# Donald Trump's 2016 General Election Campaign **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [May 4, 2016, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901 "2016-05-04T02:37:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 217
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/4323 "2016-08-16T03:39:01Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Giuliani has finally lost his mind: [No Islamic terrorist attacks in America before Obama took office.](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/rudy-giuliani-claims-successful-radical-islamic-terror-attacks/story?id=41402651) > > Ummm. . . .Rudy? Does 9/11 ring a bell? It was in all the papers and you haven’t shut up about it since it happened. Mr. Noun Verb 9/11 is gone. He sacrificed his whole shtick to Donald Trump, and he will never be back. He just renounced any shred of legitimacy he ever had. Not that it made much of a pile on the altar of Trumpismo, but he ignited it just the same. I can understand how Trump gets people to vote for him and rally for him. I can’t quite understand how he gets people who should be shrewd political operators to sacrifice their careers to him. Maybe one of the things Trump’s doing to the GOP is showing us all just how _terrible_ their politicians are _at being politicians_. Sure, they might be terrible people, and they might be massive hypocrites, but we never really knew that they were horrible at the basic act of politicking until Trump proved them to be fools even on that count. ---
**Author:** ![AnalogSignal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/analogsignal/32/1085_2.png) [@AnalogSignal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnalogSignal)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/4324 "2016-08-16T03:45:02Z")
I want some “extreme vetting” of Melania’s completely bullshit story of flying home every few months to stamp her visa. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/4325 "2016-08-16T04:04:43Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Giuliani has finally lost his mind: [No Islamic terrorist attacks in America before Obama took office.](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/rudy-giuliani-claims-successful-radical-islamic-terror-attacks/story?id=41402651) > > Ummm. . . .Rudy? Does 9/11 ring a bell? It was in all the papers and you haven’t shut up about it since it happened. You know, now that you mention it, I _do_ vaguely remember something about that… ---
**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:** [August 16, 2016, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/4326 "2016-08-16T04:59:10Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > I absolutely agree that the surge in religious activism in schools is a clear and present danger to future generations of Americans. What appalls me is to see physicians who can on the one hand prescribe medicine and reject the anti-vaxx nonsense yet turn around and claim the global warming is a hoax and that evolution is just some sort of hypothesis. > > It’s tempting to say that we just need to beat back religion in schools – and yet I honestly don’t see it happening. Whether we like it or not, we live in a society that was founded in no small part on fundamentalist theology. Sure, I get that the United States itself post-1787 was not, but it’s not like the Framers of the Constitution cleansed American culture and started over with a clean slate. > > We’ve always fought with religious interests and we always will. I think some fights are worth having. I can see disallowing prayers before compulsory school classes or meetings, but even as a non-Christian and non-religious person, I really don’t give a rats ass about taking down religious displays at Christmas time or eliminating prayers and invocations before Friday night football games. All it does is create a perception that religion is under attack, which it’s not, but when people don’t know where lines of common sense ought to be drawn, that’s one possible perception that people who are religious might develop. > > I know it would be controversial with some on the left or among people who aren’t particularly religious, but I sometimes wonder if it might not be bad to just give in a little and allow creationism or intelligent design to be taught in schools as an elective – with the proviso that it is an elective, it’s not mandatory, it cannot replace scientific curricula, and it ought to be acknowledged that scientists do not support these ideas. Nope. This is a digression but I’d like to refer you to the [Texas Freedom Network](http://tfn.org/)–which does include some religious people. Goals include continuing separation of church & state. And support for science. (Texas schools do _not_ teach Creationism/Intelligent Design; some work is needed in the social studies curriculum.) If parents want their kid to learn ID, they should teach it at home. Myth & legend can be studied as an adjunct to literature–not science. So, a Texas-relevant story on the Trump campaign? From the _Texas Tribune_: “[Trump Spokeswoman Katrina Pierson: We All Make Mistakes](https://www.texastribune.org/2016/08/15/katrina-pierson-trump-campaign/).” > [@](#): > > Just about the only person on Donald Trump’s presidential campaign who can overshadow the boss and keep her job is Katrina Pierson — the Texan and Trump spokeswoman who has made waves over a pair of embarrassing on-air flubs. > > But the failed GOP congressional candidate-turned-Trump emissary, who hails from the Dallas suburbs, told The Texas Tribune that her batting average is just fine, and blamed technical snafus for statements that suggested