# Prioritize the Trump target. **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [October 2, 2016, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prioritize-the-trump-target/767537 "2016-10-02T22:41:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prioritize-the-trump-target/767537/61 "2016-10-04T23:34:31Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > But Trump’s capital loss meant his actual fair share of taxes was much lower than almost anyone’s. Harping on it makes Hillary look stupid or disingenuous. I understand what you are saying, but he has run an emotional campaign, based around the idea that he is a winner, and that he will make things great for the average joe. Someone who loses so much money they can make no taxable income for a long period of time doesn’t sound like a winner. And even if it is strictly above board, it sounds extremely dodgy to the average joe that someone can live a lavish lifestyle while telling the government they are not making any net income. If you live by emotive arguments, you die by them. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prioritize-the-trump-target/767537/62 "2016-10-05T00:26:06Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > But Trump’s capital loss meant his actual fair share of taxes was much lower than almost anyone’s. Harping on it makes Hillary look stupid or disingenuous. No, it doesn’t. It might mean that by the tax code, but not to the majority of people. They see a guy who fucked up in business at an unprecedented level, and now he gets to avoid paying taxes. One stupid wrong thing lets him do another wrong thing. It’s just a loophole for the rich. And, if we are correct about it being a paper loss, then it is indeed a rich person thing. Non-rich people can’t manipulate their finances so they come out with a big loss while still not actually being bankrupt. And even if there is this great explanation about why the tax code is set up this way, that’s a fact, not an opinion. It’s still gonna _feel_ wrong, which is the point. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prioritize-the-trump-target/767537/63 "2016-10-05T01:32:05Z")
I’m starting to think some kind of public or military service should be mandatory for a president - it at least shows one is _capable_ of serving interests other than one’s own. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prioritize-the-trump-target/767537/64 "2016-10-05T01:53:36Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > Pick from the Buffet, really. Our pal Warren, who is playing the “he ain’t so rich” card like a mofo, spells it with two Ts. > [@foolsguinea](#): > > She should go with, “I have boobs, you must obey!” I’ve been, er, researching, and twas a time when Bubba had reasons to pursue her. Maybe not on top, but she was a cutie. Dimples work. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prioritize-the-trump-target/767537/65 "2016-10-05T01:59:50Z")
Anyway, the Trump supporters should look at Ms Machado. They will remember that they\*\* like \*\*a little meat on the bones and ask “WTF is he complaining about?” ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prioritize-the-trump-target/767537/66 "2016-10-05T02:03:53Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Keith Olbermann’s “The Closer” today will focus on how DJT hates dogs. > > Seriously. He ends it with “Hey, Don. Fuck You!” (KO is a big dog guy.) > > [x.com](https://twitter.com/KeithOlbermann/status/782965508807204864) Have I mentioned this week how much I’ve missed that man? ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prioritize-the-trump-target/767537/67 "2016-10-05T04:17:50Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Memo to **foolsguinea** : Bernie lost. Believe it or not, some of us supported Bernie because he wasn’t another Clinton. You seem to have cause and effect backwards. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prioritize-the-trump-target/767537/68 "2016-10-05T06:45:11Z")
I think **ElvisL1ves** point is that you can’t always get what you want. It then becomes a matter of trying to get the next best (or the least worse) result. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prioritize-the-trump-target/767537/69 "2016-10-05T09:22:09Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > Believe it or not, some of us supported Bernie because he wasn’t another Clinton. You seem to have cause and effect backwards. And you’re now helping Trump because he also isn’t Clinton. But you don’t have the facts to support your opposition to her; all you have is rationalizing bluster. So tell us who is looking for reasons to support a decision you’ve made on an indefensible basis. “Believe it or not”, some of us, \*most \*of us, are voting on the basis of issues and qualifications, not Republican-style reflexive opposition and animus. It would do you well to consider doing likewise. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prioritize-the-trump-target/767537/70 "2016-10-05T09:24:26Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > And, if we are correct about it being a paper loss, then it is indeed a rich person thing. Non-rich people can’t manipulate their finances so they come out with a big loss while still not actually being bankrupt. More specifically, it’s a rich _real-estate_ person thing. Only they can offset business losses against personal income. But Trump is the only person we can trust to close his loophole. Right. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prioritize-the-trump-target/767537/71 "2016-10-05T12:32:35Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > More specifically, it’s a rich _real-estate_ person thing. Only they can offset business losses against personal income. > > But Trump is the only person we can trust to close his loophole. Right. Good point. Fundamentally, it’s yet another consequence of the centuries-long US culture’s focus on near-universal land- and home-ownership as the worthy goal that separates us from the feudal Europeans. Gotta develop that big frontier! (The Washington biography _His Excellency_ is one work among many that elucidate various expressions of this American trait.) ---
**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:** [October 5, 2016, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prioritize-the-trump-target/767537/72 "2016-10-05T17:58:47Z")
The biggest thing Clinton has to do going forward now is to try to ensure that Trump gets into another insulting twitter feud with someone who the public sees as a sympathetic “regular person”. If you look at the graphs in the 538 now-cast and polls-only pages… You’ll see two major inflection points in the campaign where Trump goes down and Clinton goes up. In both of these instances, it was not because Clinton did anything amazing - The first was when Trump went off on the Gold Star family and personally insulted them. The second was when Trump went off on Alicia Machado and personally insulted her. These two things have been the two events that have MAJORLY shifted the campaign. Clinton needs Trump to shoot himself in the foot again - it’s the only thing that seems to work. It has to be a named, indentifiable person. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prioritize-the-trump-target/767537/73 "2016-10-05T19:34:41Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > If you look at the graphs in the 538 now-cast and polls-only pages… You’ll see two major inflection points in the campaign where Trump goes down and Clinton goes up. In both of these instances, it was not because Clinton did anything amazing - The first was when Trump went off on the Gold Star family and personally insulted them. The second was when Trump went off on Alicia Machado and personally insulted her. I am not really all that convinced that the Alicia Machado thing specifically is what caused Trump to fall in the polls recently. More likely is simply that he got his ass kicked in the debate - an event Alicia Machado was a small part of. The post-debate Clinton bump is consistent with bumps seen after lopsided debates in the past. Absolutely, however, Trump’s inability to hold himself back from punching down is a weakness that can be further exploited. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prioritize-the-trump-target/767537/74 "2016-10-05T19:45:24Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > I am not really all that convinced that the Alicia Machado thing specifically is what caused Trump to fall in the polls recently. More likely is simply that he got his ass kicked in the debate - an event Alicia Machado was a small part of. The post-debate Clinton bump is consistent with bumps seen after lopsided debates in the past. > > Absolutely, however, Trump’s inability to hold himself back from punching down is a weakness that can be further exploited. I agree. Clinton got two bumps: after the nominating conventions, and after the first debate. True, these two bumps also coincided with Trump freaking out at somebody on Twitter, but that freakout was part of a larger event. The Republican nominating convention, remember, was a complete hot mess–empty stands, plagiarism, a speaker who refused to endorse the candidate, etc. The Democratic convention was beautifully orchestrated (yeah, there were the idiot BernieorBusters, but they were well-overshadowed by events on the stage). That contrast mirrored the contrast in the debates between the hot mess candidate and the beautifully orchestrated candidate. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prioritize-the-trump-target/767537/75 "2016-10-05T19:49:56Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > …Absolutely, however, Trump’s inability to hold himself back from punching down is a weakness that can be further exploited. During the Sunday (October 9) debate, Trump will be in a room full of people who almost certainly will be less privileged and prosperous than himself. It’s unlikely than any of them, for example, received multi-million dollar loans from their fathers to help get them started in life. One of them may well ask Trump a question that he will consider to be less than respectful toward his own very important self. He will be unable to refrain from–at the very least–making a sarcastic remark to or about that person, during the debate. Afterwards, he will have his flunkies look for dirt on the person, and will then Tweet about it. Bet on it. ---
