07-29-2016, 02:17 AM
(07-28-2016, 08:11 PM)Duchess Wrote: I think he's going to try to get out of debating Hillary. I know he did that during the primaries but I haven't been able to find out if that's allowed now that we are down to two candidates.
Trump skipped one Republican primary debate, but I don't think he had an opportunity or invitation to debate Hillary then.
He did refuse Bernie's public invitation to debate. Too bad, that would have been very interesting.
As non-conventional as this election cycle has been, the Republican nominee refusing to debate the Democratic nominee would still be political suicide, except perhaps in the eyes of the truly brain-dead Trump supporters whom he could convince to view it as "non PC', or as a protest against someone not treating him "fairly", or some such chickenshit excuse. I don't think Trump will attempt to balk on any of the general election debates unless he doesn't really want to become the next President.
I do hope Libertarian Gary Johnson gets to 15% in the polls and qualifies to debate Trump and Clinton. I'd also like to see Johnson's VP Weld get to debate Pence and Kaine. I think Johnson/Weld would resonate with a fair number of people. In my opinion, Johnson would primarily be a Republican alternative for those not comfortable with Trump and, to a lesser degree, for Independents and Dems who are less hawkish than Clinton. If Johnson weren't so pro free-trade, I think he'd probably be able to attract a lot of the disgruntled Bernie supporters.
I thought there were a couple of pretty good speeches at the DNC tonight, including Hillary's nomination acceptance speech.