she had little grasp of current events, let alone foreign policy. > > “You could take ten years of history and try to make anyone look crazy,” she said. She blames her errors (like stating President Obama began the War in Afghanistan) on “technical glitches” & a Trump team spokesman says they appreciate her… ---
**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:** [August 16, 2016, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/4327 "2016-08-16T05:02:34Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > Nope. This is a digression but I’d like to refer you to the [Texas Freedom Network](http://tfn.org/)–which does include some religious people. Goals include continuing separation of church & state. And support for science. (Texas schools do _not_ teach Creationism/Intelligent Design; some work is needed in the social studies curriculum.) If parents want their kid to learn ID, they should teach it at home. Myth & legend can be studied as an adjunct to literature–not science. > > So, a Texas-relevant story on the Trump campaign? From the _Texas Tribune_: “[Trump Spokeswoman Katrina Pierson: We All Make Mistakes](https://www.texastribune.org/2016/08/15/katrina-pierson-trump-campaign/).” > > She blames her errors (like stating President Obama began the War in Afghanistan) on “technical glitches” & a Trump team spokesman says they appreciate her… I guess those weren’t the oral talents she was hired for. ---
**Author:** ![AnalogSignal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/analogsignal/32/1085_2.png) [@AnalogSignal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnalogSignal)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/4328 "2016-08-16T05:02:47Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Ummm. . . .Rudy? Does 9/11 ring a bell? It was in all the papers and you haven’t shut up about it since it happened. Obama was the founder of Al Qaeda. You know, Obama bin Laden. So 9/11 is Obama’s fault too. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/4329 "2016-08-16T05:43:34Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > So is Adams going to sign up to help Trump keep an eye on those schvoogies in Pennsylvania? Um, Scott, you aren’t drawing Mallard Fillmore you know. ---
**Author:** ![Junior\_Spaceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Junior\_Spaceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Junior_Spaceman)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/4330 "2016-08-16T05:58:25Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Giuliani has finally lost his mind: [No Islamic terrorist attacks in America before Obama took office.](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/rudy-giuliani-claims-successful-radical-islamic-terror-attacks/story?id=41402651) > > Ummm. . . .Rudy? Does 9/11 ring a bell? It was in all the papers and you haven’t shut up about it since it happened. In his defence ( :smack: ) I’m sure he meant to say the equally idiotic ‘no Islamic terrorist attacks in America _after 9/11_’, which has actually been a Republican/Fox News boast since Obama’s been in office. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/4331 "2016-08-16T06:09:29Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Giuliani has finally lost his mind: [No Islamic terrorist attacks in America before Obama took office.](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/rudy-giuliani-claims-successful-radical-islamic-terror-attacks/story?id=41402651) > > Ummm. . . .Rudy? Does 9/11 ring a bell? It was in all the papers and you haven’t shut up about it since it happened. I’m assuming Giuliani has seen how well crazy statements have worked for Trump and he’s taking the opening steps towards a 2020 run. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/4332 "2016-08-16T06:48:06Z")
How in hell could he even think he could get away with making that claim? Is he looking to pick up the under-20 vote for Trump? What motivates him to plainly and baldfaced lie like that? ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/4333 "2016-08-16T07:04:51Z")
> [@Johnny\_Ace](#): > > How in hell could he even think he could get away with making that claim? Is he looking to pick up the under-20 vote for Trump? > > What motivates him to plainly and baldfaced lie like that? [According to Slate](http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/08/15/rudy_giuliani_did_not_forget_9_11_to_help_trump.html) (?!), he probably meant either _except_ for 9/11 or _since_ 9/11. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/4334 "2016-08-16T09:17:28Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Giuliani has finally lost his mind: [No Islamic terrorist attacks in America before Obama took office.](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/rudy-giuliani-claims-successful-radical-islamic-terror-attacks/story?id=41402651) > > Ummm. . . .Rudy? Does 9/11 ring a bell? It was in all the papers and you haven’t shut up about it since it happened. Nobody remembers the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center. And how when Clinton tried to address this he was accused of ‘wagging the dog’. Fuckers, all of them. ---
**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/4335 "2016-08-16T10:26:47Z")
From my yoof, seems to fit right in: [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbqiCxEIeEo) ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/4336 "2016-08-16T11:22:32Z")
