Trump/Pence 2016 it is all but official now....

I think this is the end for Trump, I was hoping for a surprise pick, like maybe a woman or a person of color. The racial factor is going to dig in on Trump and his GOP choice. Hillary will pounce on this and win the election. Trump made a big mistake.....

Condi Rice would have been perfect (though doubt she'd have done it)....

Huge mistake. Huge. It could cost him the election. At the very least, pick a swing state VP. Even Reagan made a better pick with GHWB.

originally posted by: MrSpad
As for the OP, Pence makes sense. He is in a very close race he could lose. And he is one of those Cruz like hard right, Christian, conservative Republicans. It shows Trump knows he has to please the Party to have a shot. It would be a good first sign that Trump is following in inline with the GOP like a good little boy to have a chance at this election.

This might not please Trumps supporters who might see it as laying down for the GOP but, lets be honest if everything has driven them away this will not either. And it will make Trump more acceptable in some of the Red states that are wavering. The Indies and Dems hate him, but they were not going to be swayed by VP choice anyway. Nobody really thought the random people being leaked were really in the mix did you? Considering Trumps stigma he was going to have to limit choices to people's political careers that were dead or close to death and by pleasing the the GOP elders this is the best choice he could make.

Wow I am not surprised and thanks for summing up the totality of "how could this happen" for everyone else out there who is totally shocked and disappointed by this. You are like the voice of totally wrong on Trump so far and it's great that I can rely on you for that. Somehow or another you manage to just cover all the pointlessly wrong and out of touch "conventional wisdom" that is coming from totally the wrong people aka the Republican establishment. I mean it's a surprisingly useful forum function for you to somehow manage to embody that so consistently.

Much of it isn't even close to right; for example if independents hated Trump he simply could not have won based on record turnout. You'll probably want to go get some stats from polls to argue your point if you actually were going to contest the assertion here, but please don't bother. If you could ignore the simple facts of the story thus far to assert that independents hate Trump than you are either hopelessly partisan to the old establishment or hopelessly foolish.

"Pleasing the GOP elders" is stupid because he has only one way to do that: lose to Hillary. Like them, you don't even want Trump to win so if Trump wanted to win, he'd obviously have to ignore the cw coming from all those people who share your daft viewpoint.

You don't need Napoleon to explain that Trump is making a gigantic tactical mistake every time he takes advice from people who want him to fail. This is a gift to Hillary, and the worst thing about it is that it indicates that Trump doesn't intend to win.

It will be his Dean scream moment if he goes through with it; it amounts to a concession.

originally posted by: LSU0408
a reply to: Gryphon66

According to who? Trump brought out record crowds of voters.

Well, something did, anyway. I'd love to see the direct evidence that it was only Trump.

As, to the rest, he's also the most unpopular candidate in history.

Common knowledge, but confirmation is just a Google away.

originally posted by: imitator
I think this is the end for Trump, I was hoping for a surprise pick, like maybe a woman or a person of color. The racial factor is going to dig in on Trump and his GOP choice. Hillary will pounce on this and win the election.

Trump made a big mistake.....

Perhaps Bill Clinton told him who to pick and not pick when they had their conversation about Trump's role in the GOP, in May 2015.

As, to the rest, he's also the most unpopular candidate in history.

If that were true, he would have never won the primary.....

Much of it isn't even close to right

On the contrary, I (personally) think that Mr Spad has been pretty much right on the money politically speaking, even through past elections...with one exception, the reliance upon polls.

It is often said that statistics are lies, damn lies, and I think this election has showcased that more than ever. The polls are notoriously mistaken so often during this election, that pointing to them for confirmation is simply futile at this juncture.

That said, I have no doubt he has a thorough understanding of how this process works.

But, Trump has consistently defied expectations and predictions, because you can't poll or sample folks that aren't interested in participating, thus they are not reflected in the polls.

originally posted by: Gazrok

As, to the rest, he's also the most unpopular candidate in history.

If that were true, he would have never won the primary.....

He won about 40% of the Republican primary vote thus giving him more delegates.

His unfavorability with the American people is hovering above 60% and has done so.

Polls are just polls. But these have been consistent for about a year.

It's not a blip.

a reply to: introvert

Like maybe he is playing to win?

originally posted by: matafuchs
a reply to: introvert

Like maybe he is playing to win?

Playing the GOP game will not win over the independents, women and minorities that he needs to win the election. This VP pick only solidifies his base, which is white men suffering from "white anxiety".

In my opinion, if this is his pick...he's done.

It's Pence . . .

Nothing like committing hara kiri by choosing an absolute nobody as VP.

Way to go, Dips**t. Your campaign is dead.

a reply to: Arizonaguy

Dan Quayle didn't hurt Bush and he was a marionette.

Yucko.

Boring.

a reply to: gladtobehere

Does anyone remember quite some time ago, much earlier in Trump's campaign, a brief part of a video of a (probable) alternative reporter stopping Trump as he walked by at the location of a rally to ask him if he, Trump, was planted to throw the election to Clinton?

A couple of months ago I tried to find it; I looked, including at Infowars YouTube thinking it was probably one of their team who asked Trump that, but I didn't have any luck.

What I recall is Trump stopping in his tracks at hearing the question, turning back a bit, and the look on his face was one of confusion, according to how I interpreted his expression, as if he could not figure out why in the world anyone would ask him such a thing.

