# 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:** 358
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2016, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/7143 "2016-09-23T22:24:20Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > It’s easy to say this in hindsight, but 30-45 days ago everyone here was having a completely different conversation. In fact some of us were wondering whether or not Trump might not, in fact, quit the race. We have short memories. Cruz and a lot of others in the GOP thought Trump was a weak candidate, so Cruz probably felt like he could sit back and tell his voters “I told you so.” Trump is now, for all practical purposes, even with Hillary Clinton in the polls on the eve of the first race. Not necessarily even in national polling but in the electoral college race, Hillary is just barely hanging on to her advantage. Cruz wasn’t going to be the guy to keep Trump from winning – he has no impact. However, he absolutely could be the guy on the wrong side of electoral history and remembered as the guy who, as if he wasn’t hated by his own party badly enough, refused to back his own party’s _victorious_ nominee. There are consequences for taking stands against your own party. Nothing that you claim here contradicts what **DigitalC** and **iiandyiiii** said, Cruz must know that it is more likely that Hillary will win, but Trump will get so many voters that he can not afford to alienate them no longer. Must get ready for 2020. ---
**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:** [September 23, 2016, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/7144 "2016-09-23T22:29:52Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > Nothing that you claim here contradicts what **DigitalC** and **iiandyiiii** said, Cruz must know that it is more likely that Hillary will win, but Trump will get so many voters that he can not afford to alienate them no longer. Must get ready for 2020. Or, if Trump should win, Cruz does not want to see the inside of a FEMA camp. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2016, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/7145 "2016-09-23T22:31:04Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > Check that, we’re under siege by tens of millions of morons. Half of them are, the other half are of the “I got mine, …you can go suffer” guys that are not morons, but smart and evil. The ones that indeed look more to keep the status quo at the cost of harming many more in the future. [http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-trump-banks-idUSKCN0Y900J](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-trump-banks-idUSKCN0Y900J) > [@](#): > > Trump preparing plan to dismantle Obama’s Wall Street reform law ---
**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:** [September 23, 2016, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/7146 "2016-09-23T22:40:30Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > Nothing that you claim here contradicts what **DigitalC** and **iiandyiiii** said, Cruz must know that it is more likely that Hillary will win, but Trump will get so many voters that he can not afford to alienate them no longer. Must get ready for 2020. To be sure, a lot of Cruz’s voters are also Trump voters. But if Trump had revealed himself to be a complete joke of a candidate, if he had been throttled at the polls the way a lot of pundits and SDMB posters speculated, then we’re not having this conversation, are we? Does anyone not remember these discussions about the race being over, whether Trump would finish the race, whether Trump would do the debates? 'Cause I do. This isn’t a coincidence. That Trump voters might also be Cruz voters is nothing new – that was known in August. Hell it was known in July when he deliberately told a crowd to vote their conscience. What has changed? What’s changed is that Trump is no longer dead in the water. He’s actually proven that he has staying power. And the longer Trump has staying power, the longer he stays competitive and is seen not as a joke but as someone who actually can win the race and stop Hillary Clinton and give conservatives their long awaited chance to punch liberals in the teeth, then the more likely it is that conservatives actually start convincing themselves that maybe it’s okay to vote for Trump after all. Cruz has realized that his “I told you so moment” is not to be. He can still attempt to credibly argue that his endorsement meant something and possibly pushed Trump closer to victory. But he’s afraid that Trump could win without Cruz – and he could. ---
**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:** [September 23, 2016, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/7147 "2016-09-23T22:55:41Z")
That’s a pile of crap. Cruz could easily have stayed on the sidelines. Except for the nuttiest section of Trump’s polling numbers, nobody would begrudge Cruz holding his own grudge with a guy who called his dad a murderer and his wife ugly. Outside of the heat from some party officials, the public had largely forgotten about Cruz’s failure to jump on the Trump train. He didn’t need to do endorse Trump to win that section of the party on his next run. The “I told you so” moment would have been a bonus but it’s unlikelyhood is not remotely a good enough reason to flush his strength of character down the toilet. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2016, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/7148 "2016-09-23T23:06:35Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > To be sure, a lot of Cruz’s voters are also Trump voters. But if Trump had revealed himself to be a complete joke of a candidate, if he had been throttled at the polls the way a lot of pundits and SDMB posters speculated, then we’re not having this conversation, are we? Does anyone not remember these discussions about the race being over, whether Trump would finish the race, whether Trump would do the debates? 'Cause I do. Trump is still a joke. That we have to take him seriously is a different matter, but he is still like 3 points behind Clinton in the agregate. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2016, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/7149 "2016-09-23T23:22:46Z")
Also, just one day ago, the poll from Gravis that was ordered by Breitbart has Clinton ahead by 4. As seen elsewere, Clinton has had several higher quality polls showing Clinton ahead by 5-7 points. ---
