, that in the “Russia case”, they are behaving as they should. Good for them. And that’s all.

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**Author:** ![Tzigone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Tzigone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tzigone)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2016, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/4170 "2016-10-31T00:14:19Z")

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Anyone watch the livefeed for theTrump thing in Greeley and can tell me what’s what? One article said said Trump was encouraging people to vote multiple times, but I was unfamiliar with the source, and inclined to wonder if it was a misleading/dishonest headline. So I Googled and found a [url=]CNN article and he said “If you go to university center, they’ll give you a new ballot, they’ll void your old ballot, in some places they do that four or five times, so by tomorrow, almost everyone will have their new ballots in.” So this refers to only one vote being counted. Can someone explain how already mailed votes are voided and such?

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**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2016, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/4171 "2016-10-31T00:16:52Z")

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The weirdest part of the Comey release for me is that [_Jeanine Pirro_](http://insider.foxnews.com/2016/10/30/judge-jeanine-pirro-opening-statement-jim-comey-announcement-fbi-hillary-clinton-disgrace) has come out on Clinton’s side in this against the FBI.

**Jeanine Pirro**.

What is this I can’t even

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**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2016, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/4172 "2016-10-31T00:23:57Z")

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> [@Tzigone](#):
>
> Anyone watch the livefeed for theTrump thing in Greeley and can tell me what’s what? One article said said Trump was encouraging people to vote multiple times, but I was unfamiliar with the source, and inclined to wonder if it was a misleading/dishonest headline. So I Googled and found a [and he said “If you go to university center, they’ll give you a new ballot, they’ll void your old ballot, in some places they do that four or five times, so by tomorrow, almost everyone will have their new ballots in.” So this refers to only one vote being counted. Can someone explain how already mailed votes are voided and such?

[URL=“[http://kdvr.com/2016/10/28/is-it-too-late-to-change-your-mail-in-ballot-vote-in-colorado/](http://kdvr.com/2016/10/28/is-it-too-late-to-change-your-mail-in-ballot-vote-in-colorado/)”]In Colorado](]CNN article[/url), once the ballot is in, no further voting allowed.

> [@](#):
>
> DENVER — Are you having second thoughts about your vote and wondering if you can change it before Election Day?
> 
> The Colorado Secretary of State says it depends on if you have turned in your ballot or not.
> 
> Once a clerk has received a ballot – a voter has voted and it cannot be changed, the Secretary of State’s office said.

So Trump is encouraging voter fraud.  
He’s right, voter fraud exists!

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**Author:** ![raventhief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raventhief/32/4_2.png) [@raventhief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raventhief)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2016, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/4173 "2016-10-31T00:26:59Z")

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> [@running\_coach](#):
>
> [In Colorado](http://kdvr.com/2016/10/28/is-it-too-late-to-change-your-mail-in-ballot-vote-in-colorado/), once the ballot is in, no further voting allowed.
> 
> So Trump is encouraging voter fraud.  
> He’s right, voter fraud exists!

I don’t understand how he can encourage voter fraud and it’s …what, ok? No harm, no foul? It’s _illegal_.

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**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2016, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/4174 "2016-10-31T00:47:12Z")

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Colorado is solid cyan: Clinton leading by five to ten percent. Bad-hair-guy is telling people to spoil the vote, to give his “rigged” claim traction. He is trying to shit on Colorado, and in doing so, try to discredit all-mail voting. Take Oregon, Washington and Colorado out of play, you have 28 (blue) EVs off the table: a lot more than Ohio and one less than Florida: more than 10% of the winning total. He wants to snarl the entire election process up in a ratsnest of allegations and controversy.

It does not matter that _he_ is advocating misbehavior, he is trying to show that it is possible. And, if _he_ is doing, well, you know what they say, “_both sides do it_”. Maybe not that hard to sell to the unrinsed masses.

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**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2016, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/4175 "2016-10-31T00:58:14Z")

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We’ve already had one Trump supporter caught trying to vote twice. I wonder how many others there will be?  
Then, in the future. Republicans will point to the incidents and say “see, voter fraud!”  
It almost makes me wonder if that’s not the goal at this point.

