09-16-2020, 01:19 PM
(09-15-2020, 11:42 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: The difference between Trump and previous candidates is stark. Back in 1976, Republican Gerald Ford ran for election and made one gaffe at a debate, saying Eastern Europe was not under Soviet domination, and it cost him the election. Nixon lost a debate to JFK because Nixon looked nervous and sweated on TV and it cost him the election. Michael Dukakis' numbers plummeted just because he rode around in a tank and because an ad accused him of letting Willie Horton off easy. Al Gore lunged toward Bush in a menacing way in a debate and it hurt his chances. George Bush seemed aloof compared to Bill Clinton in a debate and it cost Bush. Hillary correctly labeled some of Trump's supporters as deplorable and it hurt her numbers. Even in 2008 vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin made gaffes about seeing Russia from her window, and it hurt McCain.I heard pardoning Nixon costed Ford the election back in 1976. I also heard that Nixon's five o'clock shadow and some signs of stage fright during the 1st nationally televised debate cost him the election. I agree, if Trump wins then California could end up going the way of Italy or Spain in the 1920's and 30's or modern day Russia and China or end up broke and being used a pawn by China like Cuba or modern day Venezuela.
Trump can say he could go out on 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and he wouldn't lose any voters, OK? (and maybe he actually just did something like that? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y345hhC8N1c ) He can say McCain was not a hero because he was captured, insult a gold star parent, and call USA soldiers who die "losers and suckers," and still no-one deserts him. He can promise that protesters will be carried out on stretchers and ask his followers to punch them, and they do. He can make fun of handicapped people all he wants, and does not suffer the fate of Reagan's Interior Secretary James Watt in 1982 who merely used the word "cripple." He can tell people to vote twice, and openly and admittedly lie and cover up that he knew all about the coronavirus that has killed 200,000 Americans under his watch, but called it nothing to be concerned about and did very little about it. He can lie about paying off a prostitute, and call climate change a Chinese hoax that science knows nothing about. He can openly ask foreign leaders to interfere in our elections. He can call the press the enemy of the people. He can call a mexican-american judge who rules against him a so-called judge. He can accuse his opponent's father of assassinating JFK. He can say he believes Putin more than his own intelligence agencies. He can say that Nazis are good people, and welcomes support from QAnon. He can label Latin American refugees seeking to cross the US border as non-existent "caravans of terrorists." He can ask his attorney general to interfere with the administration of justice. He can gas peaceful protesters outside the White House to make way for a Bible photo op, and send his goons to Portland OR to take innocent people off the streets. There is no end of his gaffes, and yet he suffers no loss of support for any of them.
The debate will cause no loss in Trump's poll numbers. He will keep at least 42%. He can make any gaffe, and even sound like he's half asleep, and it will make no difference to the followers of their dear leader Daddy. He lost three debates to Hillary, and hovered over her threateningly, and still won the electoral college. The best that can happen is that Biden picks up a point or two by reassuring a few undecided voters that is he up to the job.
Trump is a cult leader, an authoritarian tyrant with hypnotic power. If he wins, we go the way of Italy in the 1920s and 30s, whose dear leader promised to make his country great again.