The nation may survive, but the wound to hope and order will never fully heal - US elections 2016: the october surprises

setting aside his reprehensible views and amoral character, Bannon is such a goddamned idiot as a political strategist. This eagerness to re-litigate Bill's behavior will not work at all, for very basic reasons that have nothing to do with ideology. 1) Now that Trump has basically refused to accept culpability or convey any kind of believable contrition, he's failed to put the issue to rest and new stuff (like these women now coming forward) are going to dominate headlines. They will take precedent over any attempts to re-frame Bill's pecadillos because they are NEW and Bill's shit is OLD and when it comes to press/coverage, the hot new exciting titillating thing is going to win every goddamned time. He's in the media! He should know this! 2) Pinning any of Bill's shit as a mark against Hillary requires a few too many historical and intellectual convolutions - it's just too *complicated* to get from point A to B. To do so you have to accept a whole bunch of baseless assumptions (granted this is not a problem for hardcore Trumplings) and then be eager to get all worked up about it again even though it happened 25+ years ago. And there is no way they're going to get any *new* dirt on Bill, that trough has been so thoroughly dredged due to the Lewinsky scandal/impeachment. 3) It's a strategy that won't actually appeal to the voters it needs to: women, young or old. The level of ugly exploitation for political gain is baldly obvious (Alex Jones is literally *paying* people!), and it represents a total misreading of the audience, their understanding of "rape culture", and the fact that they're far more likely to blame the actual offending sexual assaulter (be it Bill or Trump) than a female bystander.

Nonetheless, it's depressing Bannon's gonna go this route cuz it is just ugly and stupid to an insane degree, but there's some consolation in the fact that this abject failure of a strategy is the best they've got. They are fucked.

What a headline: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/441035/trumps-bad-sex-strategy

Changed to 'Gropers in Glass Houses,' why because buh?

‏@tinyrevolution
I feel like Trump's best option at this point is to stage his own death

@tomtomorrow
But then his previously unknown identical twin Ronald would show up.

I love how Goldberg describes the Clintons' marriage as "rubble" while stillkindasortadefending a guy who's on marriage #3. I mean, at some point, doesn't it just leave the door yawning open for Clinton to simply say, "My husband has made some mistakes, but we love each other and we've been together for 41 years"?

pretty sure we're gonna hear some variant of that on Sunday

i like it when the CMS reveals the old headline. can you imagine the discussion?

GOLDBERG: how about "grope to the chief"?
LOWRY: no let's go with "four score and seven pussies ago"
LOPEZ: how about "the catechism and south america and pussies?"
GOLDBERG: nah "trump's bad sex strategy"
LOWRY: good. go live with that.
...
GOLDBERG: wait wait "gropers in glass houses"
LOPEZ: hail mary!

Οὖτις otm, "going nuclear" against Bill (god I hate that phrase) will do nothing to attract women voters, or ANY voters not already in Trump's camp. There is no point, other than blowing shit up before his epic fail.

And more on McMullin and Utah

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/donald-trump-tape-evan-mcmullin-229712

feel like if romney endorses him and does some campaigning in utah this could really happen

heck, HRC could campaign for him

Meanwhile on a microlevel

https://twitter.com/mahoneyw/status/786545674317733888

‏@PeterAlexander
.@realDonaldTrump just canceled his interview with Sean Hannity, scheduled to air tonight, per @FoxNews executive.

tonight was supposed to be Trump and the Clinton accusers, right?

Yup.

Ivanka trump is so reasonable and well spoken it's just amazing how much she contrasts her dad at least on that level. (Msnbc showed her speaking a minute ago)

Oh, it was all so civilised, last time round, wasn't of?

Of? It, dumb spelling korrector!

Meantime, the people have spoken:

https://twitter.com/kenbone18/status/786594567999066112

trump must feel like something else is coming down the pipeline today imo, he certainly didn't start listening to reason this morning.

lol that is the first Ken Bone thing I've seen that made me laugh

‏@PeterAlexander
.@realDonaldTrump just canceled his interview with Sean Hannity, scheduled to air tonight, per @FoxNews executive.

― maura, Thursday, October 13, 2016 11:52 AM (twelve minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

kind of weird, whatever happens or doesn't happen hannity is a safe harbor for trump, unless whatever drops is that bad idk

Joel note didn't even mention that jersey has bruce, shows candidate knows where li's real enemy is...

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/14/business/media/mark-burnett-apprentice-donald-trump.html

Mark Burnett, the reality-show auteur whose “Apprentice” series catapulted Donald J. Trump to national stardom, issued a forceful denunciation of Mr. Trump’s presidential bid on Wednesday evening, saying he rejected “the hatred, division and misogyny that has been a very unfortunate part of his campaign.”

here we go...

