Democratic National Convention

This is the 2000 narrative all over again, in so many ways. The same rhetoric—there's no difference between Bush and Gore!—and the same superficial merit to the argument: yes, the two major parties have disturbing similarities, and yes, a vote for either major party candidate can be considered a vote for the status quo. In retrospect, though, nobody can quite imagine Al Gore spending his public goodwill and political capital creating a phony narrative for the purpose of prosecuting a war of choice. Something something doomed to repeat it.

My fear that this is 2000 all over again in a different way: win or lose the Presidency (and I'm still betting on "win"), the Democrats will stop courting the left precisely the moment the federal election has concluded. They'll co-opt left energy in the service of their candidate(s), make nice-sounding promises about accommodation and incorporation of left policies and goals, and then immediately begin a project of quieting or outright silencing that end of their party's spectrum once the goal is achieved. Hell, this year, they've already started writing that erasure before victory has even been achieved—it's the substance behind all the "Sad Berner" memes and anti-Stein fear-mongering and the "dead-ender" language we've seen around the convention.

Honestly, it's that same spirit that ultimately underwrote the liberals' earliest efforts, this primary season, to mute the left: the casting of a very diverse coalition as petulant "Bros", evidence to the otherwise be damned. A real tu quoque moment for the Party of the Good Facts.

I've watched the last couple of months

I feel like there's more coming here?
 
I didn't watch tonight but was ISIS or Radical Islamic Terrorism even mentioned? I know that last night it wasn't.
 
Yeah. I think the far left has taken the Trump thing too far. It's become the opposite force of the far right predicting Obama would confiscate all guns on day 1 of each presidency, send dissenters to concentration camps and what not.

If Trump gets elected it's not the end times.

It very well could be. Because it seems nothing he does seems to hurt him. As an example, the deal with the disabled reporter. Anybody else and the campaign ends right there. As a disabled American I could honestly slap the taste out of Trump's mouth for that. I don't see from a numbers stand point how Trump can win. He is not going to win Latinos, Blacks, Disabled, Women, or LGBT. He has to win at least three of those groups and I don't see it happening unless this is preordained and he is a harbinger of the end times.
 
It very well could be. Because it seems nothing he does seems to hurt him. As an example, the deal with the disabled reporter. Anybody else and the campaign ends right there. As a disabled American I could honestly slap the taste out of Trump's mouth for that. I don't see from a numbers stand point how Trump can win. He is not going to win Latinos, Blacks, Disabled, Women, or LGBT. He has to win at least three of those groups and I don't see it happening unless this is preordained and he is a harbinger of the end times.

He could win if turnout is very low on the blue side.
 
Where Trump can win is by holding his strong lead among working class whites without college degrees in the Midwest. He should focus his efforts on winning Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida. Then he has to hold on to North Carolina, Georgia and Arizona. I wouldn't be surprised if it all came down to Florida.
 
Where Trump can win is by holding his strong lead among working class whites without college degrees in the Midwest. He should focus his efforts on winning Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida. Then he has to hold on to North Carolina, Georgia and Arizona. I wouldn't be surprised if it all came down to Florida.

Is Arizona polling that close? I haven't dug into the polls much recently.
 
I think I read a lot about politics and have a fairly wide base of knowledge about candidates, their positions and their resumes
Understanding conventions are one long infomercial and listening to Bill Clinton
I learned last night that I had never heard of even half the things she has accomplished in public life.
Dating back to 1971

One more thing before I go back to being productive.
It is interesting to compare her response to 9/11 and Trumps response to 9/11
There we have a side by side under pressure comparison of how each express their priorities and each their focus

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Where Trump can win is by holding his strong lead among working class whites without college degrees in the Midwest. He should focus his efforts on winning Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida. Then he has to hold on to North Carolina, Georgia and Arizona. I wouldn't be surprised if it all came down to Florida.

He flipped like 30k+ democrats in Pennsylvania during primaries. Ohio will be tougher because Kasich there. Florida he needs huge turnout in the panhandle and "Southern Georida"
 
I didn't watch tonight but was ISIS or Radical Islamic Terrorism even mentioned? I know that last night it wasn't.

