Do you get the feeling that Trump knows he's going to lose?

[Renew Deal]

It's starting to feel like 2008 when the "socialist" stuff started being thrown around. McCain, Palin, and their supporters knew it was over. They all started getting crazy. Things are starting to feel the same now.

[madaboutharry]

1. Nicole Wallace has said they knew they would lose.

The McCain campaign knew it was over many weeks out.

[MoonRiver]

2. I don't think he'll ever admit it, even to himself.

Even if he loses in a landslide he'll cry foul.

[beachbum bob]

3. trump is pretty delusional so hard telling, he keeps acting like a loser

as he goes into junkyard dog mode...winners don't need to

[dawg]

4. He thinks he's tied right now, and doesn't understand ...

why he isn't 20 points ahead.

He's delusional, and he surrounds himself with yes-men. I think Ivanka is probably the only person who might be able to make him understand something he doesn't want to believe.

[saltpoint]

5. It's hard to tell. It hasn't been clear who

is actually running Trump's campaign from the beginning. Senior staff seem to come and go like the weather. They may need to reinforce the hinges on the door to Trump Tower. Only his surrogates have been consistent, but not in a good way. They may be even crazier than Trump.

As this last week ended, it sure did not seem like an operation that was confident of its chances. Or even one that knew what the hell it was doing.

[oberliner]

7. He's had the same leadership team for a while now

It is interesting to see the difference between Teleprompter Trump and Real Trump.

[saltpoint]

12. From the primaries forward, the Trump

campaign feels to me as if he's making it up as he goes, assembling bits and pieces from disparate sources, and pretending that combined, they make a presidential campaign.

I'm not seeing any success for him from the organizational point of view. Last June, this ran about the Trump effort nationally:

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/donald-trump-does-not-have-campaign

He wings it. He doesn't prepare for the first debate and probably can't prepare for any of the subsequent debates. The campaign is a series of lashings out, incitations to violence, and incoherent ramblings. He's playing the tough guy instead of the thoughtful candidate, and the people he's drawing for support are not a majority of the electorate.

Good point on Teleprompter Trump vs. Real Trump. It looks as if he's giving us a lot more Real Trump than ever, and this close to election day, I don't think it's serving him very well.

[oberliner]

13. Good points

I think his team, such as they are, have been making an attempt to present him a certain way, but his personality does not allow them to do so. They want him to read talking points and "be presidential" and he just wants to be himself. The whole being himself thing is what made him so different from the other Republicans in the primary and thus led to his appeal, in some ways. People liked that he was talking off the top of his head and not sounding like a real politician. I think he believes he can win the general by continuing to do this, and his people want him to be scripted instead and to spout out the things Republicans want to hear. It is fascinating to watch. Hopefully the end result will be a HRC landslide victory.

[saltpoint]

15. oberliner, I will defintely sign

on to a landslide victory for Clinton-Kaine. And with it, I would like to see not just the 3, 4, or 5 hoped-for gains in U.S. Senate races, but a couple others besides. We could do without Burr in North Carolina and without Blunt in Missouri, just for starters.

A landslide could hold many good things up and down the ballot. And there's the Supreme Court (and other appointments).

On a purely human scale, I think somebody ought to offer Donald Trump some help. I don't mean that in a dismissive way. I think he is in way over his head and trying to run on his ego, and it just is not going to be enough. His politics are deplorable (Clinton got exactly the right word), but he's a human, and clearly a human under visible stress.

There's a little over a month left in the campaign. I'm not sure he's in very good shape right now, let alone through November 8.

[randome]

8. Trump attracts losers like himself. They see something in the crazy that reminds them of themselves.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]The truth doesn’t always set you free.
Sometimes it builds a bigger cage around the one you’re already in.[/center][/font][hr]

[saltpoint]

9. That must be it. When we go one-by-one

through his list of campaign staff and the various surrogates, it sure looks like a solid theory.

Wackos and hyper-authoritarians.

[oberliner]

6. No, he thinks he is going to win

And he thinks if he doesn't win, it will be because of cheating.

[onehandle]

10. Win or lose, he wins. This was always about making money. nt

[Fast Walker 52]

11. I'm sure his people know, Trump probably not

[BumRushDaShow]

14. IMHO, he doesn't care about this. But he DOES care about "his Brand™"

and will do whatever he can to protect THAT.

As I have posted over and over - he doesn't "need" the Presidency because he has and can get what he needs when he needs it and how he needs it. He can jet around to wherever he wants and sail around to wherever he wants, stay in the most elitist resorts and flout the law while flaunting his ability to manufacture some sort of "business acumen".

It's to the point where whenever the average non-politically-engaged citizen hears his name, they think of this blustering "rich" guy with all the "babes" and hotels and casinos, and they really don't have any knowledge of or interest in his shady backstory, or illegal practices.

I just realized that this is the same type of thing that Don King has done over the decades (and also why King is a Trump supporter). These types of men have created a "persona" that is so over-the-top and blustery that they are accepted for their "entertainment value" and really aren't expected to be engaged in anything serious including creating policies and running the country.

Problem is, the media, by not calling this man out during the GOP primaries, allowed one of that type of person to get this close >< to the Presidency, and that is the danger.

[Coyotl]

16. Lose, they wish that word was what they expect. This will be an enormous humiliation, a horrid

embarrassment, a stinging defeat unmatched in American politics, a downfall to replace Rome in modern parlance, the end of the world as they know it

[Demsrule86]

17. No, I think Trump believes he will win. nt

[Hoyt]

18. At this point, for his staff anyway, it's keeping close hoping something happens. A big terrorist

attack, an economic shock, Clinton trips running a marathon, or something like that.

I'm still convinced Kerry was about to beat bush in 2004, but the Bin Laden video on Friday before election turned enough voters.