Paul Ryan is going to steal the election.

[sofa king]

I've been telling you guys all year that this was the plan: Republicans are going to toss the election into Congress and then not vote to choose a successor or certify the results. Paul Ryan becomes Acting President by default.

* That's why the GOP stuck with the Clinton email scandal, because the statute they accused her of violating says an offender is disqualified from holding public office;

* That's why the GOP rolled over for Trump, even though they were privately warned long ago that he was a shill for the Russians;

* That's why Mitch McConnell demanded that the evidence against Trump be withheld before the election.

They were planning to steal the election from BOTH candidates. And I fuckin' told all of you so all year:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=7696342

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=1441888

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=1625602

Here's the problem: this is an orchestrated coup and if Republicans pull it off, there will never be another fair election. They know that their time is at an end, and the demographics spell the end for them, and they're not going quietly into the night.

I don't know what to do about it, but I figure that knowing that they're gonna try it is better than not knowing at all. Good luck to all of us.

[C_U_L8R]

1. Some game is afoot

I can only guess but I hope the good guys win

[Cracklin Charlie]

8. I wouldn't count out Barack Obama.

He has done some pretty miraculous things.

[C_U_L8R]

12. Master strategist

and magnificent chess player.
Oh I love Obama.

[lonestarnot]

2. Speaker of the House can't take power away from the sitting President of the United States! We have

a sitting President! And a Vice President. This is a coup!

[flamingdem]

3. You must have felt pretty vindicated today!

Good job. I hope you're not right though, Ryan is terrible. But then again Pence is just as bad.

[sofa king]

4. Not vindicated. Horrified.

I express my darkest fears here in the hope that by spelling it out, they won't happen.

It's happening.

[roamer65]

5. They will have to choose a consensus candidate...

or there will be blood in the streets.

[duffyduff]

14. A "consensus" candidate will be illegitimate by definition.

We did similar shit before with Nixon appointing Ford to replace VP Agnew, and then when Nixon resigned and Ford became president, he appointed Nelson Rockefeller to the job of VP.

Ford pardoned Nixon, which killed his chances of ever being elected president, but it would have been doubtful since he had never been elected to the job in the first place.

[Hekate]

6. Been saying for months: watch the VP pick. Impeach Trump, install VP Pence. You know they have a

....a dossier on DTs just waiting.

This is even worse. Gods what a nightmare.

[Travis_0004]

7. What is to gain from that?

If they wanted Paul Ryan to be president, he would have ran for president.

A will make a (quite easy IMO) prediction that trump will be the next president. There is no secret plot.

[sofa king]

13. They do want Ryan to be President...

... and they knew this was the only angle they had. Either Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton would have kicked his ass. In fact, the Republican Party had no candidate who could challenge either of them. Then Trump got a puff of air from the Russians, and here we are.

[TheFrenchRazor]

9. obama should refuse to leave office, becasue we have no legitimately elected successor. nt

[hughee99]

10. I don't think that's one of his options, at least

I hope it isn't. If you're looking for a bad precedent to set, I can't think of a worse one.

[duffyduff]

15. Do you have a better idea?

The Electoral College is a fucked up, antiquated piece of crap, and its existence is the reason why this country is now totally fucked.

Then you have MORONS who are in there who think they can put in Kasich or a Romney instead of shedding off the partisanship and put in the real winner of the election, the one who won the popular vote.

[hughee99]

16. Virtually any idea is better than allowing the sitting

President to decide they're going to stay in office because, in their opinion, the previous election wasn't "legitimate". Think of it this way, if trump we're currently president and someone else had just won, would you still think this was okay?

[StevieM]

11. There was no real Clinton email scandal. The appropriate terminology is: "the fake email scandal."