Technically, he denied that the words in the tape were what he had said. Not the only time in the debate this would happen.

Heh. I had to explain to my perplexed techie husband that, no, 'acid wash' is not a new tech term. It's just a random thing Trump says.

Only one of the candidates would start a war because Putin told him it would prove he was a strong leader, one of geniusy type geniusness of awesome.

All of these. But especially that he either forgot that bit of debate prep (I am certain Conway would have explained it) or ignored it because he was playing to his base, convinced that everyone will turn into his base if he just replays his schtick harder.

It's not like there were any startling revelations. People who love Trump think "yeah, he'd jail his opposition!" is a feature; people who loathe him aren't surprised to see him add one more badge to "literally I am a fascist offering you fascism."

The other takeaway seems to be "Pence? Who? Oh that guy, haven't talked to him. Who knows what he says?"

I thought Trump was more on topic, more coherent, and more able to make an argument than he was in the first debate.

The greatest example of the trolley problem that I have seen was a toddler who presented with this model on a train set carefully moved the lone Fisher Price Person over with all the other Fisher Price People, then plowed them all down with the train. The Good Place could definitely riff on that.

*googles* Somewhat under 4% identify as lgb or t. Even if one rounds up to 5%, that would be around 16 people.

Also, The Onion probably has the best take on this.

Crist on a Cracker, ever since the Times went all "while there is no impropriety, there might be the appearance of it, which is basically as bad… also our public editor says that we can't make decisions about what is 'important' or 'not important.'"

Someone is checking whether the blue flashy thing from Men in Black maybe isn't sci fi.

There is a Green Party sanitation officer somewhere.

The problem with "release the transcripts of XX" is that it never ends. The first round doesn't have the ammo they wanted, so now they need transcripts of other stuff, and that doesn't work, so now… Which is why pols just shut it down at the first request, because it's an attempt to lure you into the swamp.

"Who knows what he'll do?"
I predict record-breaking ratings for the first half hour at least.

President Bush the elder: "We can take this guy out." *is flattened*
President Bush the younger: "I've got this." *is flattened*
Governor Jeb!: *something mildly milquetoast if taken out of context* *is flattened*
Even Barbara and Laura and the entire Bush political network can't dent him.

I remember that long list of GOP foreign policy types who endorsed Clinton after Trump went on a prolonged meltdown and then flirted with treason, and the very next day he added sedition. Must have been a lot of private high fives that day at how they didn't wait to see if he got worse.

In fairness, Conway has polished the loose turd she was given more than I would have thought humanly possible.

Flashback to the season of MasterChef where I gave up (for other reasons): Jessie was a beautiful contestant and seemingly a quite-good cook, and Gordon Ramsay could not let up on the vital question of was she single. When she kept deflecting him he had his 13-year-old son ask her, then high-fived with him over the…

If anyone knows someone holding out for Trump on the Supreme Court issue, point out that that list of nominees is Trump's deal. It will be in place up until November 9th when the voters' usefulness is done and it's time to walk away.