# Clinton v Trump - The Stretch Run Thread **URL:** \ **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:** 24
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/461 "2016-10-07T12:32:31Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > “When it comes to protecting our country against natural disasters and the threat of climate change, once again, Donald Trump is totally unfit and unqualified” - Clinton > > Clinton and the authoritarian left lack any sense of hubris. They elevate government to an all-powerful status previously reserved for gods. Quetzalcoatl 2016! Right on, daddy-o. Lemme put on my black beret and light a cig, then I’ll snap my fingers as you rap about the jive gods and the snake cats in DC! ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/462 "2016-10-07T12:33:30Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > “When it comes to protecting our country against natural disasters and the threat of climate change, once again, Donald Trump is totally unfit and unqualified” - Clinton > > Clinton and the authoritarian left lack any sense of hubris. They elevate government to an all-powerful status previously reserved for gods. Quetzalcoatl 2016! Quetzalcoatl was a wimp. Surely Hillary is an avatar of [Coatlique](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coatlicue). (I can keep free-associating–it’s fun. Just wondering what our resident Libertarian/Confederate Apologist is on about _this_ time.) ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/463 "2016-10-07T12:38:49Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > Quetzalcoatl was a wimp. Surely Hillary is an avatar of [Coatlique](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coatlicue). > > (I can keep free-associating–it’s fun. Just wondering what our resident Libertarian/Confederate Apologist is on about _this_ time.) In his defense, it’s hard to think of a bigger murderer from Mexico than Quetzalcoatl. Unless he’s suggesting that mass sacrifice is the best way to make the Americas great again. Or maybe he really does think that the candidate in this election with an overabundance of hubris is Clinton. Never mind, I’m just gonna enjoy the beat poetry. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/464 "2016-10-07T12:43:57Z")
LA Times now has Trump up by only 2, compared to 5 before the debate. Pretty much all polls are continuing to show a Clinton bounce that hasn’t ended yet. ---
**Author:** ![oft\_wears\_hats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7993a0/32.png) [@oft\_wears\_hats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oft_wears_hats)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/465 "2016-10-07T13:01:57Z")
[Trump holds a town hall “debate”, ignores the rules, admits it’s not debate prep](http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/donald-trump-town-hall-debate-prep-229267): > [@](#): > > Only days before Donald Trump must face Hillary Clinton in a town-hall style presidential debate, the GOP nominee added just such an event in New Hampshire. It was seemingly a concession to anxious allies and advisers hoping he might hone his skills in what can be a difficult format even for the most dexterous of politicians. > > Trump had other plans. “They were saying this is practice for Sunday,” he told the crowd in speech before the so-called town-hall. “This isn’t practice. This has nothing to do with Sunday.” > > … > > And while Sunday’s debate will stretch for 90 minutes without a bathroom break, Trump bolted from his town hall in Sandown after barely more than one-third of that time. > > Trump’s campaign did place a two-minute countdown clock in front of their candidate on Thursday. He repeatedly blew past that time limit anyway. > > “I said forget debate prep. I mean, give me a break,” Trump said at one point. “Do you really think that Hillary Clinton is debate-prepping for three or four days. Hillary Clinton is resting, okay?” It really seems like Trump’s entire life follows the same theme: a thin layer of faux gold coating with no substance underneath. You can see it in how he runs his businesses, his lifestyle, and his campaign. Presumably, multiple staffers or GOP hangers-on begged him to do some debate prep, so he committed just long enough to throw them a superficial bone, and couldn’t even keep himself from talking about how it wasn’t a legitimate rehearsal. It’s as though he’s in the middle of selling someone a gold statue and then he blurts out “You know that’s just gold plated, right?” I can only hope that Trump’s performance in the next debate is as damaging as the last. From the looks of things, he won’t disappoint. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/466 "2016-10-07T13:08:13Z")
The unemployment rate ticked up from 4.9 percent to 5 percent. [It means nothing, really](http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-creates-156000-jobs-in-september-unemployment-5-2016-10-07) (if anything, it reflects growing optimism and thus more folks getting back to trying to get a job), but the optics aren’t good. Surely Trump will mention this at the debate, if not sooner. ---
**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 7, 2016, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/467 "2016-10-07T13:19:33Z")
> [@](#): > > “Do you really think that Hillary Clinton is debate-prepping for three or four days. Hillary Clinton is resting, okay?” No, I think Hillary Clinton has been debate-prepping for fucking **months**. Donald seems to genuinely believe the “Hillary has no stamina” lie his side has been peddling. ---