> [@](#): > > But I think there are more potential shocks on the Clinton side because any bad news about Trump’s character or business dealings are already baked into the cake. Gee, the Republicans sure are lucky that nobody remembers all the anti-Clinton attacks launched over the past quarter-century, giving them the ability to stir fresh outrage by recycling them. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/4337 "2016-08-16T11:28:42Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Giuliani has finally lost his mind: [No Islamic terrorist attacks in America before Obama took office.](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/rudy-giuliani-claims-successful-radical-islamic-terror-attacks/story?id=41402651) > > Ummm. . . .Rudy? Does 9/11 ring a bell? It was in all the papers and you haven’t shut up about it since it happened. Well, it has to be somebody’s fault besides Bush- we all know Bush’s term started on Sept 12, 2001. Ghouliani has been milking the corpses of 9/11 for almost 15 years now. Ever since then he’s been basking in the limelight and taking credit for… well there must be something. Time for Gu911ani to crawl back under the rock from whence he came. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/4338 "2016-08-16T11:58:24Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > Mr. Noun Verb 9/11 is gone. He sacrificed his whole shtick to Donald Trump, and he will never be back. > > He just renounced any shred of legitimacy he ever had. Not that it made much of a pile on the altar of Trumpismo, but he ignited it just the same. > > I can understand how Trump gets people to vote for him and rally for him. I can’t quite understand how he gets people who should be shrewd political operators to sacrifice their careers to him. Maybe one of the things Trump’s doing to the GOP is showing us all just how _terrible_ their politicians are _at being politicians_. Sure, they might be terrible people, and they might be massive hypocrites, but we never really knew that they were horrible at the basic act of politicking until Trump proved them to be fools even on that count. Look at the shrewd politicians who have supported him: Christie, Giuliani, Gingrich. They all wanted to be president themselves and completely failed. Trump was their last chance to have at least some taste of the White House, even if nothing more than serving in an advisory role. Now these slim chances are getting slimmer. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/4339 "2016-08-16T12:57:37Z")
> [@standingwave](#): > > [According to Slate](http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/08/15/rudy_giuliani_did_not_forget_9_11_to_help_trump.html) (?!), he probably meant either _except_ for 9/11 or _since_ 9/11. 😕 “Aside from that, Mrs Kennedy, how did you enjoy the parade?” ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/4340 "2016-08-16T13:26:33Z")
Too soon! ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/4341 "2016-08-16T13:27:13Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > So is Adams going to sign up to help Trump keep an eye on those schvoogies in Pennsylvania? Adams has really gone off the deep end regarding the polls and election rigging. As he is prone to do he’s now barreling down a road he knows nothing about. His theory is that… what, that the polls are fixed? How many different ways does that make absolutely no sense whatsoever? I can think, off the top of my head, of five: 1. There is no reason whatsoever for a reputable pollster to fix the poll results on Clinton’s behalf, aside from an unhidably huge payoff, which 2. Would be so massive Clinton couldn’t possibly hide it. 3. Clinton’s campaign has no particular reason to do this; it confers no clear advantage upon her campaign to pretend they are winning if they are losing. Any supposed benefit you can come up with is a vague theory and is countered by a vague theory that it would hurt more than it helps. For one, obviously, encouraging Democrat voters to be complacent in what is actually a close election is crazy. As I have noted in other threads, voter complacency - for which the evidence of any real effect is extremely limited - usually doesn’t matter because it only occurs in blowouts when complacency won’t much change things. But if the election were close, it could change things. 4. Adams’s entire argument collapses anyway because if what he is saying is true, Trump’s campaign would also be fixing the polls and the election. His “BS filter” theory states, in summary: If something has great opportunity for gain and opportunity for cheating, then people will cheat. (To be honest, in theory, he is almost certainly correct.) But then in practice he sneakily assumes, without coming out and saying it but in the structure of his column, that only Clinton cheats. Logically that’s a complete disconnect;\*\* in accordance with his theory BOTH sides should be fixing polls and elections. \*\* And you cannot really construct any sort of coherent, fact-based argument why the Democratic Party would be more capable of this than the Republican Party. 5. That’s not even getting into how goddamn hard it practically is to fix elections. I don’t think Adams is fully aware of the fact that a Presidential election is actually 51 separate elections, every one run different from the last by totally different people. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/4342 "2016-08-16T13:53:21Z")
At least one realtor is ready no matter what happens: [http://www.wkyc.com/img/resize/content.wkyc.com/photo/2016/06/28/Billboard\_1467166511956\_3537681\_ver1.0.jpg?preset=534-401](http://www.wkyc.com/img/resize/content.wkyc.com/photo/2016/06/28/Billboard_1467166511956_3537681_ver1.0.jpg?preset=534-401) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901.md?page=216) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901.md?page=218)