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[Retro]

I'm not sure he can keep all that straight for 90 minutes. He's got the attention span of a dog that just saw a squirrel.

That's why I think we'll see Primary Trump no matter how much coaching he's had. Like I said, they can give him short, glib bullshit answers to every question he'll get, but when he has to wait more than 5 minutes while Hillary gives her response, he's going to be interrupting, gesturing, scoffing, making faces, shaking his head... I can't imagine him actually standing there and being quiet, I don't think he's physically capable of respectful silence.

I swear there was a tweet just this week about them working on getting him to stand still for 5 minutes. Might have been a joke, and I can't seem to find it now, but it doesn't matter, because everyone knows his shtick now.

 

[B-Dubs]

That's why I think we'll see Primary Trump no matter how much coaching he's had. Like I said, they can give him short, glib bullshit answers to every question he'll get, but when he has to wait more than 5 minutes while Hillary gives her response, he's going to be interrupting, gesturing, scoffing, making faces, shaking his head...

I swear there was a tweet just this week about them working on getting him to stand still for 5 minutes. Might have been a joke, and I can't seem to find it now, but it doesn't matter, because everyone knows his shtick now.

That probably wasn't a joke. He's never had to do this for 90 minutes straight before. They're worried he might lose it even worse than normal due to the pressure of having to be out there that long. Compare that to Clinton, who sat through an 11 hour Benghazi hearing, and the image alone would do a ton of damage.

 

[Diablos]

Also guys Hillary's literally been waiting her entire life to debate a Republican presidential candidate. I'm not worried about her.

Well yes but she has been waiting to debate legit Republicans, not a pathological liar who is borderline fascist and built an entire campaign based on being a complete asshole and breaking the rules every step of the way.

 

[AntraxSuicide]

I'm not sure he can keep all that straight for 90 minutes. He's got the attention span of a dog that just saw a squirrel.

The best plan if you're his handlers is that you teach him like 10 canned stats that are true (spin is fine, but the numbers have to be damn accurate). Spread out the subjects, and then just try to get him to drag those up every time the topic comes up. Find a good foreign policy one (how much money we give overseas; doesn't matter for what, the number will rile up his base at home). Find a good crime one about minorities or illegal immigrants. Find one about veterans, and throw in some jobs stuff. And then you train him like a dog to constantly refer back to those numbers.

It'll never happen though. This is easy stuff to come up with, and I imagine that Hillary's prep will have included this. I think it's fairly obvious that Trump's best plan is to stand on a small hilltop of topics, so to speak, and so her goal should be to knock him off of it. She'll have to figure out live on stage what topics that he both wants to talk about and somehow keeps avoiding. Then you'll know you've got a subject that he hasn't been coached on well enough (i.e. his handlers will tell him to avoid such a topic).

If she gets him off the cuff, he's done for. His style of speaking is atrocious for anyone not in his camp already; if you're following the reasoning and you're well-versed, then he's blatantly incorrect. If you're not, then he's confusing with his rambling sentences. Low information isn't that bad of a strategy (a la Lois on Family Guy just saying 9/11 over and over again), but you have to at least be coherent. Trump isn't.

 

[AniHawk]

lindsay ellis just did an episode of loose canon on hillary clinton: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMi8_7UOnto

really interesting to see how hillary was represented in pop culture (mostly snl) for the last 25 years. the big take is how uncomfortable people are with an ambitious woman wanting to lead.

 

[BlastProcessing]

Well yes but she has been waiting to debate legit Republicans, not a pathological liar who is borderline fascist and built an entire campaign based on being a complete asshole and breaking the rules every step of the way.

I don't know, Trump is basically the manifestation of the GOP machine that has been beating on Clinton for decades. A misogynistic, lying, conspiracy theorist backed by Citizens United, Breitbart, and Roger Ailes.

Her entire political life has been a prequel to this moment. A tangible symbol of all of the shit she has ever faced will be on stage with her and she gets 90 minutes to wail on him.

The best plan if you're his handlers is that you teach him like 10 canned stats that are true (spin is fine, but the numbers have to be damn accurate). Spread out the subjects, and then just try to get him to drag those up every time the topic comes up. Find a good foreign policy one (how much money we give overseas; doesn't matter for what, the number will rile up his base at home). Find a good crime one about minorities or illegal immigrants. Find one about veterans, and throw in some jobs stuff. And then you train him like a dog to constantly refer back to those numbers.

It'll never happen though. This is easy stuff to come up with, and I imagine that Hillary's prep will have included this. I think it's fairly obvious that Trump's best plan is to stand on a small hilltop of topics, so to speak, and so her goal should be to knock him off of it. She'll have to figure out live on stage what topics that he both wants to talk about and somehow keeps avoiding. Then you'll know you've got a subject that he hasn't been coached on well enough (i.e. his handlers will tell him to avoid such a topic).

