Intellectual laziness.
Donald thought that he could just ride his primary horse into the general election. Unserious on issues ( "X? Got a Yuge plan for that. Heck I know more about that than the Generals do") and heavy on outrageous remarks.
Trump thought that all he had to do was change his  wild Jeb, and Cruz insults to Clinton insults. 

When Trump showed up at that first Clinton debate, not knowing s@$* about issues in depth, the lack of preparation showed.  Issues don't really interest Trump, and he thought that he could just toss some insults out about both Clinton's and make them unpopular. But, while you can make Clinton unpopular, there is no way to make Clinton more unpopular than Trump. So, you are left with two unpopular candidates, but one of them actually knows what she is doing.

In 1992 Bill Clinton came across as a very flawed individual who cared about The People,  issues, and knew a lot about them.
In 2016 Donald Trump just comes across as a very flawed individual.

There are many many more flaws, but I will leave that to others.

Last edited by Goose (10/23/2016 3:30 pm)

Not only not listening to his advisors, but continually changing them and replacing personnel with people in total agreement with his distorted point of view. The resulting decisions were merely confirmation of his personal philosophy with total disregard of reality.

I'll play Devil's Advocate here - what mistakes? Everything he has done has worked. Even the things that shouldn't have worked have worked. The guy spends years and years living the life of luxury, saying outrageous things, objectifying and harassing women, waffling on his stances, etc. Then he goes out, beats the largest field of Republican candidates in 100 years, scoffs at and actively denounces party leadership, and continues to do and say outrageous things - and it's working. He doesn't care about convincing people to vote for him. As long as voter frustration, racism, misogyny, bigotry, and hate are popular then he will have a devoted following. And he's already said that even if he doesn't get to live in the White House, he's got somewhere to live on Pennsylvania Avenue. And the system is rigged, so if he loses it's because it wasn't a fair fight.

opendoug wrote:

I'll play Devil's Advocate here - what mistakes? Everything he has done has worked. Even the things that shouldn't have worked have worked. The guy spends years and years living the life of luxury, saying outrageous things, objectifying and harassing women, waffling on his stances, etc. Then he goes out, beats the largest field of Republican candidates in 100 years, scoffs at and actively denounces party leadership, and continues to do and say outrageous things - and it's working. He doesn't care about convincing people to vote for him. As long as voter frustration, racism, misogyny, bigotry, and hate are popular then he will have a devoted following. And he's already said that even if he doesn't get to live in the White House, he's got somewhere to live on Pennsylvania Avenue. And the system is rigged, so if he loses it's because it wasn't a fair fight.

Depends on what Donald is trying to do.
Everything Trump has done has worked, if one defines "work" as winning the Republican nomination, and in the fall saying things that continue to delight the 38% of people who were going to vote for him anyway. However, if "working" means getting ahead of Hilary Clinton, it's been a disaster. I mean, he was down 46-44 on September 22, and now 50-38 on October 22. *

Spending 8 days after the DNC attacking the Khans. That did not work so much.
Showing up at the first debate obviously unprepared,,, mistake.
Spending 4 days defending crass remarks about miss universe. Not working so well.
Calling Clinton a "Nasty woman"? Seems like it has become a rallying cry for women everywhere I go.
Bad Hombres? How many votes did that get in  the Hispanic community?
Hinting that he won't accept the election results? Not playing very well beyond the Trumpers.
He gives a speech in Gettysburg that is supposed to turn the corner on his woman problem and focus on issues,,,,,, but opens with whining about a "rigged election", and threatening to sue women who accuse him,,,, and makes the headline about his scandals again.

I see a guy who is running against a very beatable democratic candidate,  just throwing the election away on mistake after mistake after mistake.
Unless,,,, winning isn't the goal. 


*  http://www.langerresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/1184a12016ElectionTrackingNo1.pdf

Last edited by Goose (10/24/2016 11:54 am)