**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:** [October 5, 2016, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prioritize-the-trump-target/767537/76 "2016-10-05T19:58:38Z")
I expect Hillary’s team has at least two more people with very similar stories to Alicia Machado, complete with magazine interviews and slick videos that will be released the day after the next two debates (and they will be brought up during the debates). And I expect that Trump will, once again, not be able to help himself in responding. He is who he is, and he’s not going to change. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prioritize-the-trump-target/767537/77 "2016-10-05T20:37:21Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > The biggest thing Clinton has to do going forward now is to try to ensure that Trump gets into another insulting twitter feud with someone who the public sees as a sympathetic “regular person”. > > If you look at the graphs in the 538 now-cast and polls-only pages… You’ll see two major inflection points in the campaign where Trump goes down and Clinton goes up. In both of these instances, it was not because Clinton did anything amazing - The first was when Trump went off on the Gold Star family and personally insulted them. The second was when Trump went off on Alicia Machado and personally insulted her. > > These two things have been the two events that have MAJORLY shifted the campaign. > > Clinton needs Trump to shoot himself in the foot again - it’s the only thing that seems to work. > > It has to be a named, indentifiable person. Both also match big events that made Clinton look good and Trump bad, the conventions and the debate crushing. I think the more important lesson is that making Trump look bad will cause him to go off, at that point it doesn’t really matter what the target is. ---
**Author:** ![Sputnikkk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Sputnikkk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sputnikkk)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prioritize-the-trump-target/767537/78 "2016-10-05T22:21:28Z")
I think Clinton should do a ad or video that investigates Trump and his friend, billionaire pedophile Jeffry Epstein and the parties that had underage prostitutes. Showing information from the court files about the 13 year old he raped, Katie. And also releases information such as this: > [@](#): > > Defendant Trump stated that I shouldn’t ever say anything if I didn’t want to disappear like Maria, a 12-year-old female that was forced to be involved in the third incident with Defendant Trump and that I had not seen since that third incident, and that he was capable of having my whole family killed. > > The second declaration is even more astonishing, because it is signed by “Tiffany Doe”, Mr. Epstein’s “party planner” from 1991-2000. Tiffany Doe says that her duties were “to get attractive adolescent women to attend these parties.” (Adolescents are, legally, children. > > Tiffany Doe says that she recruited Jane Doe at the Port Authority in New York, persuaded her to attend Mr. Epstein’s parties, and actually witnessed the sexual assaults on Jane Doe: > > I personally witnessed the Plaintiff being forced to perform various sexual acts with Donald J. Trump and Mr. Epstein. Both Mr. Trump and Mr. Epstein were advised that she was 13 years old. > **[Why The New Child Rape Case Filed Against Donald Trump Should Not Be Ignored](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/why-the-new-child-rape-ca_b_10619944)** > > No outsider can say whether Mr. Trump is innocent or guilty of these new rape charges. But we can look at his record, analyze the court filings here, and make a determination as to credibility - whether the allegations are believable enough for us to... ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2016, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prioritize-the-trump-target/767537/79 "2016-10-06T02:30:33Z")
Running an ad on something like that before you get a verdict is a very bad idea. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2016, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prioritize-the-trump-target/767537/80 "2016-10-06T16:37:38Z")
I have a different view. I think Hilary’s fine on her electoral path. What Team Clinton needs to do is put more work into the down ticket elections in the House and Senate. I think they need to wrap Trump around the neck of every Republican Congressional candidate who hasn’t repudiated him. They need to remind people of the outrageous things Trump says and does, point out that sticking with him is crass partisanship and Un-American, and convince them that it’s NOT okay to skip voting for Trump but still vote for their Republican candidate who stands beside Trump. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prioritize-the-trump-target/767537.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prioritize-the-trump-target/767537.md?page=5)