Can someone explain Trifecta for me?

[SheepyMcSheepster]

i understand that it has to do with 3's, but i don't understand the context. can someone explain how this word became so popular in politics. thanks alot, i searched for explanations in google, but i have become frustrated. please give me a noobie explanation/history of the word. thanks!

[Andy_Stephenson]

1. here

A system of betting in which the bettor must pick the first three winners in the correct sequence. Also called triple.

Edit: Mostly used in horse racing.

[SheepyMcSheepster]

5. can you elaborate?

a specific example involving a political situation would be helpful. thanks!

[Ripley]

9. Smirk used it when referring to his "Presidency":

Recession, 9/11 and shoot I can't even remember the third thing...

Edit: Oh yeah, Budget deficits.

[LuLu550]

20. I think he said it was OK to run a deficit

when you have a national crises, a war and a recession....that was the "trifecta" that allowed him to run up a deficit...

[Zinfandel]

15. "God_bush_n_cheney" said it correctly, there is no such term in politics.

Bush "borrowed" the betting term, (3's---three's,---triples's) to make a sick joke to republican audiences, on why the economy sucks. 1) 9-11. 2) the cost of the invasion. 3) recession.

See how fast we Americans forget, they count on it, hence, Rove's constant lies.

[RebelOne]

6. Wrong, dog racing.

Believe me, I know, as I went to the dog races all the time in Fla.

[Andy_Stephenson]

8. Emerald Green race track

Washington State...trifecta as well. Dog races could be using it too.

[kclown]

2. Horse-race bet

You have to pick the correct finishers for first, second, and
third.  Since there are many combinations, the odds are long
and the payoff is large.

[RebelOne]

3. It's really a dog-racing term.

You bet on three dogs and if they come in 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the order you bet them, you win big.

On edit: I changed above.

[SheilaT]

4. From an on-line dictionary:

A system of betting in which the bettor must pick the first three winners in the correct sequence.

It's generally used in horse racing. If you can correctly pick the three first place winners you win a lot of money. It's kind of a shorthand for lucky guessing.

[Spazito]

7. It's a horse racing term, it means you bet on all three places..

win, place and show and the bettor wins. For bush to use it in relation to 9/11 was beyond disgusting.

[NNN0LHI]

10. I think this is what you are looking for?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/comment/story/0,14259,1166864,00.html

Squandering the trauma of September 11

Having failed to create consensus, Bush is left with a negative campaign

Sidney Blumenthal
Thursday March 11, 2004
The Guardian

"Lucky me, I hit the trifecta," said George Bush in the immediate aftermath of September 11, according to his budget director. War, recession and national emergency liberated him to soar in the political stratosphere. But after several faltering starts this year, he felt compelled to relaunch his campaign with $4.5m (£2.5m) of television advertising in 16 key states. In 60-second commercials he would lock the sequence of recent history into the American mind, his narrative of his presidency as he wished it to be understood. Images of September 11 cascaded across the screen, firemen carrying a flag-draped coffin at Ground Zero juxtaposed against another firefighter raising the flag. Bush's slogan: "Steady leadership in times of change".
"Where the hell did they get those guys?" responded the president of the International Association of Fire Fighters. It turned out that the firefighters in the ads were hired actors - "cheaper and quicker", as a Republican party spokesman explained. Enraged members of the 9/11 Widows and Victims' Families Association described them as "disgraceful" and "hypocritical". While he used the flag-draped 9/11 coffin, he refused to allow the press to photograph coffins of US soldiers returned from Iraq. What's more, he was "stonewalling" the official 9/11 commission, as Senator John Kerry put it, holding back documents, refusing to allow the national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, to testify in public, and limiting his own testimony to an hour.

A few weeks earlier, Bush had remarked: "I have no ambition whatsoever to use as a political issue". Now an administration spokesman defended his ads as "tasteful". After Bush's ads ran, an Oklahoma Republican congressman, Tom Cole, stated the rank-and-file's political conventional wisdom: "I promise you this, if George Bush loses the election, Osama bin Laden wins the election. It's that simple."

But firefighters and victims' families are critics he cannot debate. And the judgment of public opinion has been a terrible, swift sword. Some 54% said his use of 9/11 imagery was inappropriate, and only 42% - his base - said it was appropriate, according to the Washington Post-ABC News poll. Worse, Kerry has plunged ahead. Even worse, 57% want a "new direction".

more

[CaptainClark23]

11. The definitions are above

The meaning in Bush's use of the term is that things couldn't have happened more perfectly for him.

Think of a plane slamming into the WTC, bodies plummeting from the sky, and Bush gleefully yelling "BINGO!!"

Hope that gives you an idea of what that fckwad meant in using "I hit the trifecta"

[htuttle]

12. Here's a video clip of Bush using it in a joke about 9/11

Being the stupid fratboy he is, he just can't keep himself from making a snarky little joke about the 3000 people killed on 9/11.

Here it is, the 'trifecta joke', if you haven't seen it:
http://piratevideo.tv/MOV/TrifectaClip.mov

He's told this one in public a few dozen times, so there are numerous other clips of him telling it. For some reason, none of his advisors seem to want to tell him it just isn't funny...

[Aristus]

13. I think what SMcS is asking for is a reason why the term has

become so prominent in politics. Well, here it is: Not long after September 11, 2001, B*sh went around various talkshows and speech platforms saying that people had asked him if he planned to raid the Social Security fund. Not, he said, unless there was a poor economy, a large budget deficit or a national emergency. Well, he would smirk, looks like I hit the trifecta! He didn't use this joke just once, and desist because some staffer told him it was in bad taste; He used it over and over and OVER........

This fuckhead is SUCH a tasteless, creepy jerk! :grr::mad:

[SheepyMcSheepster]

17. ok thanks alot!

i understood that it had to do with betting and races, but i didn't understand why it was such a popular word to use.

i was thinking that there was more than just bush involved in using this word in a political context. for some reason i was thinking that this word was used to describe other situations of past politics.

thanks for the explanantion guys and gals!

[Bromd]

14. Trifecta - Horse Bet is correct

It's the correct explanation, Bush is saying that he won all bets by getting an attack on American soil by terrorists with a sharp recession bordering on depression following on it's heels, then he got his war on top of that, all three things he said would have to happen for him to raise taxes and break his other words from getting elected.

AKA - He made a bet and it paid off, so he's tickled to death by it.

[mikey_1962]

16. Trifecta

Picking 3 horses in the proper order to win place and show. It is so rare that it is almost a sucker bet.

However, the Don of the Detroit Family did it three times at Hazel Park Race track. A real shocker eh?

[sadiesworld]

18. Actually, I believe the trifecta biz started with Al Gore

in response to a question about what circumstances would necessitate increasing taxes. The monkey twisted it to suit his own sick purposes, big surprise.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

19. all three branches of the gov't ..bush trifecta...during the 2000 campaign

when some reporter asked bush* "what does the holding up of the 3 fingers stand for"...bush replied "W"....but i knew it meant the 3 branches of gov't ...that is until Jeffords jumped sides and which was finnally re-accomplished in 2002 election cycle...just my $0.02