### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2016, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/1451 "2016-10-10T17:33:15Z")
CLINTON HACKED EMAIL SHOCKER:
>
Harvey Weinstein wrote her an unsolicited, and crude, email suggesting she use Sandy Hook shootings against Bernie.
Clinton, just barely I’m sure, did not follow this sage advice.
(In case y’all are wondering what the Trumpeteers are shouting about this lunch break.)
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### Author:  [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2016, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/1452 "2016-10-10T17:33:21Z")
> [@JohnT](#):
>
> [GOP Officials give OK for GOP to distance themselves from Trump](http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/ryan-to-house-lawmakers-i-wont-defend-trump-229541)
>
> "Speaker Paul Ryan told Republican lawmakers on a conference call Monday morning that… he “won’t defend Trump” or campaign with him before the election…
>
> Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) also told lawmakers to take a deep breath and focus on their own races."
The choice of words is interesting. Ryan is basically saying that he can no longer defend the indefensible, and moreover, apparently acknowledges that the only real race any more is at the Congressional level:
“He will spend his entire energy making sure that Hillary Clinton does not get a blank check with a Democrat-controlled Congress,” said the person on the call — an implied acknowledgment that Donald Trump no longer appears able to capture the White House.
> **[Paul Ryan said he won’t defend Donald Trump | CNN Politics](https://www.cnn.com/2016/10/10/politics/paul-ryan-said-he-wont-defend-donald-trump/index.html)**
>
> House Speaker Paul Ryan dealt his own party’s presidential nominee a withering blow Monday, telling fellow Republicans he will no longer defend Donald Trump and will instead use the next 29 days to focus on preserving his party’s hold on Congress.
Meanwhile the only reason Pence is still on board is that his calculus is different from that of Ryan and the other defecting Republicans – there is little downside for Pence in staying on, and potential political gains and maybe Palinesque mercenary exploitation in his future. The choice of words here was interesting too – Pence described how “honored” he was at being nominated to the VP position _ **by the Republican Party** _. And that was no coincidence; [as the _Washington Post_ said](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/10/09/donald-trump-and-mike-pences-relationship-just-took-a-nosedive/),
Sometimes it feels like Pence and Trump have been running parallel campaigns. But up until this weekend, neither candidate had acknowledged just how much they disagree. Now, the gloves are off.
Perhaps the next thing we’ll be hearing from Pence is “Donald who?” 😃
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### Author:  [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2016, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/1453 "2016-10-10T17:48:20Z")
[ ](http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20161010/756d728ec9def20e0cc8bc8c82a6b935.jpg)
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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### Author:  [@aurora\_maire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aurora_maire)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2016, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/1454 "2016-10-10T17:53:16Z")
> [@AnalogSignal](#):
>
> The freefall continues. Paul Ryan is finally off the Trumptanic! He instructs Republicans, “you all need to do what’s best for you and your district.” In other words, he green lights abandoning Trump.
>
> Pence is looking shaky. Trump dissed him in the debate and he is cancelling appearances left and right. Will he survive the week?
>
> Pence was never a good fit for Trump anyway. He should be replaced by Billy Bush. The two of them were like peas in a pod on the Access Hollywood bus. Think about the headlines: Trump-Bush make a Whitehouse _ **Grab** _ in 2016.
I was just home for lunch and checked the news. Pence was giving a speech about what an honorable man Trump is and how last night he proved it by admitting he was wrong and apologizing to the American public. :smack: (No links yet that I could find.)
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### Author:  [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2016, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/1455 "2016-10-10T17:55:09Z")
Looking at those poll numbers, I can already hear the Trumpanzees saying that he would have won if that Johnson fellow hadn’t been in the race.
Sorry guys, this time the crazy is the Republican candidate, not the third party candidate.
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### Author:  [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2016, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/1456 "2016-10-10T18:09:20Z")
> [@aurora\_maire](#):
>
> I wasn’t sure which thread to put this in but it really is about the campaign more than the debate.
>
> [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/10/10/trumps-debate-plan-to-seat-bill-clintons-accusers-in-family-box-was-thwarted/?hpid=hp\_hp-top-table-main\_pp-accusers-210am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/10/10/trumps-debate-plan-to-seat-bill-clintons-accusers-in-family-box-was-thwarted/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_pp-accusers-210am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory)
>
> Now this is the work of some truly deplorable people - a Jerry Springer level stunt that Rudy Giuliani and Steve Bannon tried to pull off at the debate and one that Trump approved of. These are the “best people” he has hired to help him. Can you imagine President Trump pulling something like this on a world leader he disagrees with? This really makes me furious. This is not a reality show! It scares me that people think things like this are fine from someone who wants to be the leader of the free world.
> [@Rudy Giuliani](#):
>
> But I knew the minute we got pushback that we had gotten into their heads. [Hillary Clinton] was rattled. They were rattled.
Frankly, if that’s how Mrs. Clinton comports herself when “rattled”, I’m impressed with her composure.
