Is "Hot micgate" Trump's 47% moment?

[Devout Centrist]

No, He's like friggin Wile E Coyote, You can drop all the anvils in the world on his head and nothing happens.

That didn't work out for Todd Akin.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

This is the silver bullet. Of all the scandals that have been thrown at him, from the Mexico comments to the John McCain to the crippled reporter all the way through to Alicia Marchado were all either outright smears, half truths, or grossly exaggerated mirror images of the sins of just about every other politician.

This, however, is indefensible. Disturbing, vile, disgusting. This confirms my doubts about his character. Of course, Hilary's character has long been corrupted. So will I vote for Trump still? Probably, Hillary pisses me off that much. But a vote for the Johnson/Weld ticket is looking a little bit more possible today.

If the RNC can replace Trump magically with someone like Jeff Sessions who I can trust as a reliable voice for Trumpism, than I'd be plenty happy with the results.

[Torie]

Didn't everybody already know that is the very essence of Trump? Who does not know at this point that he is an amoral bounder? I don't think it will have much impact.

[Devout Centrist]

This is the silver bullet. Of all the scandals that have been thrown at him, from the Mexico comments to the John McCain to the crippled reporter all the way through to Alicia Marchado were all either outright smears, half truths, or grossly exaggerated mirror images of the sins of just about every other politician.

This, however, is indefensible. Disturbing, vile, disgusting. This confirms my doubts about his character. Of course, Hilary's character has long been corrupted. So will I vote for Trump still? Probably, Hillary pisses me off that much. But a vote for the Johnson/Weld ticket is looking a little bit more possible today.

If the RNC can replace Trump magically with someone like Jeff Sessions who I can trust as a reliable voice for Trumpism, than I'd be plenty happy with the results.

That probably says more about your character than his.

[Alcon]

A random quote from 11 years ago being dragged up from the grave is in no way worse than what Romney said during the heat of a campaign.

What, you think Donald Trump is any different now in any relevant sense than when he said this?  I mean, I'm sure his testosterone count has fallen, but otherwise...

I don't think anyone's under the illusion that Trump respects women or marriage or people in general in any meaningful way. That fact's already baked in for most people.

And the idea that Romney might be somewhat "out of touch" with working-class people wasn't baked in before the 47% comment?  Or the idea that Clinton has honesty problems wasn't baked in before the scandal that almost sent this election to a tie?  If anything, I'm of the mind that spotlighting candidates' worse characteristics/tendencies makes scandals worse, not mitigates them.

I would generally agree with you. I think the difference here (besides the temporal difference and the political context revealed in) is that Romney's comment really revealed a previously unseen level of contempt and vitriol toward a large proportion of the population whereas Trump's comments aren't really that out of line with his established persona.

Eh, maybe, but I think in both instances, there's an effect of "I hear he's like that, but I've never seen it."  People have seen Trump be crass and demeaning.  But I do think that he gets in trouble when he does it with people who don't 'have it coming' -- when he punches down.  The Curiel and Khan incidents were such cases, and they seemed to hurt him.  I think this is an extreme case, in that it's vulgar, harder to defend as merely political sport (Curiel and Khan were defensible!), and basically the cartoonish extreme of several bad things people say about Trump.  I do think that has the capacity to hurt him among the "he's probably not as bad as they say" crowd.

[SteveRogers]

If (when) this comes up in the debate, any attempt by Trump to spin this is going to result in him digging himself a deeper hole, guaranteed. He's going to try to counter by talking about Bill Clinton, and it's going to go poorly for him.

[RI]

If (when) this comes up in the debate, any attempt by Trump to spin this is going to result in him digging himself a deeper hole, guaranteed. He's going to try to counter by talking about Bill Clinton, and it's going to go poorly for him.

I would agree that this would be the biggest potential problem for Trump out of this. Responding poorly at a debate to this could be very bad for him and potentially generate something even worse than these comments.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

I have decided that I might end up writing Patrick Buchanan in for President at this point .

[Yank2133]

This is the silver bullet. Of all the scandals that have been thrown at him, from the Mexico comments to the John McCain to the crippled reporter all the way through to Alicia Marchado were all either outright smears, half truths, or grossly exaggerated mirror images of the sins of just about every other politician.

