# Donald Trump's 2016 General Election Campaign
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901
**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:** 300
### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2016, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/5983 "2016-09-08T05:42:17Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#):
>
> I’ve been over this in other threads, but I don’t find totalling up the statements PolitiFact decided to rate to be compelling evidence.
So what method do you propose?
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### Author:  [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2016, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/5984 "2016-09-08T06:02:28Z")
As a mathtard, I don’t delve much into statistical models, took me a week to grasp what that Greek guy was saying about triangles. A right triangle, not a wrong one. Its kinda fuzzy.
So maybe that’s just a prejudice, a kind of sour grapes, thinking that something I can’t grasp isn’t all that important.
But last week in Michigan, Hillary 45%, Trump 42%, and this week its reversed! the Trump march to victory has begun! Maybe. (Just an example, the actual numbers in Michigan, I could look up, but won’t bother…)
But then there’s stuff that shows that Hillary might have a shot in Texas! Now, that is a clap of thunder! We all pretty much know that, down the road, Texas will get all blueish. (“Are you Blueish? You don’t _look_ Blueish!”). But five years, ten, maybe… Now, granted, just because more people in Texas \*want \*to vote for Hillary is no reason to think they will _get_ to. Because, well, Texas. And Republicans.
If Hillary is competitive in fucking Texas and Mississippi!..then the trajectory of the shit is about to intersect of locus of the fan. Sure, precisely why Trump may win Texas by 2%, an interesting question. A more interesting question is why its even in doubt!
And we live in interesting times…
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### Author:  [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2016, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/5985 "2016-09-08T06:02:51Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#):
>
> The latest “big news” poll that had Trump in the lead was CNN’s from yesterday, at Trump +2. Right at the top of [their poll results (PDF)](http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2016/images/09/05/rel13a.-.2016.post-labor.day.pdf), they say:
This poll used a data sample that was 50% non-college educated whites, a demographic that supports Trump but is a much smaller percentage of the population. In other words, the poll oversampled the people most likely to support Donald Trump.
I don’t think there’s much value in trying to “unskew” the poll but there’s also no real value to trying to draw conclusions about it.
[http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/donald-trump-poll-cnn-msnbc-227804](http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/donald-trump-poll-cnn-msnbc-227804)
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### Author:  [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2016, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/5986 "2016-09-08T06:05:34Z")
> [@running\_coach](#):
>
> Invalid in what way? Or do you believe Politifact is invalid?
> if so, demonstrate.
Here’s one example: the issue of whether Hillary Clinton released all her work-related emails or not. On the one hand, she claimed, back in April “… I have now put out all of my emails” and we can contrast that with Chris Christie’s claim in July that HRC “said all work-related emails were sent back to the State Department. The FBI director said, that’s not true.”
So how did Politifact score that issue?
Well, [HRC got a “Half-True” rating for her April claim](http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/apr/03/hillary-clinton/hillary-clinton-i-have-now-put-out-all-my-emails/), but [Christie got a “True” rating for his July claim](http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/jul/19/chris-christie/stamp-one-correct-chris-christie-says-clinton-wron/). Huh? Politifact says it’s “True” that the FBI Director said Clinton’s claim of having returned all work-related emails to the State Department was “not true”, and yet somehow Clinton’s claim is “Half-True”. Do you see a problem here? You ought to.
But if we just total up Clinton’s ratings, she gets to add another one to Half-True, instead of something that probably deserves a “Mostly False”, “False” or “Pants of Fire” rating, at least according to the Director of the FBI. And the little chart that you linked to get to misrepresent her dishonesty as “half-true”.
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### Author:  [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2016, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/5987 "2016-09-08T06:05:58Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#):
>
> On the economy, for example, I’m not surprised that people think Trump’s the better choice. He spends a ton of his time talking about the economy. Hillary, comparatively little I think.
Cite, please, for details of Trump’s economic plans?
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### Author:  [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2016, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/5988 "2016-09-08T06:09:01Z")
> [@Merneith](#):
>
> Cite, please, for details of Trump’s economic plans?
[https://www.donaldjtrump.com/positions/economic-vision](https://www.donaldjtrump.com/positions/economic-vision)
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### Author:  [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2016, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/5989 "2016-09-08T06:12:08Z")
> [@running\_coach](#):
>
> So what method do you propose?
Well, I think the collective conclusion of the majority of likely voters is a pretty good indication. A majority of people polled think she’s dishonest. She appears to be dishonest to me. Even when she’s being technically correct, she is so into lawerly-parsing of her statements to attempt to obscure her faults and misdeeds that it comes across as sleazy and evasive. Remember the FBI “security inquiry”? That was a classic Clinton moment.
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### Author:  [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2016, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/5990 "2016-09-08T06:15:48Z")
> [@Merneith](#):
>
> This poll used a data sample that was 50% non-college educated whites, a demographic that supports Trump but is a much smaller percentage of the population. In other words, the poll oversampled the people most likely to support Donald Trump.
>
> I don’t think there’s much value in trying to “unskew” the poll but there’s also no real value to trying to draw conclusions about it.
>
> [http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/donald-trump-poll-cnn-msnbc-227804](http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/donald-trump-poll-cnn-msnbc-227804)
Yes, only an aggregate analysis gives a close-to-accurate picture.
> [@HurricaneDitka](#):
>
> Well, I think the collective conclusion of the majority of likely voters is a pretty good indication. A majority of people polled think she’s dishonest.
Anyone who thinks Clinton is more dishonest than Trump is either a liar, an imbecile, or totally deluded.