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### Author:  [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2016, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/1457 "2016-10-10T18:12:09Z")
> [@aurora\_maire](#):
>
> I was just home for lunch and checked the news. Pence was giving a speech about what an honorable man Trump is and how last night he proved it by admitting he was wrong and apologizing to the American public. :smack: (No links yet that I could find.)
Given the scarcity of options, that was about as good a choice as he had. And if absolutely, positively nothing else emerges, it might even work! If.
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### Author:  [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2016, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/1458 "2016-10-10T18:23:02Z")
> [@RickJay](#):
>
> … Trump’s campaign ended tonight.
> He COULD have maybe given himself a sliver of hope by, well,acting like a decent person. By truly apologizing, and by admitting fault and saying he didn’t want to divide people, that he genuinely wanted to help people and he just wasn’t good at expressing himself. He could have joked at his own expense and said something like “I’m clumsy and arrogant… I try to be nice and I keep failing. But however bad I am at public speaking, and as you can see Sec. Clinton is ten times better at this that I am, I want to help. I love this country and everyone in it and I am going to change its direction for the better and prove my stupid words can be made up for my great deeds.”
> But he can’t say those things because he doesn’t believe them, because he’s a horrible person.
That, and he knows that saying any of that would alienate his core followers. They are into the macho refusal to admit to any error; they can’t tolerate the concept of asking for anything (it should all be theirs for the taking!)
If Trump were to humble himself by saying he wants forgiveness so that he can better serve the nation, he would earn their utter and complete contempt. The deplorables would find that to be an inexcusable violation of machismo.
And Trump, friendless sad-toddler that he is, _cannot live without their adulation_. Nothing on earth would convince him that he’d be better off with the approval of a _wider_ swath of voters, because acquiring the approval of the wider electorate would mean giving up the worship of those who’ve anointed him the Alpha Male in Chief.
(The sad irony in all this is that the posturing that makes Trump appealing to the deplorables, makes him ridiculous and comical to the rest of us. To thinking people, Trump is the furthest thing possible from being “a man.” He’s a pitiful arrested-development case.)
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### Author:  [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2016, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/1459 "2016-10-10T18:25:29Z")
Maybe not so much the “alpha male” as the “alpha lemming”. The one who screams “Follow ME!” as he flings himself off the cliff. 'Course, almost always is a male, because we’re kinda stupid.
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### Author:  [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2016, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/1460 "2016-10-10T18:38:47Z")
[Trump deliberately bursts into dressing rooms of naked beauty contestants…because he can](http://www.redstate.com/patterico/2016/10/09/trump-sure-deliberately-burst-naked-beauty-contestants/)
> [@Donald Trump](#):
>
> “Well, what you could also say is that, as the owner of the pageant, it’s your obligation to do that,” Trump said, before discussing how he got away with going backstage when the contestants were naked.
>
> “Well, I’ll tell you the funniest is that before a show, I’ll go backstage and everyone’s getting dressed, and everything else, and you know, no men are anywhere, and I’m allowed to go in because I’m the owner of the pageant and therefore I’m inspecting it,” Trump said. “You know, I’m inspecting because I want to make sure that everything is good.”
>
> "You know, the dresses. ‘Is everyone okay?’ You know, they’re standing there with no clothes.
>
> ‘Is everybody okay?’ And you see these incredible looking women, and so, I sort of get away with things like that. But no, I’ve been very good," he added.
You hear that, ladies? Elect President Trump and we’ll be subjected to him walking into our bathrooms since he believes his power grants him this privilege. And who are we tell him to get out? He’s a star, right?
Sheeit. The Republicans made a yuuuge deal about transgendered folks _potentially_ doing what Trump has repeatedly bragged about doing. I know the irony is hilarious, but the hypocrisy of it all is mind-blowingly disgusting.
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### Author:  [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2016, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/1461 "2016-10-10T18:40:17Z")
> [@elucidator](#):
>
> Maybe not so much the “alpha male” as the “alpha lemming”. The one who screams “Follow ME!” as he flings himself off the cliff. 'Course, almost always is a male, because we’re kinda stupid.
Now, now. Let’s not let Disney-faked footage lead us into shaky generalizations.
But the fact remains that Trump won’t do anything to annoy his fans because he’s so emotionally needy. He can’t imagine life without them, and he’ll give up his sadly-real chance at the Presidency in order to keep them happy. (Which must be giving his kids fits.)
That the fans are there for the bizarre gender-role pretensions he’s acting out–I am the KING! I do as I PLEASE! I’m NEVER wrong! To the MOON, Alice!–is almost irrelevant. Not completely (because power-hierarchy stuff is pretty central to the human psyche)…but almost.
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### Author:  [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2016, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-v-trump-the-stretch-run-thread/767277/1462 "2016-10-10T18:45:10Z")
I think we all owe Donald Trump a debt of gratitude. Just think. No longer will the Right subject us to lectures about “character” ever again. It turns out it doesn’t really matter after all.
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