If she gets him off the cuff, he's done for. His style of speaking is atrocious for anyone not in his camp already; if you're following the reasoning and you're well-versed, then he's blatantly incorrect. If you're not, then he's confusing with his rambling sentences. Low information isn't that bad of a strategy (a la Lois on Family Guy just saying 9/11 over and over again), but you have to at least be coherent. Trump isn't.

Honestly, missing on numbers is fine for him. Any time the press spends focusing on a few missed statistics is time that they aren't spending on something that could damage him. Nobody really cares if a politician misses a few numbers. Sad, but true.

 

[NYCmetsfan]

Can the times not really understand that people don't all subscribe to the same idea about journalism?

https://twitter.com/nickconfessore/status/780067939416506368

His skin is that thin?

Dude journalism, never has an never was this high and mighty profession of impartial fact tellers. You make decisions and the times made the decision to run a story that contains no new information but intentionally dredges up literally 20 year old stuff in the name of "balance". Its literally not "news" (as in new (s)). There's a 1000 times more useful information the times could be writing about. And yes they can write what they did but confessore needs to learn people are going to question why.

 

[Retro]

That probably wasn't a joke. He's never had to do this for 90 minutes straight before. They're worried he might lose it even worse than normal due to the pressure of having to be out there that long. Compare that to Clinton, who sat through an 11 hour Benghazi hearing, and the image alone would do a ton of damage.

Exactly, if they haven't housebroken him then no matter what he has memorized or written on his palms he's going to be a national embarrassment. There's also no doubt that Hillary can play the immovable object and weather anything they throw at her, but...

Well yes but she has been waiting to debate legit Republicans, not a pathological liar who is borderline fascist and built an entire campaign based on being a complete asshole and breaking the rules every step of the way.

That's an issue too; Trump is the proverbial unstoppable force and that kind of raw unpredictable energy might just be enough to throw her off the game, not because he can out-debate her but because it's not going to be a real debate at all. It'd be like putting Muhammad Ali in the ring against a guy in a mascot costume; yeah, Hillary knows how to debate Republicans, but how do you debate something hollow that dances around flailing, playing to the crowd and doesn't even know how or try to throw a punch?

It ends up making the the whole thing look like a farce (which, let's be real, it is just by virtue of having Trump on the stage at all) and runs the risk of making her look like the straight man to his zany antics. It might throw her off just enough that she gaffes (which, let's face it, if she gaffes once, even slightly, that's all that will be replayed the next morning).

I don't know, Trump is basically the manifestation of the GOP machine that has been beating on Clinton for decades. A misogynistic, lying, conspiracy theorist backed by Citizens United, Breitbart, and Roger Ailes.

Those last two are political operatives who, as despicable as they are, know how to do their jobs. Trump is a literally a television game show host. He's not the manifestation of any great Republican political power, he's just a carnival barker who saw everyone else was dumping their gasoline and was shrewd enough to bring matches.

 

[AntraxSuicide]

Honestly, missing on numbers is fine for him. Any time the press spends focusing on a few missed statistics is time that they aren't spending on something that could damage him. Nobody really cares if a politician misses a few numbers. Sad, but true.

Eh, he's big on doubling down, and it makes it worse if he's wrong. His correction on veteran suicides was awful, but it would've been much better if he was right. Then he could argue that he's so well-read that he knows the stats better than the questioners do. If he's wrong, he'll still hammer it in, and that's a bad look.

 

[thestopsign]

I think one issue Trump will have during the debate is a complete lack of feedback from the audience. He typically thrived off of the "paid" supporters of his opponents in the Republican Primary debates that booed him non-stop. During his campaigning, he does better when in a large rally that has many of his supporters constantly giving him something to work off of. He basically has to be Luke without his radar on, but he has not proven he is able to use the force yet at all.

 

[The Technomancer]

I swear there was a tweet just this week about them working on getting him to stand still for 5 minutes. Might have been a joke, and I can't seem to find it now, but it doesn't matter, because everyone knows his shtick now.

It was his ghostwriter talking about how when he was working on the book Trump didn't even want to sit in a room discussing things for more than five minutes

 

[Retro]

It was his ghostwriter talking about how when he was working on the book Trump didn't even want to sit in a room discussing things for more than five minutes

Pretty sure that was it, or damn near close. Thanks.

So, that GIF on the last page is probably going to end up being alarmingly accurate.

 

[Ecotic]

I wonder if Trump will attack Obama and if so, how hard. It'll come as a reflex but Obama is popular now and a majority of Americans would vote for him again if they could.

