The Election is Rigged (I'm Going To Lose)

[SteelCurtain]

I fully expect, if he loses, for him to tweet that he didn't really want to be President anyways.

Only to show up again in 4 years claiming to be super serial.

[Tiberius]

What's stupid about this is:

1) He claimed the RNC primaries were rigged against him, and he won anyway. Now, perhaps the RNC did some dirty tricks behind the scenes like the DNC did with Sanders, but unless actual evidence emerges, that's only going to be rumor. The point is, he won the primaries pretty easily. If it was rigged, it was an awful attempt.

2) Whilst the DNC helped to rig the primaries for Clinton, ultimately the DNC and the RNC are private organizations that aren't exactly accountable to anyone other than their members. It is an entirely different story for the actual election, which is run by the government. All in all, I would like to think it's harder to rig a general election than it is to rig a primary, so I don't see how his complaint holds any merit.

One slight quibble.  The states run the elections and the republicunts have been trying to rig them through voter suppression laws except the courts keep striking them down.

Which is kinda my point, the states at least have levels of government with checks and balances, and failing that, the Supreme Court of the US to keep them in line. It's harder to rig an election when there are so many checks in place to prevent unfair / unconstitutional actions.

However if you are a private organization like the RNC / DNC it's easy to rig a primary.

[Mister Agenda]

Having said that, I do wonder what will happen if Trump skips the debates. Would it hurt him less than if he actually debated (I think Clinton would destroy him on the debate stage)? Or would it hurt him more, as it would be see by most as chickening out.

I don't think anything can hurt him with his hard core supporters. Nothing can help him with hard core Hillary supporters. So we are evaluating undecideds reactions.  Debating would surely kill him with any undecideds watching.  I doubt avoiding the debates would hurt that much if he can spin them as unfair.  So if he's rational (a silly assumption) he will avoid them. I'm sure his reasoning for not releasing his taxes is similar. What is in his taxes is worse than the backlash for not releasing them.

I think he will skip at least the first debate, but still try to 'participate' via Twitter, where he won't have to respond to Clinton in real time.

[Alex K]

I think he will skip at least the first debate, but still try to 'participate' via Twitter, where he won't have to respond to Clinton in real time.

How presidential!

[account_inactive]

I don't think anything can hurt him with his hard core supporters. Nothing can help him with hard core Hillary supporters. So we are evaluating undecideds reactions.  Debating would surely kill him with any undecideds watching.  I doubt avoiding the debates would hurt that much if he can spin them as unfair.  So if he's rational (a silly assumption) he will avoid them. I'm sure his reasoning for not releasing his taxes is similar. What is in his taxes is worse than the backlash for not releasing them.

I think he will skip at least the first debate, but still try to 'participate' via Twitter, where he won't have to respond to Clinton in real time.

Doubt it.

[Mister Agenda]

Well, it's a prediction and I can't really see the future, so I can't blame you for that.

[Crossless2.0]

I imagine many of Trump's aides must dread his debating Clinton. As it is, they have full time jobs going on the news shows to 'clarify and explain' what their candidate "really" meant every time something stupid, insulting, obnoxious, shocking, or ignorant oozes out of his mouth or his fucking Twitter account. And that is virtually every news cycle these days.

But Trump sharing a stage with a candidate too intelligent to take the bait, who actually understands policy and process, and who has been facing down the likes of him now for decades? He is completely ill-equipped to debate Clinton, unless by 'debate' we mean nothing more than a name-calling and shit-slinging fest. Somewhere in the dim recesses of his reptilian brain, he must understand that he is utterly overmatched, at least so long as the moderator doesn't let him turn it into a free-for-all, and that Clinton will eat him alive.

I can't wait to see the next Republican post-mortem analysis after they lose a third consecutive general election. Spoiler alert: "We need to stop pandering to bigots, morons, and crazy people -- i.e., our base."

[Alex K]

Just watched Obamas DNC speech. Brilliantly constructed in detail. Despite having spent a few years in the US, I still have to chuckle when everyone giving speeches is going on about their kids and grandkids and their running mate's kids and grandkids and who's a good mom and who's a good dad. If a candidate did that in Germany, people would assume that they had a stroke.

[Anomalocaris]

Just watched Obamas DNC speech. Brilliantly constructed in detail. Despite having spent a few years in the US, I still have to chuckle when everyone giving speeches is going on about their kids and grandkids and their running mate's kids and grandkids and who's a good mom and who's a good dad. If a candidate did that in Germany, people would assume that they had a stroke.

In Germany, people have the ridiculous idea that elected officials are elected to do some job well. Here in America we elect people whom we feel are most like us, because, you know, we are all so well trained and qualified to know what's what and who is who.

[Jackalope]

Just watched Obamas DNC speech. Brilliantly constructed in detail. Despite having spent a few years in the US, I still have to chuckle when everyone giving speeches is going on about their kids and grandkids and their running mate's kids and grandkids and who's a good mom and who's a good dad. If a candidate did that in Germany, people would assume that they had a stroke.

Those Germans are downright un-Amurrican, I tell you.