**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:** [September 23, 2016, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/7150 "2016-09-23T23:35:21Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > That’s a pile of crap. Cruz could easily have stayed on the sidelines. Except for the nuttiest section of Trump’s polling numbers, nobody would begrudge Cruz holding his own grudge with a guy who called his dad a murderer and his wife ugly. Outside of the heat from some party officials, the public had largely forgotten about Cruz’s failure to jump on the Trump train. He didn’t need to do endorse Trump to win that section of the party on his next run. > > The “I told you so” moment would have been a bonus but it’s unlikelyhood is not remotely a good enough reason to flush his strength of character down the toilet. Now this is a pile of crap. Cruz didn’t stay on the sidelines, and people did begrudge Cruz for staying on the sidelines. He just assumed that Trump would fall flat on his as it appeared he would. He didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![pathrunner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@pathrunner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pathrunner)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2016, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/7151 "2016-09-23T23:39:11Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > Please, enlighten us! This is The Donald’s thread, so this would be a good place for you to express your admiration for _him…_ I see so much of what he has said being spun. As a marketer, I see the manipulation machine in full force around him. They call him a racist, yet nobody can show me a single racist thing he has said. They call him a masogynist, yet I have not seen a single statement that degrades womankind. Hillary however, has been proven a liar, a security threat, and the coincidences behind all of the deaths connected to her are incontrovertible. Trump is not backed by the Rockefellers, Trump is not the very government we want to abolish. I will proudly vote Trump and I will continue to educate and convert the parents in my daughter’s school, one at a time. ---
**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:** [September 23, 2016, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/7152 "2016-09-23T23:43:30Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > Also, just one day ago, the poll from Gravis that was ordered by Breitbart has Clinton ahead by 4. > > As seen elsewere, Clinton has had several higher quality polls showing Clinton ahead by 5-7 points. Clinton is winning but not by as much as you’re suggesting here. What matters is RCP averages and electoral college in four way race. That’s it. Nothing else. And using that calculus, Clinton is hanging on to a slight lead, and has gained a little bit of breathing room since Trump’s birther problems resurfaced (as I predicted before 538 showed the shift). But it’s essentially up for grabs at this point. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2016, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/7153 "2016-09-23T23:50:06Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > Clinton is winning but not by as much as you’re suggesting here. What matters is RCP averages and electoral college in four way race. That’s it. Nothing else. And using that calculus, Clinton is hanging on to a slight lead, and has gained a little bit of breathing room since Trump’s birther problems resurfaced (as I predicted before 538 showed the shift). But it’s essentially up for grabs at this point. Meh, I predicted several months ago that this was gong to be close, but not as close as Obama had, at this time in 2012 Obama struggled with many polls to keep ahead of Romney by 2 in the aggregates. The thing that keeps me cautiously optimistic is what one analyst reported in the morning tv news yesterday, that Trump has not been able to be ahead in the aggregates. Not as constant as Clinton nor often. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2016, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/7154 "2016-09-23T23:50:57Z")
Vote Trump because you want to abolish government. That pretty much sums it up. Trumps voters simply want to wreck the country. ---
**Author:** ![zoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/71c47a/32.png) [@zoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoo)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2016, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/7155 "2016-09-23T23:51:10Z")
> [@pathrunner](#): > > I see so much of what he has said being spun. As a marketer, I see the manipulation machine in full force around him. They call him a racist, yet nobody can show me a single racist thing he has said. > > They call him a masogynist, yet I have not seen a single statement that degrades womankind. > > Hillary however, has been proven a liar, a security threat, and the coincidences behind all of the deaths connected to her are incontrovertible. > > Trump is not backed by the Rockefellers, Trump is not the very government we want to abolish. > > **I will proudly vote Trump and I will continue to educate and convert the parents in my daughter’s school, one at a time.** This last bit kinda gives me the creeps. ---
**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:** [September 23, 2016, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/7156 "2016-09-23T23:56:21Z")
> [@pathrunner](#): > > I see so much of what he has said being spun. As a marketer, I see the manipulation machine in full force around him. They call him a racist, yet nobody can show me a single racist thing he has said. I’ll just start there and let others handle the rest if they have the energy. –In May, Trump implied that Gonzalo Curiel, the federal judge presiding over a class action against the for-profit Trump University, could not fairly hear the case because of his Mexican heritage. –When asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper if he would condemn Duke and say he didn’t want a vote from him or any other white supremacists, Trump claimed that he didn’t know anything about white supremacists or about Duke himself. When Tapper pressed him twice more, Trump said he couldn’t condemn a group he hadn’t yet researched. –Long before calling Mexican immigrants “criminals” and “rapists,” Trump was a leading proponent of “birtherism,” the racist conspiracy theory that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States and is thus an illegitimate president. Trump claimed in 2011 to have sent people to Hawaii to investigate whether Obama was really born there. He insisted at the time that the researchers “cannot believe what they are finding.” –and then there’s this: > [@](#): > > “ Black guys counting my money! I hate it. The only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys wearing yarmulkes… Those are the only kind of people I want counting my money. Nobody else…Besides that, I tell you something else. I think that’s guy’s lazy. And it’s probably not his fault because laziness is a trait in blacks.” ---
