US Politics Mega-thread - Page 3886

On May 26 2016 22:44 farvacola wrote:
Remember that debates are less about the people who are already a fan of a particular candidate and more about those who are undecided. In that sense, Bernie does have the ability to do some good work come debate time.

On May 27 2016 00:50 xDaunt wrote:
I don't see how this debate is anything other than bad news for Hillary. This whole episode concerning the genesis of the debate reinforces the narrative that she's weak, reinforces Trump's message of strength, and gives Bernie an opportunity to play up his message of being the one democrat who can take on Trump. The only thing that's worse for Hillary is that, at the actual debate, she is going to be drawing ample fire from both Trump and Bernie without a platform to respond. The only way that this backfires on Trump is if Bernie trounces him at the debate, which is incredibly unlikely. Even assuming that Bernie scores more points on the issues, Trump's performance at the debates has never been about command of the issues. It has always been about presence. I highly doubt that Bernie will do any better at undercutting Trump's presence than any of the republican candidates did.

Anyway, Trump is definitely large and in charge during this election cycle. He has turned traditional political strategy on its head and is reaping the benefits.

On May 26 2016 21:30 SolaR- wrote:


I think Sanders sees Hillary as a bigger threat than Trump even though he might not say publicly. She represents everything that he despises and is against. Hillary is Wall Street.

On May 27 2016 02:25 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:


While Trump obviously wants to minimize the amount of time that he's forced to talk about politics that he's unfamiliar with, I feel like Trump is missing a really easy opportunity to gain traction with anti-establishment pro-Bernie voters against Hillary.

On May 27 2016 03:04 Liquid`Drone wrote:


I am sorry, but this thought is not grounded in reality. There is absolutely no way Sanders considers Hillary a bigger threat than Trump. Him and her largely share political vision (not entirely mind you), but differ greatly in way of achieving their goals. Sanders and Trump though? They might coincidentally (coincidentally because they base their decisions on entirely different premises but might still end up with agreeing occasionally) share some common ground in terms of anti-trade and campaign finance regulation, but their political/societal visions are entirely different. Sanders essentially wants to Scandinavify the US (basically adopting our policies in the areas where we outperform the US). As a Scandinavian, I can tell you that there's not a single thing Trump has suggested so far that would accomplish that goal - or even move towards that goal.

The entire 'make america great again' message is anti-sanders by nature. Sanders is a global citizen first, American second - even more so than Obama is.

On May 27 2016 02:49 farvacola wrote:
Opinions regarding this Sanders-Trump debate seem to be suffering from endemic question begging; asserting the impact of anything in this black swan of an election season in unequivocal language has proven to be the stuff of the very political pundits that we've all decided are terrible, and yet, every time some new development comes along, we'll have posters saying things like, "Oh, this will certainly lead to [insert particular outcome]" without a single bit of substance to back it up.

Granted, I've even done this myself, but my lord, the furor surrounding this what will likely end up a relatively inconsequential debate is just too much

On May 27 2016 01:02 SK.Testie wrote:
Apparently some sources are saying Trump has already backed out of the debate so it may not happen. If true I guess he's angered some Bernie fans or disenfranchised them some more.