AIBU to think Melania Trump is quite impressive, in a way?

[Defenbaker]

It can't be easy being married to a man like Donald Trump, and it can't be easy being in the public eye so much, but Melania Trump seems to take it all in her stride.
She is always immaculate in her appearance, and always looks so poised and calm, that I can't help being a bit impressed by the way she handles her role.

I realise she's probably had work done, and maybe she's a slave to botox, but I think she is quite striking and beautiful. Just one thing though - I wish she'd stop wearing the stupidly high heels - all her shoes seems to have 6inch heels and sometimes she looks a bit unsteady, especially when negotiating steps.

I'm not keen on her husband, but AIBU to think MT is doing a good job of being First Lady?

I do like her.... and then I remember that she's doing a job. A very, very well paid job. I'd probably be just as good if my salary was that high.

Yes, she had more votes (I apologise for the heinous crime of getting that wrong), however I maintain that the result is indicative of her lack of popularity amongst voters.

Give it up already - she is more popular than Trump amongst American voters. That is an irrefutable fact.

JFK is a good example - because he won by securing the electoral college, but got far fewer more votes than his opponent compared with Hillary. As did many other successful Presidents.

I think JFK was young, considered good looking, was charismatic and that gets you places. And crucially, voters didn't know everything that was going on, in the way we do now with Twitter and cameras everywhere.

And dying young, in that horrible way, does mean that he was gone before the public could become disillusioned.

An ex yacht girl/hooker who chose her life for the money etc. She always looks 'immaculate' as she had stylists, make up artists and she does fuck all. Personally I think she looks like a sleepy otter.

@Cacacoisfarraige if that story is true, DT is much worse than I imagined. What a chilling tale. Whatever Melania's reasons for marrying him, she must be regretting it now. I agree with other people who said that she's probably signed a contract agreeing to carry out the First Lady role, and is probably hoping he won't get elected for a second term. He will probably make her sign a non disclosure agreement in return for any divorce settlement, too. I think she's earning her money the hard way and must be quite mentally tough to endure being in that position. Maybe she'll end up with more money than she could ever spend, but will have wasted her best years in an unhappy marriage.

As for JFK, I think the PP who said that he died before people could become disillusioned with him hit the nail on the head.

derxa Mon 09-Dec-19 15:08:49

Many candidates won with majorities in the hundreds of thousands. JFK was one. Another adulterer

Well yeah but the point was that almost 3 million votes of a popular majority is a big deal.

Aderyn19 Mon 09-Dec-19 10:20:35

mathanxiety In a country the size of the USA, getting fewer than 3 million votes more than DT does not make her significantly more popular imo.

Terminology fail on your part:
1 vote is 'fewer than 3 million' votes.
2,868,686 is 'almost 3 million'.
You keep on trying to twist this to make Hillary Clinton into the worst candidate who ever cast her hat into the ring based on numbers, but numbers don't lie, and there are far better ways to prove your point.

As I have said upthread, I agree with you that she was an incredibly poor candidate. The campaign slogan 'Because It's Her Turn' was nauseating. And very revealing.
www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/yikes-new-behind-the-scenes-book-brutalizes-the-clinton-campaign-123303/

She had her diehard fans (one of whom is a DD of mine; we had many a long conversation on the topic of HRC), and she had voters who held their noses and voted for her, and then there were people who understand how elections work and voted for the only candidate who could possibly win against Trump.

But she did significantly better than her opposition thought she would.
slate.com/news-and-politics/2016/11/the-democrats-ran-hillary-because-it-was-her-turn-bad-move.html

Aderyn19 Mon 09-Dec-19 17:20:06

I think JFK was young, considered good looking, was charismatic and that gets you places. And crucially, voters didn't know everything that was going on, in the way we do now with Twitter and cameras everywhere.

JFK had a significant problem in that he was Catholic. But he came across as a WASP and he was very good on TV.

What was crucial was that he ran for office before the Civil Rights Act, which had the effect of turning the South Republican, as Lyndon Johnson prophesied it would as he signed it - 'There goes the South for a generation'.

Nixon skillfully exploited the latent racism ('The Silent Majority') to win two terms despite his well earned terrible reputation for crookedness.

Mathanxiety, if HC had been one vote under 3 million, then I'd not quibble over it. But she was a fair bit under 3 million and so rounding up is misrepresentation imo of her popularity.
There's never been a president quite like Trump before. I just thought she'd have walked it.
I do agree her campaign was terrible she was hindered by those who were meant to help her.

I wonder if Nixon would have survived Watergate if it had happened today. It's interesting how scandals that cost careers in the 60s, 70s and 80s would be considered nothing now (extra marital affairs, illegitimate children born to these relationships etc).

@Aderyn19
I think 2,9 million is very impressive on its own anyway, but I'm 99,9% sure you'd still say that 1 short of 3 million is not 3 million.

Because you want to put down Hillary, regardless.

I really wouldn't Lweji, as I said already. What would be the point of lying on an anonymous thread?
I don't like HC but I don't dislike her more than DT. I felt sorry for American voters that they had to choose between those two candidates.
But she is unlikely to run again so I'm mostly feeling sorry for us these days.

She's more complex than I initially thought. I used to just think about her as being sort of trapped into her faustian bargain with Trump and obviously hating having to be first lady but I've also read interviews with her where she unequivocally expresses support for some of Trump's most bigoted views, so don't be under the illusion that she's much different from him in her position on things.

That said I think she handles herself in public impeccably and there are a couple of things that make me like her just a tad. First is that fact that she got along with the Obama's very well and they all genuinely seemed comfortable and happy around each other ( this was at Barbara Bush's funeral -Trump did not attend and Melania seemed much happier hanging out with the Bushes, the Clintons and the Obama's without him there).

Second is her occasional throwing of shade at diva Ivanka, who Melania reportedly likes to put in her place and remind her who the real first lady is. Apparently Ivanka likes to act as though she's the first lady and tries to push into every big event or meeting with a foreign leader when it should be Melania's place to be there. I imagine there's a cold war going on between those two with lot's of fake smiling...

@Rainbunny The way you describe those details, it all sounds like an old plot line from Dallas! It has all the ingredients - wealth, power struggles, villainous men and glamourous women, etc. The only thing missing is the Texas accent, but the designer clothes and flash lifestyles are there in abundance.

Yet it's real, and DT is actually POTUS. Reality outdoes fiction here.

OMG, you are still banging on about numbers...

65,853,516 Americans voted for HRC in 2016.
65,446,032 Americans voted for Barack Obama in 2012.
62,039,073 Americans voted for George W. Bush in 2004.
Since you insist on numbers.

Clinton came second only to Barack Obama in terms of number of votes won, for the entire course of American history.

www.270towin.com/historical-presidential-elections/

69,456,897 = Obama total for 2008.

Math, I really don't care. I still think she ought to have got more than she did, given her opposition.
If you don't want me to keep 'banging on', stop talking to me!

Math, I really don't care

I still think she ought to have got more than she did, given her opposition.

But that's because Trump oughtn't to have got any votes. After being caught on tape bragging about 'grabbing them by the pussy' and mocking a disabled person - the entire mystery is surely why any Americans at all voted for him.

And probably will do, such that he wins again, in 2020.

No
I am impressed by Michelle Obama
A black woman from a working class family who attended Harvard, became a lawyer and was a fantastic First Lady.
Now that’s impressive