 

[whyamihere]

SUSA Minnesota

Hillary: 46
Trump: 39
Johnson: 6
Stein: 2

Safe blue here.

 

[thepotatoman]

It's times like these that I remember that Donald Fucking Trump is actually the Republican Nominee. Like, take a step back and remember the fact that Donald Fucking Trump is going to be debating in a real life Presidential Debate tomorrow.

Like seriously, WTF?

I know. It all feels like dumb little celebrity gossip when it's not a clearly political thing. I still get weirded out when I see a political ad either for or against trump, because wtf is trump doing as the subject of a political ad?

 

[The Technomancer]

God now that we're finally here I don't know if I'm ready for tomorrow

I just have this pit in my stomach

 

[Paskil]

Can you even imagine what it would be like to be up there, every breath, movement, word, expression being scrutinized by that many people? Two words describe my debate prep: screaming internally.

 

[Iolo]

God now that we're finally here I don't know if I'm ready for tomorrow

I just have this pit in my stomach

Watch Threads (1984) to prepare

 

[HylianTom]

God now that we're finally here I don't know if I'm ready for tomorrow

I just have this pit in my stomach

I'm excited. Going to have trouble sleeping tonight. Might have a nightcap or two.

Watch Threads (1984) to prepare

Damn, that's dark.

(I like it.)

 

[AnotherNils]

Local fair is around and saw a post on facebook showing one of the concession stands with a nazi flag and a MAGA sign. God dammit, PA.

 

[Geg]

I'm not so much worried about Clinton's debate performance as I am about the aftermath. As in, how will the media react if Trump does better than the ridiculously low expectations set for him?

 

[The Technomancer]

She really has been put through hell...

Fuck this is awful

 

[sazzy]

 

[Debirudog]

NOT IF HILLARY CAN SUMMON MICHELLE, BARRY, BIDEN AND KAINE TO STOP THIS MENACE.

 

[Big Baybee]

She really has been put through hell...

Holy shit

 

[Spoiled Milk]

Fuckin lol

Is Steve Bannon the Skull Kid?

 

[sazzy]

Fuckin lol

Is Steve Bannon the Skull Kid?

Skull Kid = GOP

Majora's Mask = Steve Bannon

 

[cartoon_soldier]

So Nervous about this debate

On one hand Hillary should kill it.

On the other hand, Trump lies without any fear and that is dangerous.

 

[gutterboy44]

For any sane person, I don't see Hillary losing this debate. Unfortunately, everything is stacked against her. Trump has lowered the bar for himself that if he does anything short of shitting himself on stage, he wins. HRC has to pitch a perfect game to break even. I fear that everyone has underestimated the latent misogyny of America in this election.

 

[cartoon_soldier]

For any sane person, I don't see Hillary losing this debate. Unfortunately, everything is stacked against her. Trump has lowered the bar for himself that if he does anything short of shitting himself on stage, he wins. HRC has to pitch a perfect game to break even. I fear that everyone has underestimated the latent misogyny of America in this election.

That is the fear. Unless Trump goes totally out there the media will say it was a draw at best. Media won't care about whether Trump provided policy details or not. It will be about body language, did Hillary smile, did she look too serious.

They will fact check some but for sake of balance will not cover the magnitude of Trump's lies vs. Hillary's.

Even though Trump is the one who needs to change the race, media will focus on whether Hillary delivered a punch or not.

 

[Holmes]

Remember when Hillary won the Washington primary after near-unanimously losing the caucus? What a slay.

 

[Dany]

Ugh Trump has paid for a filter on Snapchat. It says Donald j Trump v crooked Hillary.

 

[Holmes]

Yeah people need to chill about this debate. "If Trump doesn't shit his pants he wins!!" Um....no.

 

[eBay Huckster]

After this thread collectively shat its pants after the first debate in 2012 only for Barack to end up winning by four entire goddamn percentage points I think I'm gonna just ignore anything that comes out of your keyboards for the next month.

I have a fuckton to lose, personally. I'm only able to have health insurance period because the ACA exists, I'm disabled, I've been chronically unemployed for three years and I have an absurd amount of student loan debt, half my family's black and stands to lose big time if someone isn't there to veto half the monstrous fucking garbage the Republican Party believes, and I'm not wasting my time working myself into a fucking tizzy over might-bes and boy are we about to dodge that fucking bullet.

The last hundred-odd pages are a fucking feedback loop of panic and it's fucking unbearable to read. He's going to lose the debate and look like a fucking clown just like he has every single time he's opened his mouth without a teleprompter to his eye and a handler's proverbial gun to his head.

 

[RastaMentality]

Here's the nationwide filter the Trump campaign bought out on Snapchat to appeal to the youths!

 

[Azure Dream]

Yeah people need to chill about this debate. "If Trump doesn't shit his pants he wins!!" Um....no.

