I think that Clinton would've beaten Saunders anyway, even if they hadn't rigged it. He was popular with certain demographics, but always well behind overall. Shame, as I agree with him on a lot more things than I do Clinton. Would he have beaten Trump, though? Impossible to tell. We don't know what the Russians would've found out about him, for a start. I'm sure that Fox & Friends would've found some dead horse to beat into the ground, anyway. Emails, Benghazi, Foundation. Copy, paste, repeat until meaningless.
Hillary wasn't even that popular with the Democrats, as she's been a highly divisive figure within the party for at least three decades - and that is an advantage that Sanders certainly would have had over her, because while Republicans would have despised him because He's Not One Of Us, he wouldn't be despised by the wider spectrum of Democrats and floating voters. When you take into account how slim the margin was in some of the states, it does add up - especially when you look at the following Florida: 9m voted, yet the difference was a little over 100,000 votes difference for 29 electoral votes Pennsylvania: 6m voted, yet the difference was less than 50,000 votes difference for 20 electoral votes Michigan: 4.5m voted, yet the difference was little more than 10,000 votes for 16 electoral votes Wisconsin: 2.8m voted, yet the difference was less than 20,000 votes difference for 10 electoral votes So out of a combined 22m+ 180,000 votes was the difference, less than 1% of the vote - and more tellingly, if the vote went the other way in just those four states, Trump would have been crawling back to NBC to ask for his job as a glorified gameshow host back
What makes you think Trump won't invite the cameras into the Oval office for a bit of reality Presidency to make a few bob on the side? I can see it now, with reference to North Korea, 'fat boy, you're nuked'.
Wouldn't surprise me, sadly. He even took a pop at Schwarzenegger, who's taken over the Celebrity Apprentice gig. Arnie shot back: Yep, that's the President-Elect of the United States of America having a Twitter spat with The Terminator.
And he's already been caught out bullshitting, which is both pathetic and predictable. 2016: One of the most over-rated actresses in Hollywood. Doesn't know me. 2015: Meryl Streep is excellent; she’s a fine person, too.
That's the thing that gets me, people say that Trump is a loose cannon and is unpredictable - yet it is very easy to predict everything that comes out of his mouth and Twitter feed. When the ratings for The Apprentice came in, you knew Trump would jump on it - despite the ratings were declining for years when he was on the show Whenever someone brings up his mocking a reporter's disability he always goes on the offensive to deny it - yet the footage is out there for all to see He said numerous times that he would challenge the result if he lost - but anyone challenging the result because he won is apparently a crackpot Whenever someone brings up the idea of Russia tampering with the votes, he denies it - by saying the Russians inflated Hillary's vote count He said ten days ago he had proof the Russians boosted Hillary's vote and would reveal it on Wednesday - which was six days ago, and not a shred of proof Nigel Farage starts mugging in photos with Trump - so Trump demands he be made an ambassador He's found roles for friends, family, and even three-time Apprentice failures in his administration
And in this media-driven Twitter-sphere world that we live in, where the majority of the population shouldn't be allowed a vote due to a perfectly developed capacity for stupidity, the likes of Trump will thrive........
...and right on time, Fox News try to deflect...sorry "defend" Trump by saying he didn't mock a reporter's disability by showing a sequence of still from other conferences that show him making similar gestures, but the complete and utter lack of context makes this defence flimsier than Arsene Wenger's excuses for failure. What's really dumb is the Trump apologists trying to do similar, particularly those whose main line of attack is "If you's actually watched the video..." - yet anyone who watched the video will have seen Trump name the journalist before miming the well-known gestures, which he accompanies with the sort of spazz noises usually heard by a 13-year old when you get a simple question wrong - in other words, these snowflakes are the ones who actually need to watch the video, because their line of defence is their admitting they haven't watched it and are only meerkatting because the only thing more triggered is my control pad's shoulder buttons when I play Wolfenstein: The New Order. Yup, definitely not used any terms used specifically to insult those damn "lefties" in that last paragraph...
I agree it's a bit more likely than not that Clinton would have beaten Sanders even if the nomination hadn't been gamed (or, perhaps, had been gamed no more than usual). In which case the blatant gaming--and getting caught at it--didn't cost Sanders the presidency, it cost Clinton. The margins were so close, and the impact of the leaks revealing skullduggery so severe it's hard to see it otherwise. In either case, it was certainly disastrously stupid, in addition to being unequivocally wrong. Every poll I saw had Sanders beating Trump quite comfortably, while Clinton ran neck and neck, so I'll disagree about that. In a nutshell, people were het up and wanted change. Sanders offered real change and demonstrated integrity, which was more than either of his opponents could offer on both counts. Fair enough to say there would have been a massive effort to blacken Sanders' reputation, though, which would have had some impact.
I wonder what odds Paddy Power would give me on Donald J Trump being the next president of the US to be assassinated? I don't fancy his chances of lasting 4 years, if the odds are decent, (>10:1) I'd go with $10k.
Er, about that... Did you intentionally post that right as his latest ****storm hit? Maybe piss-storm, in this case.
As Piss-gate starts to (hopefully) drown the President-elect, Trump continues to create his own reality. New US Intel Chief and Trump-nominee Clapper's public comments on the latest revelations fall far short of the account being spouted by The Dumpf. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38596459 But at least the comedy level has been upped a gear - and my favourite is "What's the difference between a lentil and a chickpea? Trump wouldn't pay $1000 to have a lentil on his face." And this pic of him heading back to his hotel room.......