This, however, is indefensible. Disturbing, vile, disgusting. This confirms my doubts about his character. Of course, Hilary's character has long been corrupted. So will I vote for Trump still? Probably, Hillary pisses me off that much. But a vote for the Johnson/Weld ticket is looking a little bit more possible today.

If the RNC can replace Trump magically with someone like Jeff Sessions who I can trust as a reliable voice for Trumpism, than I'd be plenty happy with the results.

Lol

[Phony Moderate]

The 47% remarks probably made at most a 1% difference. Though 1% is quite a lot in today's polarized America.

[Ljube]

LOL! That's just how alpha males talk to each other.

This is nothing.

[Lyin' Steve]

I have decided that I might end up writing Patrick Buchanan in for President at this point .

If you don't want this monster to become president then you should stop being an ass and vote for Hillary.

[GeorgiaModerate]

I have decided that I might end up writing Patrick Buchanan in for President at this point .

Well, since you're in Florida, that might swing the state from Gore to Bush.

[Ljube]

I have decided that I might end up writing Patrick Buchanan in for President at this point .

If you don't want this monster to become president then you should stop being an ass and vote for Hillary.

Hillary is the monster.

[Doimper]

I have decided that I might end up writing Patrick Buchanan in for President at this point .

If you don't want this monster to become president then you should stop being an ass and vote for Hillary.

Hillary is the monster.

The real monsters are the people that enable Donald Trump, a confirmed rapist, and continue to try and excuse the inexcusable.

[Ljube]

I have decided that I might end up writing Patrick Buchanan in for President at this point .

If you don't want this monster to become president then you should stop being an ass and vote for Hillary.

Hillary is the monster.

The real monsters are the people that enable Donald Trump, a confirmed rapist, and continue to try and excuse the inexcusable.

LOL! There is no evidence that he raped anybody.

[Doimper]

I have decided that I might end up writing Patrick Buchanan in for President at this point .

If you don't want this monster to become president then you should stop being an ass and vote for Hillary.

Hillary is the monster.

The real monsters are the people that enable Donald Trump, a confirmed rapist, and continue to try and excuse the inexcusable.

LOL! There is no evidence that he raped anybody.

He has been recorded talking about groping and kissing women against their will. He is a predator, and if you think that's funny you're a vile human being.

[Hammy]

I think it will have at least some negative impact--it won't cost him any R-lean states for example, but it could push enough undecideds to solidify some D-leaning states.

[Ljube]

I have decided that I might end up writing Patrick Buchanan in for President at this point .

If you don't want this monster to become president then you should stop being an ass and vote for Hillary.

Hillary is the monster.

The real monsters are the people that enable Donald Trump, a confirmed rapist, and continue to try and excuse the inexcusable.

LOL! There is no evidence that he raped anybody.

He has been recorded talking about groping and kissing women against their will. He is a predator, and if you think that's funny you're a vile human being.

I didn't hear anything about groping and kissing women being against their will. Better try to listen to that recording again.

[Helsinkian]

Even Trump's own surrogates on CNN are now saying that he needs to apologize. That shows how bad it is.

[Ogre Mage]

The fat lady showed up early. 

[Doimper]

I have decided that I might end up writing Patrick Buchanan in for President at this point .

If you don't want this monster to become president then you should stop being an ass and vote for Hillary.

Hillary is the monster.

The real monsters are the people that enable Donald Trump, a confirmed rapist, and continue to try and excuse the inexcusable.

LOL! There is no evidence that he raped anybody.

He has been recorded talking about groping and kissing women against their will. He is a predator, and if you think that's funny you're a vile human being.

I didn't hear anything about groping and kissing women being against their will. Better try to listen to that recording again.

“Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.”

“Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.”

Nothing about consent there. The NYT is coming out with a story from a Miss Utah about how he kissed women on the lips against their will, so I'll be sure to post a link to that too when it's out.

It also seems that Clinton was right about half of Trump's supporters being deplorables.

[Ljube]

They let you do it.

That's consent.

[Koharu]

Didn't everybody already know that is the very essence of Trump? Who does not know at this point that he is an amoral bounder? I don't think it will have much impact.

They were able to ignore that aspect. Just rumors, the divorces/affairs were just flings and truuue looove or something. Now there's indisputable proof.

[DrScholl]

They let you do it.

That's consent.

You people are scary. Rape is not okay, ever.