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2016, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/5991 "2016-09-08T06:22:47Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#):
>
> Well, I think the collective conclusion of the majority of likely voters is a pretty good indication. A majority of people polled think she’s dishonest. She appears to be dishonest to me. Even when she’s being technically correct, she is so into lawerly-parsing of her statements to attempt to obscure her faults and misdeeds that it comes across as sleazy and evasive. Remember the FBI “security inquiry”? That was a classic Clinton moment.
Unlike all those honest politicians who normally run for president.
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### Author:  [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2016, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/5992 "2016-09-08T06:28:09Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#):
>
> Unlike all those honest politicians who normally run for president.
She and Trump are polling particularly bad in this area, worse than the usual run-of-the-mill politicians who run for President.
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### Author:  [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2016, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/5993 "2016-09-08T06:38:38Z")
**Hurr**? That’s the Plan? And you read it? Nodded your head, stroked your chin, and thought “Yes! Here is a _Plan_!”. Any part of it you think may not be all that well thought out?
This one, just for instance:
> [@](#):
>
> …Remove bureaucrats who only know how to kill jobs; replace them with experts who know how to create jobs…
The details are a bit fuzzy. So, we fire the bureaucrats and hire the experts. Is there a test we can give them, make sure they are experts? Did Trump University have a Public Policy program?
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### Author:  [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2016, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/5994 "2016-09-08T06:59:32Z")
Did the whole “cybersecurity” issue come up here yet?
> **[Donald Trump doesn’t have much of an opinion on this new-fangled ‘cyber’ thing](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/09/06/donald-trump-doesnt-have-much-of-an-opinion-on-this-new-fangled-cyber-thing/)**
>
> And he doesn't offer much detail on how cyberwarfare can be deployed against the Islamic State.
“You have described at times different components of a strategy,” the moderator — retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, a Trump supporter — asked, according to a transcript from CBS News’ Sopan Deb. "Military, cyber, financial and ideological. Can you just expand on those four a little bit?"
“Well, that’s it. And you know cyber is becoming so big today. It’s becoming something that a number of years ago, short number of years ago, wasn’t even a word. And now the cyber is so big. And you know you look at what they’re doing with the Internet, how they’re taking and recruiting people through the Internet. And part of it is the psychology because so many people think they’re winning. Any you know, there’s a whole big thing. Even today’s psychology — where CNN came out with a big poll. Their big poll came out today that Trump is winning. It’s good psychology, you know. It’s good psychology. I know that for a fact because people they didn’t call me yesterday, they’re calling me today. So that’s the way life works, right?”
That’s not an answer to the (softball) question. In fact, that’s barely even coherent. “And now the cyber is so big.” That doesn’t sound like a presidential candidate, that sounds like Miss Teen North Carolina on a bad day! But seriously, look at this answer. Trump tries to respond on the issue of cybersecurity by talking about terrorists on social media. That’s the closest his word salad gets to an answer before he dives off into a diversion about how good his poll numbers are.
What the fuck.
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### Author:  [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2016, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/5995 "2016-09-08T07:06:29Z")
> [@elucidator](#):
>
> The details are a bit fuzzy. So, we fire the bureaucrats and hire the experts. Is there a test we can give them, make sure they are experts? Did Trump University have a Public Policy program?
Aren’t there a bunch more Trump kids waiting in the wings? Baron could be Secretary of Thinking Big Thoughts.
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### Author:  [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2016, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/5996 "2016-09-08T07:35:11Z")
> [@coremelt](#):
>
> Disgusting! If anyone had any doubts about what a Trump presidency would be like this should end them. Siphoning off as much tax payer money as possible to himself and his children, driving the US more into debt. Corrupt Trump!, put him in Jail!
If any of y’all want a good idea of what a Trump presidency could be like, look into South Africa’s current incumbent (or most any Third World dictator)
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### Author:  [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2016, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/5997 "2016-09-08T08:01:27Z")
> [@running\_coach](#):
>
> Invalid in what way? Or do you believe Politifact is invalid?
> if so, demonstrate.
Politifact does not use their own data in that way, since Politifact does not analyze every statement made by the candidates, nor does it assess lies vs. simply not having your facts straight in most cases. It also does not measure significance of statements. By simply counting Politifact data, Clinton saying, “38% of black children live in poverty” has the same significance as saying, “My email system was allowed”. Since Clinton has a very good campaign team, she gets to cite a lot of facts and figures that are put in her speeches for her, which can run up her “True” and “Mostly True” scores. Meanwhile, most of her “Pants on Fire” and “False” moments have to do with her trying to protect herself from allegations of wrongdoing. So no, she does not get to cancel those out by packing her speeches with policy facts.
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### Author:  [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2016, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/5998 "2016-09-08T09:04:26Z")
> [@adaher](#):
>
> Invalid methodology. Geez, liberals will fall for anything that claims to be data driven and has a cool chart.
I do so miss the days when you were telling us how all the polls showing Romney losing were “skewed” …
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### Author:  [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2016, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/5999 "2016-09-08T09:10:23Z")
Now it’s your side. Again.
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### Author:  [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2016, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/6000 "2016-09-08T09:12:51Z")
> [@adaher](#):
>
> Now it’s your side. Again.
Bullshit, unless you’re just talking about cranks. And bullshit that Trump and some of his supporters aren’t still unskewing polls.
I wish you’d try not to say false things so often.
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### Author:  [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2016, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/6001 "2016-09-08T09:16:30Z")
So are you going to tell us the basis of your “invalid” claim or aren’t you?
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### Author:  [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2016, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/6002 "2016-09-08T09:17:39Z")
First tell me how a 2 point lead makes for a 90% chance of winning on Clinton’s part. Did you miss all the liberal Dopers who think Silver is wrong this year?
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