ISIS is a non-starter, and no one wants to do what will actually end radical Islam. Get off oil on a global scale. Cripple the oil despots and everything goes so much better for us.

FWIW ISIS's land area is crumbling, kurds have basically kicked them out fo their area. Iraqi forces have pushed them almost out of Iraq, Only area of any effect they still have is Syria because of the civil war. Again, we could eliminate ISIS in 2 seconds, prop up Assad with the Russians, he would crush and destroy them. It would be amazing. (in a scary way)
 
ISIS is a non-starter, and no one wants to do what will actually end radical Islam. Get off oil on a global scale. Cripple the oil despots and everything goes so much better for us.

FWIW ISIS's land area is crumbling, kurds have basically kicked them out fo their area. Iraqi forces have pushed them almost out of Iraq, Only area of any effect they still have is Syria because of the civil war. Again, we could eliminate ISIS in 2 seconds, prop up Assad with the Russians, he would crush and destroy them. It would be amazing. (in a scary way)

America has no interest in eliminating in ISIS... unfortunately
 
Where Trump can win is by holding his strong lead among working class whites without college degrees in the Midwest. He should focus his efforts on winning Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida. Then he has to hold on to North Carolina, Georgia and Arizona. I wouldn't be surprised if it all came down to Florida.

There's a lot of map-flipping going on in pollster's heads right now. Trump will likely run strong in Pennsylvania and Ohio and it is very difficult to gauge the saliency of the various voting blocs that will determine those states. I think both sides are stumbling through that right now. I think Hillary's choice of Kaine is an attempt to make inroads into some Red states that may waver (the ones you point out in particular). I still think she's running Bill's 1992 campaign strategy to some extent, so we'll see how that turns out.

I think the real danger in this election is what happens in the wake of it. If Clinton wins, there's probably no way she can deliver the Sanders' portion of the platform. If Trump wins, I don't see how he can do a lot of the things with trade deals that he contends he will. In other words, whoever wins, a large portion of their voting base will likely be extremely disappointed and given the rawness of the electorate, that doesn't bode well for the governing cycle.
 
I think the real danger in this election is what happens in the wake of it. If Clinton wins, there's probably no way she can deliver the Sanders' portion of the platform. If Trump wins, I don't see how he can do a lot of the things with trade deals that he contends he will. In other words, whoever wins, a large portion of their voting base will likely be extremely disappointed and given the rawness of the electorate, that doesn't bode well for the governing cycle.

I don't see how this would be any different than our last two presidents
 
I don't see how this would be any different than our last two presidents

I think both Bush and Obama delivered somewhat to what was considered their base constituencies. Bush delivered tax cuts and Obama delivered his health care plan. I think Bush got push back from elements in the conservative base with his expansion of Medicare and international adventures and Obama got push back from the left for not being more aggressive with the stimulus package and seemingly giving up after the 2010 elections. This one clearly feels different--at least to me--although it may not be.

One item I think people overlook in this has been the tightening of credit, especially on second mortgages. A lot of people were living off the increase in their home values and they haven't been able to do that over the past eight years. When wages are stagnant and wealth on assets isn't accruing, people have to cut back and I think that is what a lot of folks--especially those pledging allegiance to Trump--are rebelling against. People don't feel rich because they aren't getting five bulk mailings a week with offers to re-finance their home.
 
Is Arizona polling that close? I haven't dug into the polls much recently.

Seems like I like I saw a couple polls where she was making a race out of it there.

I would expect Kaine to help lock up Virginia if the D.C. suburbs turn out. She could make a push in North Carolina as well. Colorado seems to be getting bluer and bluer. Nevada is a big toss-up. The certainty is Trump pretty much has to win Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania. I feel like Pennsylvania always polls closely and then peels Democrat in the end. Ohio could all depend on if Kasich, a pretty popular governor gets out and campaigns. I doubt it. In Florida, Rick Scott is behind Trump, but I'm not from there so I don't know how popular he really is.
 
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