Originally Posted by Boiler

Was there not a previous President who did something very similar at the time of the Iranian Embassy incident?

Originally Posted by Hiro11

This is, bar none, the worst group of candidates of my lifetime. We've got:
- a fascist billionaire blowhard, d*****bag clown that makes me depressed to be American
- an amoral and chronically dishonest career politician with no convictions and a room full of million dollar "advisers" producing polling guidance that she unconvincingly parrots to the lowest common denominator
- a completely unelectable self-proclaimed socialist who makes sense only if you're a grad student living on dad's dime
- a wet sock nobody who apparently has no real positions, is about as exciting as watching paint dry and whose brother and father were already (extremely dubious) Presidents
- a religious weirdo who has zero experience
- a bunch of other anonymous guys in suits

Originally Posted by Hiro11

This is, bar none, the worst group of candidates of my lifetime. We've got:
- a fascist billionaire blowhard, douchbag [FIFY] clown that makes me depressed to be American
- an amoral and chronically dishonest career politician with no convictions and a room full of million dollar "advisers" producing polling guidance that she unconvincingly parrots to the lowest common denominator
- a completely unelectable self-proclaimed socialist who makes sense only if you're a grad student living on dad's dime
- a wet sock nobody who apparently has no real positions, is about as exciting as watching paint dry and whose brother and father were already (extremely dubious) Presidents
- a religious weirdo who has zero experience
- a bunch of other anonymous guys in suits

Originally Posted by mrken30

Which one is going to lower taxes and fix the Middle East problem?

Originally Posted by FlaviusAetius

That's too simplistic and silly a response. No one is in that business.

Originally Posted by Anian

Exactly my point. A silly response to match a silly suggestion. It cannot be done, and even from a security standpoint it should not be done.

Originally Posted by zargof

So I think I've figured out Trump's game plan.

With Trump's latest outburst about banning all Muslims there was a very important caveat: "until we figure out what is going on." Remember this it will be important later.

So, where are we right now? Trump is saying crazy shit and still leading in the polls. Here's the thing, for Trump's plan to work, it doesn't matter what the subject is, only that's it's crazy. This is because he's: 1) able to sell his appeal as honest and not afraid to say what needs to be said, and 2) keep getting tons of publicity and media coverage. This leads to him staying high in the polls, which he needs to show he's invincible and the inevitable candidate.

Now, he has the GOP by the balls as they have to keep supporting him regardless of what crazy shit he does, as he just has to threaten to run as an Independent because he isn't getting their support and he takes his loyal Trumpers with him and the GOP loses the election. Now if the GOP were to coalesce around another candidate, then all this would be lost as Trump would no longer be leading the polls and would have lost his power. But the GOP is too divided for that to happen.

Anyway, this keeps going on until the primaries. All the while Trump keeps on saying crazy shit, rides high in the polls, the GOP establishment panics, and Democrats think Trump is crazy, but secretly want him to win as it guarantees them victory (some of them even vote for him in the primaries to make it happen).

Now this is the important part. If this gambit pays off and Trump is the candidate, he totally changes tactics. He walks back all the crazy shit. Remember the caveat above? Well Trump then says, it's OK, they figured it out we don't need to ban Muslims. He also claims credit for it by saying they only figured it out because he talked about it. He says similar stuff for all the other crazy shit.

So it's the general election, and Trump has his loyal Trumpers in the bag as well as all the other Republicans who'll vote for whoever the Republican candidate is. On the Democrat side, you have the Anyone But Hillary crowd who are going to sit this out, or may even vote for Trump, plus the Bernie fanatics who are going to write in Sanders. I'm not sure what the numbers are and how many swing voters he'll need. In order to get them he'll go all out on the populism (job/ponies for everyone etc.), while trashing Hillary (untrustworthy, Wall St, Benghazi, etc). It's enough to persuade the swing voters and say hello to President Trump.

Now, I'm not sure what his real agenda is once elected, and frankly I'm not sure he knows himself. Rather it's an ego trip to prove he can do it. Not that it really matters as he'll have no support in Congress to get anything done anyway.

Even if it doesn't work, he can still Palin the shit out of all the publicity and hawk whatever tat he's trying to sell next.

Originally Posted by FlaviusAetius

Zargof touched on an important point, i.e. that Trump really only called for hitting the Pause button with respect to immigration of Muslims. From a security standpoint, that makes sense, and all the Republican candidates screaming Hillary talking points about Trump are digging their political graves. Only Cruz was smart enough to refrain from piling on. I predict he ends up as the party's candidate and better than even chance he wins the Presidency.

Trump has opened a dialogue with the American people where perhaps more than 60% agree with him. Part of the frustration leading to that groundswell is that the political elites of both parties are chanting identical mantras - same as in Europe, which is why the Front National Party in France came in first in last Sunday's elections, and why elections in Germany are likely to see the fall of Merkel as well as the Socialists.

Originally Posted by zargof

Whenever there is a mass shooting, any suggestion of restricting guns is shot down (pun intended) as not feasible. But after a terrorist incident restricting Muslim immigration is totally a great idea. Makes sense.

Originally Posted by sir_eccles

Trump is directly responsible, Kristallnacht!

Texans begin nightly smashing windows of Muslim family only six weeks after they move in