Trump also saying he is making a "major" speech at noon (which is what he always says but whatever), maybe something is happening?

he's probably going to present alarming new evidence he found on a vince foster subreddit

Well, it's noon now in Florida, so what's happening?

Nabin with a timely entry into his Silly Little Show-biz Book Club. He mentions that it most reminds him of _American Psycho_ and OJ's _If I Did It_

http://www.avclub.com/article/donald-trumps-art-deal-awful-book-about-terrible-m-243529

Schwartz was asked to write a book with a man with an attention span so small and a sense of curiosity so nonexistent that it’s doubtful that Trump is capable of reading a book to completion, let alone writing one. So Schwartz soon realized that he wouldn’t necessarily be writing a book with Trump, but writing a book around him. Still, Trump continues to claim credit for The Art Of The Deal, even pimping it extensively in his campaign literature, despite its co-author publicly condemning Trump as a person, a politician, and an ostensible collaborator. Schwartz was not unlike the co-author of If I Did It, who similarly came to the project hating Simpson, believing him to be a murderer, and left the project with those convictions strengthened.

he's probably just going to stand there and read #podestaEmails72 or something

One of the Minority Liar's lying lies:

Clinton had opposed the (bankruptcy) bill as first lady, Warren said, but had fallen under Wall Street’s sway in the Senate.

People had it all wrong, Clinton told Stephanopoulos. She hadn’t switched her position to appease financiers. She had helped women’s groups fix the bill to protect single mothers....

“We have a problem,” Clinton senior policy advisor Ann O’Leary wrote to campaign staffers that afternoon. “HRC overstayed (sic) her case this morning in a pretty big way.”

“What did she say that was wrong?” spokeswoman Kristina Schake replied.

“She said women groups were all pressuring her to vote for it,” O’Leary wrote back. “Evidence does not support that statement.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hillary-clinton-wall-street-bankruptcy-bill_us_57fe70dfe4b0e8c198a56a14?2ugfd2t9

Someone gave him a stack of 90s American Spectator issues and he's going to read them aloud.

About right:

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-10-13/trump-said-to-block-campaign-s-requests-to-do-self-opposition-research

Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s first campaign manager, requested that Trump submit himself to a forensic evaluation that is traditional for any public figure seeking office, according to people granted anonymity to speak freely about the campaign’s start-up days last year. Opposition research would allow Trump’s new political team to prepare for potential attacks on his candidacy.
Paul Manafort and his team made a similar request when they took over the reins after Lewandowski, who was ousted this June.
Trump declined, the people said, and the issue became a point of contention among his closest political advisers and some long-time employees at the Trump Organization. Trump spokespeople Jason Miller and Hope Hicks didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/786389972941012992/3WbJE3R1_400x400.jpg

FEEL THE BONE

fuck ken bone

Everyone wants to know if I've decided... and I have. uberSELECT helps you ride in style like me t.uber.com/kenbone

TIL that Kelly Ann Conway's husband was Paula Jones' attorney.

Well, it's noon now in Florida, so what's happening?

well he always comes out 45 minutes late so

gotta realign the mane

https://mobile.twitter.com/KeiferLirette/status/786247621090443264

Spookeifer Lirette ‏@KeiferLirette

Breaking: Former teen mayor of Partridge, Minnesota seen campaigning for Hillary Clinton.

pic.twitter.com/HBSCdFkyHP

9:50 AM - 12 Oct 2016

12.8K RETWEETS 22.9K LIKES

By all accounts Michelle Obama is putting on a barnburner of a speech.

i want to become a citizen so i can vote for her one day (sorry morbs)

jon chait feels relief: https://twitter.com/jonathanchait/status/786610630581161984

I swear to god every parodic iteration of the shep fairey hope poster gets worse and worse and worse, shame on you mr bone

where is this michelle speech...?

i'm watching it on cnn rn live (from manchester nh)

she's unreal

but so real

since the convention I've kinda been wondering what the odds are in her entering public service after Obama leaves office...

I mean, at some point, doesn't it just leave the door yawning open for Clinton to simply say, "My husband has made some mistakes, but we love each other and we've been together for 41 years"?

My ladyfriend has been using the accusations against Bill as one of her rationalizations for voting 3rd party since "it just speaks to her judgement for staying with that man this long"

This has not been the easiest election years.

political dynasties are bad for america, but i would make an exception for her in a heartbeat

i love michelle obama so much

ditto would vote for michelle obama no question. are barack + michelle unquestionably the most decent ppl to live in the WH?

they're up there for sure. the lack of scandals + corruption (either personal or political in nature) is def highly remarkable/unusual