I didn't clearly hear what his reply was and meant to go back to it a bit later but I never did for whatever reason.

Edited to Add: I paraphrased what the reporter asked Trump.

a reply to: Gryphon66

Be serious, if he were doing that, he would surprise us all be selecting Hillary.

a reply to: LSU0408

For a primary. A general election is another game altogether. Donny and his followers are viewing the future in the rear view mirror.

Here's a breakdown of what you can expect from Pence.

Pence on the Issues

Breaking news
No decision yet.
And he's announcing tomorrow?
You just know he's wishing he could clone himself right now.

No one measures up to trump but trump

Donald Trump Jr. VP search down to 3.
No decision yet.
My father's going to come up with a decision today.

This VP pick only solidifies his base, which is white men suffering from "white anxiety".

Where does race factor into it?

For me, this election is all about economy and our economic place in the world as the world's largest economy.

Add that the alternative is not only bought and paid for by big business and big banking, but also the establishment and our enemies, and it's a pretty simple choice.

If that wasn't enough, just comparing their platforms should do it.

originally posted by: neo96
a reply to: MrSpad

Clintons are worse than Pence's.

www.realclearpolitics.com...

Clinton's are terrible, they would be the worst ever if it was not for Trump who makes her numbers look good. And you are still comparing a state poll for Governor to national polling.

Pence national polling shows he has a 5% approval rating, 8% disapproval and and evebody else has no idea who he is.

originally posted by: 11andrew34
Huge mistake. Huge. It could cost him the election. At the very least, pick a swing state VP. Even Reagan made a better pick with GHWB.

originally posted by: MrSpad
As for the OP, Pence makes sense. He is in a very close race he could lose. And he is one of those Cruz like hard right, Christian, conservative Republicans. It shows Trump knows he has to please the Party to have a shot. It would be a good first sign that Trump is following in inline with the GOP like a good little boy to have a chance at this election.

This might not please Trumps supporters who might see it as laying down for the GOP but, lets be honest if everything has driven them away this will not either. And it will make Trump more acceptable in some of the Red states that are wavering. The Indies and Dems hate him, but they were not going to be swayed by VP choice anyway. Nobody really thought the random people being leaked were really in the mix did you? Considering Trumps stigma he was going to have to limit choices to people's political careers that were dead or close to death and by pleasing the the GOP elders this is the best choice he could make.

Wow I am not surprised and thanks for summing up the totality of "how could this happen" for everyone else out there who is totally shocked and disappointed by this. You are like the voice of totally wrong on Trump so far and it's great that I can rely on you for that. Somehow or another you manage to just cover all the pointlessly wrong and out of touch "conventional wisdom" that is coming from totally the wrong people aka the Republican establishment. I mean it's a surprisingly useful forum function for you to somehow manage to embody that so consistently.

Much of it isn't even close to right; for example if independents hated Trump he simply could not have won based on record turnout. You'll probably want to go get some stats from polls to argue your point if you actually were going to contest the assertion here, but please don't bother. If you could ignore the simple facts of the story thus far to assert that independents hate Trump than you are either hopelessly partisan to the old establishment or hopelessly foolish.

"Pleasing the GOP elders" is stupid because he has only one way to do that: lose to Hillary. Like them, you don't even want Trump to win so if Trump wanted to win, he'd obviously have to ignore the cw coming from all those people who share your daft viewpoint.

You don't need Napoleon to explain that Trump is making a gigantic tactical mistake every time he takes advice from people who want him to fail. This is a gift to Hillary, and the worst thing about it is that it indicates that Trump doesn't intend to win.

It will be his Dean scream moment if he goes through with it; it amounts to a concession.

You seem confused. Independents can not vote is most Republican primaries because they are independents. That is a person who does not belong to a political party. As for the rest of what your saying, I am not following it. Lets make it simple.

Their is a thing called electoral math. You have what are known as solid blue states, solid red states and the battleground states. Because of population the number of solid blues states requires the DNC candidate to only win one (in some cases two of the small ones) addition battle ground states to win the election.

If your a GOP candidate you must have all the normally solid red states and all or almost all of the battle ground states or some of the Blue states to win.

Trump is weak in the blue states and even in most of the battle ground states, he however is weak in several red states, Georgia, Utah, Arizona, and Kansas. Also in Nebraska which awards delegates by district Clinton has a shot of stealing some away.

So if your Trump what do you do? You are not going win over minorities, women, or Democrats this late in the game with just a VP choice. So that would be a waste. What you need more than anything to have a chance at electoral math is the red states to be solid red. You also have a limited pool of VP choices, most people who have any sort of political career do not want to be painted with Trumps stigma. So you really have only people who are out of politics or at the end of their political career who are willing to take the risk. So you give the GOP somebody they like.

They may not come out and support you but, having Bush in Texas, Romney in Utah, McCain in Arizona all actively campaigning against you dooms you, so you at least want to make them happy enough they will just be quiet and stay out of it.

Trump made the only choice he could that gives him a chance. Granted it is a long shot but, what other option did he have? And I find it amusing you see me as part of the Republican establishment. I am afraid I look at political races as what they are. I find them fascinating and study them. That is why I am an independent.