Now that Trump has the Republican Presidential nomination locked up are there any thoughts on his Presidential campaign? I see two quite different possibilities:
He’s already moving towards the center, he’s even making some call outs to try and attract disillusioned Bernie voters who want an anti-establishment candidate. This actually makes some sense, Trump is against massive corporate power grabs like the TPP / TTIP and against overseas military adventures. There is some percentage of Bernie voters that would choose him as a protest vote against “more of the same”.
He will obviously lose some of his fanatical right wing followers along the way, but what are they going to do? Vote for Clinton?
If I would have seen this thread a year ago I’d probably reported you for trolling.
We live in interesting times.
And remember kids, “may you live in interesting times” is not a blessing, but a curse.
I’ve remarked before that Trump’s campaign tactics have very closely resembled (in my non-expert opinion) the behaviors of a primate in the wild. Holy crap, now I found a reference for it, from an actual primatologist
The primatologist in the article goes on to say the chimps have two alpha behavior modes, and suggests Trump will shift to a more nice-guy alpha, at least for as long as the threats to his alpha-dom die down. I suspect we'll get much more of his craziness as he goes directly against Hillary. Remember, when he's fighting for dominance his default is ape-ville bat-shit-crazy, so you may not get much more than lip service to the Republican establishment in that mode.
What swing states can Trump win in the general?
Nevada?
Ohio?
Florida?
Virginia?
North Carolina? (I still have a hard time accepting NC as a swing state, I suppose I’d give Trump NC)
I’d add Wisconsin to that.
Walker’s political machine was against Trump during the primary. Walker and his establishment won’t campaign against Trump during the general.
Since the Wisconsin primary Trump has said positive things about Walker and has named him as a possible running mate.
Walker will endorse Trump.
Wisconsin will turn red for the first time since Reagan.
No, Yes, No, Maybe, Yes.
The good news is that Trump will get even poorer Hispanic support than most Republicans. Therefore the Democrats easily win the normally swing states of Florida, Nevada, Colorado.
The risk is that angry blue-collar white voters will turn out in droves and vote for Trump. In addition to heavily-white Iowa, Ohio and New Hampshire, a small shift turns Wisconsin and Pennsylvania into swing states (though many on this Board complain when these are labeled “swing”). If Trump gets all these and Virginia he gets 277 EV and the Oval Office. (He gets enough EV if he loses Iowa or New Hampshire, though he can’t afford to lose both.)
Very unlikely perhaps … but keep your fingers crossed. Rumors of e-mail indictment? Terror malarkey? The betting sites put Trump Presidency at 30% right now. :eek:
The dust is still settling… Cruz is out and it looks like Kasich might be done eating his way across the country and will be suspending his campaign later today. Anyway, bottom line is that Donald J. Trump is now the presumptive Republican nominee for president. With the primary behind him, I figured we should go ahead and get a fresh General Election thread going.
So how do you think this will play out? Will there be any policy debates to speak of or will it just be an insult-fest for the next six months.
Who does he pick as VP? Does he agree to participate in 1-on-1 debates? Will he hurt down-ticket races as much as people are saying?
As far as who he’ll pick for VP goes, right now it’s a matter of who is willing to accept the job.
I think you’ll find that to be a pretty lengthy list. Power is power and now that there are no other Republicans running against him, people can come out of the woodwork to line up behind Trump. I won’t be surprised to see some high-profile establishment endorsements being rolled out before the end of today.
I don’t see how it isn’t Chris Christie.
[ul]He’s a lapdog.[/ul]
[ul]He has nothing left to lose. [/ul]
[ul]Even if he wore a dress and set his hair on fire, there’s no possible chance he’d ever upstage The Donald.[/ul]
[ul]He brings executive political experience to the ticket.[/ul]
[ul]He has the same New York/Jersey attitude Donald has.[/ul]
Kasich dropped out too so only Trump is left ! SHIT ! Some newspapers are saying the GOP is dead , the whole country will goes down the tube if Trump win in Nov !
I will submit this idea for Hillary’s consideration: Don’t even debate him. Just say something like: Hey, we’re gonna shut this down for now, and pick it back up near November. Hang loose.
Oh, he can’t do that! It would be an admission of mortality!
Who’s going to buy that ticket on the Titanic and be Trump’s running mate? I say get about 20 guys in a room and draw straws. Short straw has to do it, no fair committing suicide to avoid the job.
I’d like to know who the following plan to vote for:
Mitt Romney
John McCain
Bob Dole
Despite not being a huge fan of all of those guys, I could have lived with them as President. I wonder if any of them will admit they are voting for Hilary Clinton this time. Or reveal they are voting third part. Or abstaining.
I’ve said for a while that Kasich would be a perfect running mate but I think Trump would have to promise to be a one termer to get him on board. Isaid this in the Hillary General thread but it’s more appropriate here:
Personally, I don’t think Trump is just going to keep hammering on the same old scandals, at least he shouldn’t. Free trade issues is a good lever for him so he can hammer at her flip flopping on TPP and the Columbian trade deal. He should highlight every suspicious international donor to the Clinton fund. Another lever is foreign military involvement. There’s plenty of grist for the mill in Clinton’s hawkishness or at least her believing America is the world’s police. He could also seek to downplay how different they are on border security i.e. they both want a secure southern border but Clinton just doesn’t want as big a wall. I think if Trump is innovative like this and just let’s people remember the old scandals on their own, he might give her a scare.
A lot of people see the position as stepping on a landmine-little chance of winning, and a great chance of being shunned by the GOP Proper.