Does the recent gun massacre of 50+ LGBT people in Orlando, Florida...

[HagridOfTheDeep]

Forgive me for being alarmist, but if this does help Trump in any clear way, I'm very scared that ISIS would organize another event like this in early November to ensure Trump wins. They realize that making Trump president would almost be on par with whatever else they could dream up.

Sigh.

Dangerous times, and heaven forbid the country actually see the value of even-handedness...

[HagridOfTheDeep]

Well, I think then that maybe Hillary will be able to capitalize on this if she brings Trump's response into the open/MSM and fiercely champions gay rights, linking her words directly to the tragedy.

This was a safe space for gay people because they've been pushed out of so many other places. The parents of young gay men may just be finding out from this horrible night that their sons are gay. We have friends of these people wanting to donate blood who can't, based on a medieval policy. We have religious fundamentalism preaching hatred to the point that people compel themselves to go out and massacre gays. It's horrible, and if she goes hard on this issue and champions something like the blood issue, which a lot of people might not have talked about otherwise, she could curry favour... Especially with some of the Sanders folks who are still hesitant because her record on LGBT right is supposedly "worse" than Sanders'.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

The shooter was on an FBI watch list. In December, the GOP blocked an effort to prohibit gun sales to people on the watch list.

Did he buy his gun legally since then?

Considering the shooter's father says an incident a couple months ago may have been the catalyst, it's certainly plausible.

How long until some stupid Republican blames that gay couple for showing affection in public and not having the decency to be more covert?

[HagridOfTheDeep]

Let's see... A hateful, homophobic radical DEMOCRAT ISLAMIC TERRORIST  goes into a GUN FREE ZONE and shoots up a bunch of gay people because he can't stand to watch two men kissing.... And he pledges allegiance to ISIS on a 911 call before he does the shooting.

Yeah... Hillary! will definitely be the one that ends up with the political mojo on this... NOT.

Trump has railed against Gun Free Zones and terrorism ad nausuem during this campaign. Just like in the primaries, it's right in his wheel house.

Yeah, because Hillary and the Democratic Party are obviously the ones stoking hatred.

F-ck off.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

Some of you guys are overthinking this.

To the typical "swing voter/undecided voter", this will be: "Wow, he's a Muslim! Muslims are bad! I knew it! TRUMP 2016!"

Obviously the left is going to spin it into homophobia or guns or wanting a steady hand as commander in chief, but nobody is insinuating Trump is going to win over the left.

"Spin this into homophobia"?  

This was homophobic bigotry at the extreme, plain and simple.  

The guy pledged allegiance to ISIS prior to the shooting and had connections with a suicide bomber, so clearly it goes deeper than just homophobia.

He specifically targeted a gay nightclub. And he made statements to his father about homosexuals several months ago. While it's obviously Islamic-extremism-related, it's also obviously homophobia-related. No spin necessary, and no need to sugar-coat things.

You're preaching to the choir here. My point was the homophobia/guns is what the left will focus on, and the Muslim/Islamic terrorism side is what the right will focus on.

I'm not exactly waiting with bated breath to see which side "the undecided voters" fall on.

If I may add, not the entire left, just the irredeemable left wing partisan hacks. The people with integrity will not focus on that.

So you're suggesting people with integrity will conveniently ignore that this was clearly an act of homophobia?

Of course not, but they will not try to spin it as such, since it is pretty obvious the most important contributing factor was Islamic radicalism of the mass killer.

They will certainly not ask for weapons ban over this.

That's not obvious at all.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

I think this could have helped him slightly, but because of the way he responded to the events, in the typical insensible and disrespectful narcissistic Trump fashion, it'll probably end up working against him. Some Bernie diehards in my Facebook are now willing to vote for HRC to stop him because of today.

The trouble is, for every Bernie supporter this brings over to Clinton, there's a conservative who hated Trump but now agrees with his blister on terrorism and has decided to support him in the fall.

I mean, look at what Green Line was posting today and tell me that the political conversation around the events of last night would not at least help polarize the country and push people like him back into Trump's orbit. You can't, really.

So who wins?

[HagridOfTheDeep]

I know that this is a presidential elections board, but I f'ing hate that this thread exists.  I'm still in horror at this brutal crime against humanity, and haven't moved on to which politician can capitalize on it.

It's horrifying to admit, and I hate that I'm saying this, but... I am almost getting desensitized to it. I won't speak for anyone else. And this one has definitely hit closer to home than a lot of the others, for obvious reasons, but... it just happens way too damn often.