U.S. Politics: Attaquer son cul orange!

[ThinkerX]

Seems like Trump is having some medical tests done.  Many of the folks commenting think those should include psychological tests.  Might be a good avenue for democratic attack adds when the time comes: state flat out that Trump has Alzheimer's, backed up with unedited clips from his speeches and commentary from credentialed psychologists.  Trump will of course bluster and threaten and ultimately make tweets and speeches that lend credence to the adds.  But D's don't have the guts and I probably just ticked off half the board. 

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/white-house-trump-having-tests-as-part-of-medical-checkup/ar-BBWRMgE?ocid=msnclassic

[DMC]

New Des Moines Register poll out has Buttigieg at 25, with Warren/Biden/Sanders at 16/15/15, respectively.  Well damn.  Also, for laughs, check out Bloomberg's favorables.

[DMC]

20 minutes ago, Triskele said:

I am wondering if we're going to start seeing analysis along the lines of whether there's a "Bradly effect" with Buttigieg on how people will actually cast a vote for a gay person for president.

Yeah I suspect there will be more questions added to polls if he solidifies frontrunner status in Iowa in the coming weeks.  That being said, I don't think this is the case with likely Iowa Caucus voters (particularly given the DMR's reputation), albeit it may certainly be a very big problem in other states.  Which, of course, is somewhat reflected in the difference between his Iowa and national support, so maybe it's already baked in.

In other news, the Louisiana Governor race is neck and neck - Rispone (R) is up 10k votes, or 0.8%, with about 80% of precincts reporting...

[DMC]

...and now Bel Edwards (D) is up by about 8k and change (.6%) with around 94% of precincts reporting.  Considering a lot of the outstanding precincts are in heavily Dem areas around New Orleans and Baton Rouge (and, to a lesser extent, Shreveport), looks like Bel Edwards will be reelected.

[A True Kaniggit]

They were really hitting Rispone the last few days with an ad about his company getting a multi million dollar tax break and creating like 12 jobs out of it. 

Edit: Starting to see some sites putting up that Edwards won re-election. 

[Ormond]

2 hours ago, ThinkerX said:

Seems like Trump is having some medical tests done.  Many of the folks commenting think those should include psychological tests.  Might be a good avenue for democratic attack adds when the time comes: state flat out that Trump has Alzheimer's, backed up with unedited clips from his speeches and commentary from credentialed psychologists.  Trump will of course bluster and threaten and ultimately make tweets and speeches that lend credence to the adds.  But D's don't have the guts and I probably just ticked off half the board. 

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/white-house-trump-having-tests-as-part-of-medical-checkup/ar-BBWRMgE?ocid=msnclassic

You can't reliably diagnose Alzheimer's just from cognitive tests. All you can say is someone has dementia, with the specific cause of that dementia not specified.

And I would be surprised if you can get many credentialed psychologists who are actually experts on dementia to say Trump has it. I haven't seen any good evidence myself -- most of his cognitive errors seem to me to be just the sort of things an extreme narcissist under stress would come up with, not the sort of errors someone with dementia makes.

[Ordos]

lol. I just learned that the December Democratic debate is airing one or two days before the new Star Wars movie comes out in theaters. In December 2015 they actually aired the Democratic debate on the actual date the Star Wars film came out in theaters. At least the timing is slightly better now, but still it feels like dejavu. I remember people complaining about the timing of the debate because of an American Football match!

I said this then but it's worth repeating: political events on TV have been known to shift dates due to events in entertainment. In 2010 during the election in Australia, they chose a specific date to hold a televised debate so it did not coincide with an episode of Master Chef.

[The Marquis de Leech]

Bel Edwards wins Louisiana, and the Democrats avoid a Republican super-majority in the state House. Important for redistricting purposes.

[Fragile Bird]

Question - why was the election held now? I thought elections were supposed to be on Election Day, but there were other elections recently as well. 

[A True Kaniggit]

34 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

Question - why was the election held now? I thought elections were supposed to be on Election Day, but there were other elections recently as well. 

.......

You know what?, they never taught us this in Louisiana civics class in high school (I’m joking, there was no Louisiana civics class)

Edit: Sorry, I tried to look up why regular Election Day isn’t used for these, but I can’t find anything listing a specific reason. 

Maybe they’re just being nice and using a weekend because it makes more sense than a Tuesday?

[ThinkerX]

1 hour ago, Ormond said:

You can't reliably diagnose Alzheimer's just from cognitive tests. All you can say is someone has dementia, with the specific cause of that dementia not specified.

And I would be surprised if you can get many credentialed psychologists who are actually experts on dementia to say Trump has it. I haven't seen any good evidence myself -- most of his cognitive errors seem to me to be just the sort of things an extreme narcissist under stress would come up with, not the sort of errors someone with dementia makes.

none of that matters.  what does matter is that a great many people (voters) already believe or suspect Trump is mentally impaired.  If the goal is to remove Trump regardless of cost, then an attack add declaring Trump mentally incompetent would be a valid, if distasteful approach.  It puts Trump in a bind from which he cannot easily escape.  Furthermore, if the accusations prove true - then does it constitute slander?  

 

Another thing that keeps cropping up in the comments is speculation this gives Trump an 'honorable' means to escape impeachment - resign on grounds of health.  (for medical, not mental reasons)

[DMC]

1 hour ago, Fragile Bird said:

Question - why was the election held now? I thought elections were supposed to be on Election Day, but there were other elections recently as well. 

There's no set election day for any given state's state elections.  Particularly when it comes to the five states - KY, LA, MS, NJ, and VA - who have "off-year" elections, which means their gubernatorial and state legislative elections fall on odd years rather than the standard presidential/midterm cycles.  In Louisiana's case, they have a "jungle primary," wherein if no one gets 50+1% of the vote, the top two candidates participate in a runoff election.  The jungle primary was on October 12, this was the runoff.  In 2015, the jungle primary was on October 24 while the runoff was on November 21.  Why around these dates for Louisiana?  Fuck if I know.