# 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:** 24
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/461 "2016-05-17T12:14:18Z")
“I didn’t know” is by definition an admission of ignorance, without having to get into details. He admitted ignorance, considered it a virtue that absolved him of direct responsibility, and then goes and lectures Trump on the same subject. It is clear that Obama considers academic ignorance to be a bigger sin than operational ignorance. “Hey, I know constitutional law, I know that global warming is caused by humans, and I know that Iran is a Persian, not Arab country. I have no idea that the VA is falsifying wait times in a widespread manner, I’m ignorant of the progress of my health care website, I am unaware that conservative groups are being targeted by the IRS, and I’m completely unaware that my administration is stonewalling FOIA requests and that this is going on in nearly every department. And I certainly know nothing about spying on foreign leaders. But hey, I got an A in economics and Trump got a D! Neener neener!” ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/462 "2016-05-17T12:30:47Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > “I didn’t know” is by definition an admission of ignorance, without having to get into details. He admitted ignorance, considered it a virtue that absolved him of direct responsibility, and then goes and lectures Trump on the same subject. > > It is clear that Obama considers academic ignorance to be a bigger sin than operational ignorance. “Hey, I know constitutional law, I know that global warming is caused by humans, and I know that Iran is a Persian, not Arab country. I have no idea that the VA is falsifying wait times in a widespread manner, I’m ignorant of the progress of my health care website, I am unaware that conservative groups are being targeted by the IRS, and I’m completely unaware that my administration is stonewalling FOIA requests and that this is going on in nearly every department. And I certainly know nothing about spying on foreign leaders. But hey, I got an A in economics and Trump got a D! Neener neener!” Well, if we’re going to put things in quotes that no one ever said, I’ll just quote you not saying “Pay me no mind, folks, I’m really just here to advertise for the Republican party!” ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/463 "2016-05-17T12:35:27Z")
> [@truthSeeker2](#): > > That’s right. But do it like Putin did. Say good things about Trump if you want to and also say _its not your (Putin’s) business but upto the people of America to elect him or not_. > > \*\*El\_Kabong \*\*is bringing some useless online petitions which mean nothing and should be thrown into dustbin. > > David Cameron hits out at Donald Trump’s ‘stupid’ comments . This video has twice as many dislikes on Cameron than likes and read the comments to know the opinion of people including from UK. This is also useless but less useless than online petitions by few people. So a petition with the names of UK citizens goes in the dustbin, but a bunch of ‘likes’ (or dislikes) for a Youtube video, most of which are probably not from UK citizens, does not. What a joke. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/464 "2016-05-17T12:44:32Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > “I didn’t know” is by definition an admission of ignorance, without having to get into details. He admitted ignorance, considered it a virtue that absolved him of direct responsibility, and then goes and lectures Trump on the same subject. > > It is clear that Obama considers academic ignorance to be a bigger sin than operational ignorance. “Hey, I know constitutional law, I know that global warming is caused by humans, and I know that Iran is a Persian, not Arab country. I have no idea that the VA is falsifying wait times in a widespread manner, I’m ignorant of the progress of my health care website, I am unaware that conservative groups are being targeted by the IRS, and I’m completely unaware that my administration is stonewalling FOIA requests and that this is going on in nearly every department. And I certainly know nothing about spying on foreign leaders. But hey, I got an A in economics and Trump got a D! Neener neener!” So a President must never say “I don’t know” about anything? And no other President has said “I don’t know” about anything ever? Or are you saying that Obama says “I don’t know” more often than others? If so, cite. Otherwise, I don’t believe you at all and will assume that this is just more **adaher** fantasy stuff. ---
**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:** [May 17, 2016, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/465 "2016-05-17T13:49:45Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > So a petition with the names of UK citizens goes in the dustbin, but a bunch of ‘likes’ (or dislikes) for a Youtube video, most of which are probably not from UK citizens, does not. What a joke. 90 Likes + 181 Dislikes over almost 5 months isn’t exactly going viral, either. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/466 "2016-05-17T14:57:57Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > “I didn’t know” is by definition an admission of ignorance, without having to get into details. He admitted ignorance, considered it a virtue that absolved him of direct responsibility, and then goes and lectures Trump on the same subject. > > It is clear that Obama considers academic ignorance to be a bigger sin than operational ignorance. “Hey, I know constitutional law, I know that global warming is caused by humans, and I know that Iran is a Persian, not Arab country. I have no idea that the VA is falsifying wait times in a widespread manner, I’m ignorant of the progress of my health care website, I am unaware that conservative groups are being targeted by the IRS, and I’m completely unaware that my administration is stonewalling FOIA requests and that this is going on in nearly every department. And I certainly know nothing about spying on foreign leaders. But hey, I got an A in economics and Trump got a D! Neener neener!” Wait…we can now make arguments by just fabricating quotes? “I’m too arrogant and willfully ignorant to be President.” - Donald J. Trump. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/467 "2016-05-17T15:10:14Z")
P.M. Carpenter, a blogger I’ve cited a few times here (much to someone or other’s annoyance, but fuck it) has [a nice rundown](http://www.pmcarpenter.com/2016/05/how-to-take-trump-down-a-few-thoughts.html) of the way to destroy The Donald. He first cites [Charles Blow’s latest column](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/16/opinion/trumps-asymmetric-warfare.html?_r=0), which makes trenchant observations about Drumpf, but then pivots to handwringing about how difficult it is to take on someone so shameless, who practices “asymmetrical warfare”. Carpenter scoffs at this last notion, rightly in my view. He quotes from a [New Yorker piece](http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/trump-and-obama-a-night-to-remember) in 2011, recapping the White House Correspondent’s Dinner, at which President Obama got in some good burns against Drumpf: > [@](#): > > Seated a few tables away from us magazine scribes, Trump’s humiliation was as absolute, and as visible, as any I have ever seen: his head set in place, like a man in a pillory, he barely moved or altered his expression as wave after wave of laughter struck him. There was not a trace of feigning good humor about him, not an ounce of the normal politician’s, or American regular guy’s “Hey, good one on me!” attitude — that thick-skinned cheerfulness that almost all American public people learn, however painfully, to cultivate. No head bobbing or hand-clapping or chin-shaking or sheepish grinning — he sat perfectly still, chin tight, in locked, unmovable rage. Carpenter concludes: > [@](#): > > He possesses the thinnest skin of any American politician since Nixon of ‘62. He is the irascible witness every cross-examining attorney moves to effortless rattling. Question his genitals’ dimensions and he makes an enormous ass of himself; ridicule “the kinds of decisions” Trump’s “Celebrity Apprentice” required and he’s reduced to “unmovable rage.” Needle him, belittle him, chronically squeeze him as the little man that he is — just as Obama did so acutely in 2011 — and he’ll pop. > > It is precisely his outsized “manliness” that makes him so vulnerable — so unmanly. His womanizing need for self-reassurance, his compulsion to grossly amplify his wealth, his incessant boastfulness about his awesome power to always have his way — Trump is a crawling bundle of inadequacy and self-doubt. In fact, Mr. Blow, I have never seen a clown so effectively assailable on the grounds of mockery. It’s the one thing, as President Obama showed, that he can’t tolerate. Now, that’s not to say that Hillary should necessarily do the job herself. But she will have a running mate, and any number of other surrogates who can needle Drumpf on her behalf. And he will respond by blowing his top, and look so very thin-skinned, and weak, and unmanly, and just pitiful, in the way that makes you just cringe and look away. That will, I think, be more repellant to many voters (the most important ones, who are actually on the fence) than his aggressive and hostile demagoguery, or even his racism and sexism, which people normally think of as his most salient negative attributes. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/468 "2016-05-17T15:19:13Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > Wait…we can now make arguments by just fabricating quotes? > > “I’m too arrogant and willfully ignorant to be President.” - Donald J. Trump. “Republicans are uniformly racist.” - Reince Priebus “I’m pro-life in order to punish women. I hate women.” - Ted Cruz Whee, this is fun! But somehow I don’t think anyone finds my “quotes” compelling. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/469 "2016-05-17T15:48:36Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > But I can guarantee you that people back then weren’t getting their panties in a twist over every imaginable grievance under the sun. People didn’t feel they had a Constitutional right not to be offended by anything and everything under the sun, nor did they feel it was incumbent upon society to accommodate their every whim or desire. And they certainly didn’t feel they had the right to get in the face of and be abusive toward anyone whose behavior didn’t fall in line with what the aggressor (read SJW) thought it should. And most importantly most people managed to get through life not thinking of themselves as helpless victims of some sort who needed to be protected and shielded from life. > > Put simply, most things weren’t a big deal to most people back then. People tended to react to things they didn’t like or approve of with a shrug and a realization that life wasn’t perfect. Then they put it behind them and got on with their lives. Well, when you put it that way . . . the former is a much healthier attitude than the latter, isn’t it? Far better **not** to just assume you have to take shit because that’s how life is. Because that’s how life isn’t – the shit can be **changed.** ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/470 "2016-05-17T15:53:43Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > One would think that if the left were really as concerned with human suffering as they attempt to project through attempts to eliminate any form of offense and see to it that society is forced to accommodate whichever whim or inclination anyone might want to indulge, it would turn all its SJW power on drug use and fight it with at least a modicum of the intensity brought to bear on…oh, I don’t know…such issues as whether mothers can breast feed in public or people can use whatever bathroom they want. Fighting drug use leads to nothing good, we’ve already seen that. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/471 "2016-05-17T15:57:26Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Fighting drug use leads to nothing good, we’ve already seen that. Plus, you know, Freedom. I thought conservatives wanted people to make decisions about their own lives and have the government leave us alone. Now, SA is advocating more funding for people who\* want \*treatment for their addictions, I think that’s an idea everyone can get behind. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/472 "2016-05-17T16:02:36Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Nah, we did it! Grabbed a hold of the Pat Boone, Ozzie 'n Harriet, Beach Boys culture and fucking murdered it. Pissed on its grave and danced naked in the moonlight. No need to thank us, glad to do it. > > And no, the liberals didn’t like us, _nobody_ liked us but us. But you could go to just about any town big enough to have a university, knowing nobody, and within a couple hours meet some nice folks who would make a space for your sleeping bag, feed you and make you welcome. You can’t buy that. You can’t even rent it. > > Figured if we were pissing everybody off, we were on the right track, “the monster that shouted love at the heart of the world”. The reasoning there is a mite shaky, but we were too busy taking drugs and screwing our brains out to worry about it. Then the anti-war guys marched by, and we remembered our brother, our cousin, our friend in The Shit. > > Party’s over. Stuff to do. Are there enough of you left now to do it? ISTM that the New New Left could use a bit of help from old New Lefties. Only, you have to refocus, none of that New Left social-cultural Marcuse shit, it’s all about Old Old Left economics now, redistribution of the wealth, reviving organized labor, breaking the disproportionate political power of the 0.01% and the 1% and the 10%, not sexy stuff but a lot more important now than it was in the '60s. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/473 "2016-05-17T16:07:24Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > I think it’s performance art. I think a bit of Godwinization is entirely appropriate here. Hitler was not a “failed artist”, rather, his whole public career was a form of performance art. But, OTOH, Donald Trump ain’t no artist. He lacks the imagination. ---
**Author:** ![truthSeeker2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7cd45c/32.png) [@truthSeeker2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/truthSeeker2)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/474 "2016-05-17T16:15:16Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > So a petition with the names of UK citizens goes in the dustbin, but a bunch of ‘likes’ (or dislikes) for a Youtube video, most of which are probably not from UK citizens, does not. What a joke. I said both (petitions and likes/dislikes) are useless. One is more useless than the other. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/475 "2016-05-17T16:37:48Z")
> [@truthSeeker2](#): > > I said both (petitions and likes/dislikes) are useless. One is more useless than the other. 😉 100,000 signatures on a petition can force a parliamentary debate in the UK. Yes, online petitions: > **[Petitions - UK Government and Parliament](https://petition.parliament.uk/#petitions-with-debated-outcome)** > > Official online petitions in response to issues of the day, listing the number that got a Government response, and those that have been debated in the House of Parliament ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/476 "2016-05-17T16:50:51Z")
Why are the Beach Boys being lumped in with Pat Boone and Ozzie and Harriet? ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/477 "2016-05-17T16:53:49Z")
> [@truthSeeker2](#): > > I said both (petitions and likes/dislikes) are useless. One is more useless than the other. 😉 I see. Setting aside whatever the hell ‘less useless’ means, perhaps you could now explain by what logic you come to the conclusion that a couple hundred Youtube comments are ‘less useless’ than more than 500,000 petition signatures. Or not. I think I’ve actually got all the information I need to determine whether your opinions are worth paying any attention to. ---
**Author:** ![truthSeeker2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7cd45c/32.png) [@truthSeeker2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/truthSeeker2)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/478 "2016-05-17T17:11:28Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > 100,000 signatures on a petition can force a parliamentary debate in the UK. Yes, online petitions: > [Petitions - UK Government and Parliament](https://petition.parliament.uk/#petitions-with-debated-outcome) I meant for this case, online petition is useless, attention-whoring, annoying, dumb etc. Otherwise, online petitions can be very useful in a democracy for highlighting issues for discussion and action. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/479 "2016-05-17T17:18:31Z")
So you like Trump but don’t like attention whoring? That’s odd. ---
**Author:** ![truthSeeker2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7cd45c/32.png) [@truthSeeker2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/truthSeeker2)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/480 "2016-05-17T17:23:04Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > So you like Trump but don’t like attention whoring? That’s odd. Attention whoring is part of politics (?), Trump is a politician. Outside of politics, it’s not desirable. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901.md?page=23) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901.md?page=25)