**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 7, 2016, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/468 "2016-10-07T13:22:04Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > The unemployment rate ticked up from 4.9 percent to 5 percent. [It means nothing, really](http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-creates-156000-jobs-in-september-unemployment-5-2016-10-07) (if anything, it reflects growing optimism and thus more folks getting back to trying to get a job), but the optics aren’t good. Surely Trump will mention this at the debate, if not sooner. I wouldn’t put it past Trump laying off people just to get the number up. sorta j/k ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/469 "2016-10-07T13:26:49Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > No, I think Hillary Clinton has been debate-prepping for fucking **months**. She’s been preparing since middle school. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/470 "2016-10-07T13:35:14Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > “When it comes to protecting our country against natural disasters and the threat of climate change, once again, Donald Trump is totally unfit and unqualified” - Clinton > > Clinton and the authoritarian left lack any sense of hubris. They elevate government to an all-powerful status previously reserved for gods. Quetzalcoatl 2016! People like Trump that denies that there is an issue can not be trusted ever on doing the right thing about it. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/471 "2016-10-07T13:36:22Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > The erosion of institutions that are responsive to the needs of ordinary working class people, the commercialization of education, and a media apparatus that completely and utterly distorts reality. That’s an attempt to answer the question of why they exist in the first place. That’s tangential, at best, to the question I asked, which is why they’re drawn to the GOP. > [@](#): > > Given this background, people are left to form opinions based on their gut and what their eyes and simple correlations tell them. Retiring baby boomers in Youngstown, Ohio look at how blacks “have it so easy” now that - wow, holy shit - they can actually afford to buy a home, while their white grandchildren are strung out on heroin. _“Must be that Black Muslim president’s fault.”_ This is closer to the heart of the matter, but it still allows the GOP to duck responsibility: _Why does that notional Boomer in Youngstown believe that Obama’s a Secret Muslim? Who planted the idea in his head?_ Answer: FOX News, party organ of the GOP. Deeper question is, why does the GOP go to explicitly racist and xenophobic tropes to attract a voting base? The long history we refer to metonymically with the term Southern Strategy is a good answer here. My point is, there’s an asymmetry in American politics. One major party is more-or-less explicitly racist and the other major party is not. The GOP is the racist major party, it has been since long before Trump, and it will continue to be unless we can muster the political will to recognize that both sides damned well _don’t_ do it. You can’t fix a problem you can’t even acknowledge. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/472 "2016-10-07T13:43:06Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > Yes Trump would bring an authoritarian regime and anarcho capitalist regime at the same time. Hysteria is gaining hold. It’s entirely possible to have a government which enforces property rights and one-sided contracts to such an extreme that businesses are allowed to tyrannize over individuals. I’d tell you to look up “company towns” but I’m sure such things never existed in your world, because they utterly disprove the Libertarian dogma that the pure, unrestrained free market can solve every problem equitably. > [@WillFarnaby](#): > > “When it comes to protecting our country against natural disasters and the threat of climate change, once again, Donald Trump is totally unfit and unqualified” - Clinton > > Clinton and the authoritarian left lack any sense of hubris. They elevate government to an all-powerful status previously reserved for gods. Quetzalcoatl 2016! Do you acknowledge the existence of FEMA, NOAA, and the EPA? (I mean real-world adult FEMA, not the organization that’s been running massive, empty concentration camps for twenty-some-odd years.) ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/473 "2016-10-07T13:50:26Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > No, I think Hillary Clinton has been debate-prepping for fucking **months**. > > Donald seems to genuinely believe the “Hillary has no stamina” lie his side has been peddling. Yeah, Clinton has a lot of flaws, but coming to a fight unprepared isn’t one of them. She’s a career lawyer and politician who’s been under public scrutiny for a quarter century. I’m pretty sure she’s going to come to the debate with her ducks in a row. Maybe she’ll surprise me and get all overconfident – everything about this campaign has surprised me – but if I had to bet, I’d put money on her spending the weekend practicing and studying. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/474 "2016-10-07T14:19:30Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > She’s been preparing since middle school. Yup. Lately, Hillary has been brushing up on debate tactics & How To Make The Donald Lose It. But, stuff like the US & World History, How the Constitution Works, etc.? She’s decades ahead of him & he will\* never \*catch up. ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/475 "2016-10-07T14:23:32Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > Quetzalcoatl was a wimp. Surely Hillary is an avatar of [Coatlique](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coatlicue). > > (I can keep free-associating–it’s fun. Just wondering what our resident Libertarian/Confederate Apologist is on about _this_ time.) I’m not a confederate apologist. I’m anti-violence and anti-war. I know it shakes many to their core because they try to smear me as a confederate apologist, racist or whatever else they can come up with. As for authoritarians like Clinton, Trump, and yourself, they pretend they can do things like manipulate the weather by edict. This is the stuff of ancient religions and should be something to laugh at. Of course it’s cloaked in “policy”. This “policy” involves dictating behavior on a colossal scale. Believing that you could or should change the weather by pointing guns at everyone is a disgusting display of hubris. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/476 "2016-10-07T14:36:02Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > I’m not a confederate apologist. You realize people _remember your username_ from one thread to another, correct? > **[Civil War Was Not Over Slavery?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=630162)** > > I’ve heard it said that the American Civil War was NOT about slavery. It was about uniting the nation. What supporting evidence is there today that this was indeed the premise…esp when Lincoln executed the Emancipation Proclomation during this... > [@](#): > > Believing that you could or should change the weather by pointing guns at everyone is a disgusting display of hubris. Ladies and gentlemen, the mind of the AGW denier. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/477 "2016-10-07T14:48:30Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > I’m not a confederate apologist. I’m anti-violence and anti-war. I know it shakes many to their core because they try to smear me as a confederate apologist, racist or whatever else they can come up with. > > As for authoritarians like Clinton, Trump, and yourself, they pretend they can do things like manipulate the weather by edict. That is a monumental straw man, and it shows that you are not even aware of the basics. > [@WillFarnaby](#): > > This is the stuff of ancient religions and should be something to laugh at. Of course it’s cloaked in “policy”. This “policy” involves dictating behavior on a colossal scale. Believing that you could or should change the weather by pointing guns at everyone is a disgusting display of hubris. The reality is that fossil fuel companies are the ones that in history were willing to not only put literal guns to people’s faces, but to use them also to get the fuel. That we are finding that we can not use the atmosphere as a sewer and the fossil fuel companies are behind a lot of efforts to inject FUD on people like you is just another thing that those companies should be taken to task for. ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/478 "2016-10-07T14:55:06Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > “When it comes to protecting our country against natural disasters and the threat of climate change, once again, Donald Trump is totally unfit and unqualified” - Clinton > > Clinton and the authoritarian left lack any sense of hubris. They elevate government to an all-powerful status previously reserved for gods. Quetzalcoatl 2016! Just the most simple example of why you’re wrong here: FEMA is in charge of protecting our country from national disasters, and for providing relief to areas attacked. The effectiveness of FEMA has varied _massively_ from administration to administration, with the consistent result being that the people who believe that the government cannot do anything right staff it with trained chimpanzees and it does a piss-poor job, and the people who believe that the government can be a force for good staff it with people who know how to get shit done. And of course, yeah, we impact the weather. Is this somehow news to you? It’s been in the papers for a good 60+ years now; you’d think at some point you’d catch on. > [@WillFarnaby](#): > > As for authoritarians like Clinton, Trump, and yourself, they pretend they can do things like manipulate the weather by edict. Except that’s not what Clinton said. Go back and re-read your own damn quote. You have to interpret that in both the dumbest and most unreasonable way possible to think that Clinton is talking about manipulating the weather. She’s most likely talking about attempts to curb anthropogenic global warming - something that will, as a whole, be _extremely_ negative, and which Trump doesn’t even believe _exists_. She could also very easily be talking about things like FEMA, which provide relief during and after major national disasters, or regulatory standards that help insure that if such a disaster does, in fact, strike, we’ll be prepared (and we all know what Trump’s opinion on such silly things as fire codes are). Things that are very much the government’s job, because _nobody else is going to do them otherwise, and if they don’t get done, people fucking die_. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/479 "2016-10-07T14:55:32Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > You realize people _remember your username_ from one thread to another, correct? I realize that his defense of the Confederacy has no relevance to his incoherent arguments here, and that bringing them up is an ad hominem that does nothing to encourage debate. Farnaby, if you genuinely think that Clinton, Trump et al think that they can “manipulate the weather by edict,” you’re very badly misunderstanding. If on the other hand you think that regulations are incapable of altering behavior on a major scale, you’re misunderstanding humans very badly. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/482 "2016-10-07T14:58:29Z")
> [@Skywolf](#): > > I prefer(not support) Trump over Clinton. Trump is an idiot businessman and Clinton is a traitorous criminal and I’d rather have an idiot businessman as president. Clinton is not a traitorous criminal. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277.md?page=23) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277.md?page=25)