The leftover TU = Trump University!

It's a conspiracy. Paging Gordon Barlow. Paging Gordon Barlow.

Don't be silly. Only Hillary is involved in conspiracies. All of Trump's scandals are out in the open, but no-one cares.

It helps when they at least offer a divergence of opinion. Which they do. And that when it's opinion, it's not masquerading as fact - ie reporting.

To that end you might want to let your handlers know that Greta Van Susteren has just been given the boot by Fox.
Hiring her would bring a ton of "fair and balanced" to their media structure.

That quote is from my own initial post in this GREAT thread ( to sir_e ), written the day it was opened....
As we hurtle into the final phase I decided to look back through the thread.

A year and a half later I can only say my seat belt (see above) is now completely frayed, air bags are about to explode, suspension is shot and I'm already car sick - knowing final stretch of this hair-raiser race will make Monaco's Grand Prix look like kiddy bumper cars.

Trump and the Scapegoat Effect | The American Conservative
A fearsome slap at both candidates and their supporters - those who make Trump a scapegoat, and the scapegoat himself. About as balanced an opinion as this campaign has produced. Well worth taking the time to read.

I doubt it.

Ya'll see what that ****ing idiot is doing in the Philippines? That's what the USA is going to look like if we let Trump get elected.

Actually, it was an interesting read... and I think there's a lot of truth there.

Hands up if you are embarrassed by the fact that a vice presidential candidate accepting that the official birthplace of the current president as true is somehow a surprise.

Pence: 'I accept' Obama was born in US | TheHill

I didn't watch the town halls last night. Just reading the reports it looks like Matt lauer comes out badly for not correcting Trump's lies about being against the Iraq and Libya invasions.

Also the nytimes seems to be having a tough time recently. They apparently published a report that included the bit about being chums with Putin then redacted it.

I see the media are burying Gary Johnson for not knowing what Aleppo is this morning. Just wondering why they haven't done the same to Trump for the last year for not knowing anything.

He actually had a pretty mature and reasoned response to his slip-up as well, which is nigh on unheard of for a politician ...

"This morning, I began my day by setting aside any doubt that I’m human. Yes, I understand the dynamics of the Syrian conflict — I talk about them every day. But hit with “What about Aleppo?”, I immediately was thinking about an acronym, not the Syrian conflict. I blanked. It happens, and it will happen again during the course of this campaign.

Can I name every city in Syria? No. Should I have identified Aleppo? Yes. Do I understand its significance? Yes.

As Governor, there were many things I didn’t know off the top of my head. But I succeeded by surrounding myself with the right people, getting to the bottom of important issues, and making principled decisions. It worked. That is what a President must do.

That would begin, clearly, with daily security briefings that, to me, will be fundamental to the job of being President."

The ONLY redeeming thing about last night's travesty will be if it generates a careful re-consideration by the networks of the role of their moderators in the upcoming debates.
We hear a lot about rules for the candidates, rules for the audience, what about a few rules for those asking the questions?
Statements like this from Chris Wallace (Fox Network), who will moderate the final and therefore conceivably, most important debate, don't auger well:

"I do not believe it is my job to be a truth squad. It's up to the other person to catch them. ....... I don't view my role as truth squading and I think that is a step too far. If people want to do it after the debate, fine, it’s not my role. "

I have sympathy with Chris Wallace's view in an actual debate where there is an opportunity for the other candidate(s) to point out a person's lies. The problem was that last night wasn't a debate. Thus, absent the moderator intervening, lies went completely "unpunished".

And if the other candidate(s) fails to do so (due to time constraints etc.) - the uninformed voter is the loser.
A bald-faced lie is a bald-faced lie. It should not remain unchallenged.