Free Republic

Ugh. My kingdom for an edit button. ;)

Make no mistake, Trump is a bad candidate. Bad enough that the campaign is disorganized and panicky, but they lie about stupid stuff, stuff easily disproven.

If we want to stop Hillary (and no matter how bad I think Trump is, I want to stop Hillary), then Trump is going to have to stop the lies and start getting his act together.

So what? It’s no secret that I don’t think Trump is a terrible candidate. This is one of the reasons why; he lies about stupid stuff when he doesn’t have to.

Not sure what that has to do with anything, though; I didn’t make the Trump campaign plagiarize a speech, and I didn’t make them lie about it either.

A Freeper found this right away....very strange how this all happened. According to the NY Times Melania didn’t use the speech written by 2 speech writers and instead used what was written by a ballerina who has a degree in English lit...or something. Yikes!

And then Melania lied about it, saying that she wrote the speech. Which is the real problem here.

It's time for Donald and his clan to take this election seriously. Their campaign is laughably amateurish, and we need them to step up.

If Trump can't coordinate a campaign speech, or the rollout of his VP choice, how is his campaign going to run the GOTV effort we so desperately need?

A rickroll? You’ve got to be kidding me. This thing just gets worse and worse.

A great evening of speeches, and this is the takeaway. This is what makes the national conversation.

Somebody ought to be fired. Immediately.

I don’t know. I was very disappointed in the Cruz campaign by the end.

But if you’re suggesting that the campaign’s silly, bizarre lies are the result of deliberate sabotage from within, that doesn’t speak very well about Trump’s business acumen.

“Probably because they are a bunch of amateurs...”

Indeed. But it’s time to bring in some professionals.

This election is ours for the taking. If Trump wants it.

“One of Melania’s paragraphs had sentences that were word for word the same as part Michele’s speech in ‘08 at the Dem convention.”

I saw the speech and read the transcripts and that’s incontrovertible. It’s such stupid, lazy plagiarism. Why on Earth would they do such a dumb thing?

We were promised Tom Brady and Bobby Knight, and instead we get... Chachi?

I’m not sure just what it is, but the Pence announcement seems to have been engineered by Trump’s detractors.

That would explain it; the rollout sure was erratic and haphazard.

First they announce the pick will be public on Friday. Then they push it back to Saturday, but somebody apparently remembered that Pence had to opt out of the Indiana race on Friday, so then they flip-flop and announce it on Twitter.

They didn't coordinate the introduction to bring all the social media accounts on board, nor did they coordinate Pence's accounts to point to Trump's website. Which means that anyone who read the announcement and Googled him didn't get their story, which is a missed opportunity. They didn't issue press releases or videos defining Pence and introducing him to the nation, meaning that Hillary got to run attack ads for a full day before Pence even spoke to the country. Again, a tremendous missed opportunity and a bizarre fumble.

And that's not even getting into this logo flip-flop, which only emboldens the detractors and makes the Trump campaign look amateurish and foolish.

This should concern all of us, because it's not a sign of a well-run campaign. Time to stop messing around.

I’m not sure just what it is, but the Pence announcement seems to have been engineered by Trump’s detractors.

That would explain it; the rollout sure was erratic and haphazard.

First they announce the pick will be public on Friday. Then they push it back to Saturday, but somebody apparently remembered that Pence had to opt out of the Indiana race on Friday, so then they flip-flop and announce it on Twitter.

They didn't coordinate the introduction to bring all the social media accounts on board, nor did they coordinate Pence's accounts to point to Trump's website. Which means that anyone who read the announcement and Googled him didn't get their story, which is a missed opportunity. They didn't issue press releases or videos defining Pence and introducing him to the nation, meaning that Hillary got to run attack ads for a full day before Pence even spoke to the country. Again, a tremendous missed opportunity and a bizarre fumble.

And that's not even getting into this logo flip-flop, which only emboldens the detractors and makes the Trump campaign look amateurish and foolish.

This should concern all of us, because it's not a sign of a well-run campaign. Time to stop messing around.

Yeah, it’s totally my fault that Trump keeps up the attacks on his foes even after he defeats them. And it’s totally my fault that he has chosen to antagonize the members of our party rather then find common ground.

A good leader can pull out multiple approaches based on the situation. The carrot and the stick. I just don’t see that out of Trump, and I refuse to pretend that it isn’t an issue. He’s a charismatic man, he needs to be able to work a little charm if he’s even going to get elected, much less get our agenda through an obstinate Congress.

When Trump officially receives the nomination, he will be the titular leader of the party. But that doesn’t mean he can lead.

This is an historic election. We all agree on that. It should be an easy one, ripe for the taking. But I see opportunity slipping away, and it’s driving me up the freaking wall.

“Do you expect that Trump would praise them for trying to knife him in the back?”

Of course not, but at some point we need to set these feuds aside, and if he wants to be the leader of our party that means Trump needs to be the one to lead.

This will be a major test of his abilities - no way he could possibly turn Illinois or New York red if he can’t find a way to end all this petty squabbling.

“Adding Newtie makes Hillary president.”

Same could be said for almost all the choices listed so far. We have an uphill battle as it is, we can’t afford to be saddled with a bad VP pick.

Not excited about the parade of has-beens the Trump campaign keeps floating. Surely we have better options than this?

Christie would be the worst, though.

“Former prosecutor and NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani; expert in anti terroism defenses.”

You mean the genius who put his emergency command center in a known terrorist target (over strenuous objections from the NYPD and Secret Service), meaning his first order of business during a terrorist attack was to find a new place for his emergency command center?

That guy?

“Santorum would be better than Newtie.”

Oh, no. Another loser has-been. Haven’t we had enough candidates who couldn’t even deliver their home states?

I thought we had a much deeper bench than this. Surely we have young, exciting, up-and-coming conservatives somewhere in this great country? We shouldn’t have to trot out these warmed-over rejects. Not if we actually want to win.

“Ernst will bring out fence sitters.”

Unquestionably, but looks like she’s taken herself out of the running.

I fear he won’t be able to actually choose a real candidate, only scrape the best off the bottom of the barrel. Not looking so hot at the moment.

“Sessions is too old. Corker is a globalist sellout. Newt has way too much baggage. Christie brings nothing to the ticket. Joni Ernst and Mike Pence are both good choices IMO.”

In mine as well. I think you’ve nailed it here.

“Sessions is too old. Corker is a globalist sellout. Newt has way too much baggage. Christie brings nothing to the ticket. Joni Ernst and Mike Pence are both good choices IMO.”

In mine as well. I think you’ve nailed it here.

“We’re aleays talking about character on this board.

That goes out the window if he’s selected.”

In fairness, we’ve already agreed to look the other way this time on the whole character thing.

But no, I don’t want Paul either. I just think there are policy arguments against him. His hypocrisy on federal funding for doctors is disqualifying.