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**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2016, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/4176 "2016-10-31T01:14:54Z")

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> [@Gyrate](#):
>
> The weirdest part of the Comey release for me is that [_Jeanine Pirro_](http://insider.foxnews.com/2016/10/30/judge-jeanine-pirro-opening-statement-jim-comey-announcement-fbi-hillary-clinton-disgrace) has come out on Clinton’s side in this against the FBI.
> 
> **Jeanine Pirro**.
> 
> What is this I can’t even

Yeah, like Megyn Kelly, she gets undeserved credit for being objective, when actually she’s just reacting to something that is a personal issue with her, and happens in that one case to oppose something Trump says.

I can’t watch her for more than about 30 seconds at a time, but based on that, I think Pirro is certifiably batshit crazy, and I’m amazed she can survive even on Fox. She makes Hannity look reasonable.

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**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2016, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/4177 "2016-10-31T01:16:45Z")

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> [@elucidator](#):
>
> Well, Cruz is a very disagreeable and obnoxious person, whereas Trump is…not so much.

I disagree. The scary thing about Trump is that he’s disagreeable and obnoxious… and evil. But stupid.

The scarier thing about Cruz is that he’s disagreeable and obnoxious and evil, but smarter than Trump.

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**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2016, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/4178 "2016-10-31T01:41:30Z")

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> [@running\_coach](#):
>
> [In Colorado](http://kdvr.com/2016/10/28/is-it-too-late-to-change-your-mail-in-ballot-vote-in-colorado/), once the ballot is in, no further voting allowed.
> 
> So Trump is encouraging voter fraud.
> 
> He’s right, voter fraud exists!

That’s right! How else can he be so sure voter fraud exists unless he perpetrates it? It’s like the WMD’s: the only way the USA could have known without reservation that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq is if they put them there. Oddly enough, after not finding WMD’s the mission transmogrified into something else altogether.  
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2016, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/4179 "2016-10-31T03:25:59Z")

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11th hour revelations before a major election happened not that long ago. This happened the weekend before the election.

Comey gave Hillary’s campaign 11 days to vilify him and spin the story her way.

[![](https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/biz-trade-073118-scaled.jpg) ](https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/biz-trade-073118-scaled.jpg)

> [@](#):
>
> the indictment made by special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh against former Reagan-era Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger the weekend before the 1992 election cost Bush a second term. The indictment, later thrown out, challenged Bush’s claim that he did not know about a controversial arms-for-hostages deal that dogged the Reagan-Bush administration.

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**Author:** ![ganthet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de0a6/32.png) [@ganthet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ganthet)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2016, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/4180 "2016-10-31T03:35:31Z")

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> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#):
>
> Frankly I think he might want to be gone. I posted somewhere my WAG is that he’s setting himself up as a hero among the right-wingers so he can capitalize in the right-wing media world, which seems to do especially well during Democratic administrations.

If Comey were aiming for that, he wouldn’t have been so emphatic in his original recommendation/assessment that no reasonable prosecutor would bring charges against Hillary back in July (despite his swipe that she was reckless). How he wrote that indicated that he seemed to want to appear balanced and not overtly partisan - by removing any criminal threat to Clinton while not condoning her actions either.

The quickest route between two places is usually a straight line and that’s no different here. It seems more likely that Comey misguidedly felt some pressing obligation to inform Congress lest he be accused of attempting to interfere in the election via a cover-up, despite him knowing that informing Congress at would lead to him being accused of attempting to interfere in the election.

And unless he resigns voluntarily, should Hillary win, it would be very difficult politically to fire him.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2016, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/4181 "2016-10-31T03:35:48Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> 11th hour revelations before a major election happened not that long ago. This happened the weekend before the election…

Slight difference. Those guys really _were_ guilty. Well, matters to _me_.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2016, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/4182 "2016-10-31T03:41:39Z")

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> [@ganthet](#):
>
> If Comey were aiming for that, he wouldn’t have been so emphatic in his original recommendation/assessment that no reasonable prosecutor would bring charges against Hillary back in July (despite his swipe that she was reckless). How he wrote that indicated that he seemed to want to appear balanced and not overtly partisan - by removing any criminal threat to Clinton while not condoning her actions either.

A man can do a lot of thinkin’ in three months…

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2016, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/4183 "2016-10-31T04:13:57Z")

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> [@aceplace57](#):
>
> 11th hour revelations before a major election happened not that long ago. This happened the weekend before the election.

Bush was losing before the Weinberger story broke. It had no effect on the result. There was never any point in the last two months of the campaign when Clinton was not winning. You’re imagining a history that never took place.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2016, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/4184 "2016-10-31T04:16:24Z")

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To be ruthlessly fair, he didn’t say it changed anything, just that it happened.

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