**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:** [September 24, 2016, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/7157 "2016-09-24T00:07:41Z")
> [@](#): > > Bruce Springsteen Says Donald Trump Candidacy Is ‘A Tragedy For Our Democracy’ > > “The republic is under siege by a moron, basically.” > [@asahi](#): > > Check that, we’re under siege by tens of millions of morons. Roughly the same people, I guess, who thought “Born in the USA” was some sort of rah-rah paean to patriotism. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2016, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/7158 "2016-09-24T00:08:50Z")
> [@zoo](#): > > This last bit kinda gives me the creeps. That poster ( **pathrunner** ) also grossly misses how Trump decided that the women harasser Roger Ailes makes a nice addition to his staff, also ever since his hatred of the American judge with Mexican heritage was condemned even by Republicans ending with Mitt Romney declaring that Trump was justifying trickle down racism. As for not being financed by others pathrunner has missed the news. Trump has been getting money from people that will demand results from him if he becomes president. > **[Rachel Maddow Explains "The Money Man" Behind Both Breitbart News And The...](https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/rachel-maddow-explains-money-man-behind-both-breitbart-news-and-trump-campaign)** > > From the August 25 edition of MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show: > [@](#): > > we’ve talked about here on this show, Robert Mercer, this hedge fund billionaire appears to have become the single largest funder now of the effort to elect Donald Trump for president. > > Robert Mercer is also reportedly the single largest funder of [Breitbart.com](http://Breitbart.com). And so this one guy, Robert Mercer, the money man, right? He ends up being sort of the missing link. He ends up being the thing that explains, I think, in a lot of ways, why the Trump campaign is this strange thing that it is now. When the Trump campaign decided to fire the last guy in charge, Paul Manafort, and put these new folks in charge, it was an interesting and sort of inexplicable thing that they simultaneously – they didn’t fire Paul Manafort and then pick a new person to replace him. They fired Paul Manafort, but then they brought in two people. They came up with two new job titles. Campaign Manager and Campaign CEO, okay. They brought in two people at once. Kellyanne Conway, who ran Robert Mercer’s Super PAC, she’s a very familiar figure in Republican politics. > > […] > > But she didn’t come onto the campaign alone, right? She came on as campaign manager, Donald Trump’s top funder apparently installed her at the top of the Trump campaign, but he also simultaneously, on the same day, at the same time installed this other guy. This guy from Breitbart as the Campaign CEO. Robert Mercer is the money man behind both of these folks, behind Kellyanne Conway and her PAC which started as a Ted Cruz thing and then became a Donald Trump thing. Robert Mercer was the money behind that, Robert Mercer is also the money behind [Breitbart.com](http://Breitbart.com). He funded them both to the tune of millions of dollars. He is the thing explains why those two otherwise unconnected individuals both came on at the same time, on the same day, to take over the Trump campaign. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2016, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/7159 "2016-09-24T00:14:43Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Vote Trump because you want to abolish government. That pretty much sums it up. Trumps voters simply want to wreck the country. Not at all. He wants to increase the power of government to infringe on the basics of life: marriage, sexuality, speech, health care, you name it. ---
**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:** [September 24, 2016, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/7160 "2016-09-24T00:20:29Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > Meh, I predicted several months ago that this was gong to be close, but not as close as Obama had, at this time in 2012 Obama struggled with many polls to keep ahead of Romney by 2 in the aggregates. The thing that keeps me cautiously optimistic is what one analyst reported in the morning tv news yesterday, that Trump has not been able to be ahead in the aggregates. Not as constant as Clinton nor often. I agree that the polling shows that Hillary is more likely to win, but the polls also suggests that Donald _can_ win. The only thing that matters is who comes out and votes on ONE Tuesday in early November. If Trump swings upward just enough and just at the right time, he wins. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2016, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/7161 "2016-09-24T00:21:22Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Not at all. He wants to increase the power of government to infringe on the basics of life: marriage, sexuality, speech, health care, you name it. Ah, but if the government is only going after Those People, it’s still small and non-intrusive and not destroying anyone’s liberties. A Small Government is a government that protects my right to never be offended, particularly by Those People. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2016, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/7162 "2016-09-24T00:43:55Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > I agree that the polling shows that Hillary is more likely to win, but the polls also suggests that Donald _can_ win. The only thing that matters is who comes out and votes on ONE Tuesday in early November. If Trump swings upward just enough and just at the right time, he wins. And If my grandma had wheels… 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901.md?page=357) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901.md?page=359)