The expectations for him are so ludicrously low, and so high for Hillary, that normally a "debate flop" in any other year would probably mean almost nothing to him this year. He's constantly selling a narrative to his followers about unfair media and rigged debates. It only counts if he "wins".

 

[Holmes]

The expectations for him are so ludicrously low, and so high for Hillary, that normally a "debate flop" in any other year would probably mean almost nothing to him this year. He's constantly selling a narrative to his followers about unfair media and rigged debates. It only counts if he "wins".

This honestly just sounds like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Trump will be on stage and will be judged the same like every other candidate. You can stress if you want but it's true.

 

[sprsk]

+1 for Hillary in the state of Tennessee. Just sent my absentee ballot.

 

[Joeytj]

Here's the nationwide filter the Trump campaign bought out on Snapchat to appeal to the youths!

He.

Hillary should do one too, but with emphasis on girl empowerment and stronger together.

 

[Holmes]

ebay with the tea. But also go to sleep cause it's 3am.

 

[Pixieking]

For any sane person, I don't see Hillary losing this debate. Unfortunately, everything is stacked against her. Trump has lowered the bar for himself that if he does anything short of shitting himself on stage, he wins. HRC has to pitch a perfect game to break even. I fear that everyone has underestimated the latent misogyny of America in this election.

Yet the question is not whether Clinton’s ethics problems exist at all but whether they ought to separate her from normal politicians. The inability to contextualize these flaws has been a signal failure of the general election.

(From The Abnormalization of Hillary Clinton)

Whilst the quote - and actually the whole article - is about ethics, I can't read it or the WaPo "Likable Enough" article, without thinking that this would be a very different election if if were a man running in Hillary's place. If every single piece of information and action were the same, but the genders were switched, the Democrats would have this stitched-up.

"Abnormalization of Hillary Clinton"? How about the dehumanization and destruction of her primarily because of her gender?

 

[Azure Dream]

This honestly just sounds like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Trump will be on stage and will be judged the same like every other candidate. You can stress if you want but it's true.

I've seen enough excuses made for him already to justifiably worry.

 

[Dubbedinenglish]

One thing I want her to do is go in when Trump goes into the winding stream of consciousness. Just, "Donald, you are not making any sense."

 

[cartoon_soldier]

After this thread collectively shat its pants after the first debate in 2012 only for Barack to end up winning by four entire goddamn percentage points I think I'm gonna just ignore anything that comes out of your keyboards for the next month.

I have a fuckton to lose, personally. I'm only able to have health insurance period because the ACA exists, I'm disabled, I've been chronically unemployed for three years and I have an absurd amount of student loan debt, half my family's black and stands to lose big time if someone isn't there to veto half the monstrous fucking garbage the Republican Party believes, and I'm not wasting my time working myself into a fucking tizzy over might-bes and boy are we about to dodge that fucking bullet.

The last hundred-odd pages are a fucking feedback loop of panic and it's fucking unbearable to read. He's going to lose the debate and look like a fucking clown just like he has every single time he's opened his mouth without a teleprompter to his eye and a handler's proverbial gun to his head.

Hillary isn't even running to protect ACA.

The thing with Obama is that he always had decent favorable numbers (not as good as right now but not as bad as Hillary). With so many undecideds and 3rd party voters this year I don't want to go into November 8th with 2 point average leads in battleground states.

 

[eBay Huckster]

Hillary isn't even running to protect ACA.

You're right! She's running to expand it.

[...] I don't want to go into November 8th with 2 point average leads in battleground states.

Well then it's probably a good thing that she's going into September 26th with >2 point average leads in enough states to win 316 electoral votes.

(Would probably be 322 but Nevada polling is shit.)

 

[thebloo]

The OT thread has started marvelously.

 

[Debirudog]

The OT thread has started marvelously.

I only looked at the OT and didn't dare to dive any further lol.

 

[thebloo]

Well yes but she has been waiting to debate legit Republicans, not a pathological liar who is borderline fascist and built an entire campaign based on being a complete asshole and breaking the rules every step of the way.

 

[eBay Huckster]

The OT thread has started marvelously.

I was gonna say "well, at least the questioning of Clinton's progressive credentials from a place of ignorance is fresh and new compared to everyone pissing their pants at the hint of Trump becoming someone he fundamentally hasn't been in his entire life" but I can't even say that sentence after "fresh and new" (or before it) ironically.

 

[cartoon_soldier]

You're right! She's running to expand it.



Well then it's probably a good thing that she's going into September 26th with >2 point average leads in enough states to win 316 electoral votes.

(Would probably be 322 but Nevada polling is shit.)

That really depends on which averages you consider. Because Florida is one place where Trump leads in some averages or Clinton in others.