The Briefing Room
General Category => Politics/Government => Topic started by: mystery-ak on November 15, 2016, 04:41:01 pm
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Was Trump the only Republican who could have won this year?
By W. James Antle III (@jimantle) • 11/15/16 1:23 AM
The conventional wisdom was that almost any of the other 16 Republican presidential candidates could have run better than Donald Trump. Hillary Clinton's team certainly believed it.
Now that Trump is president-elect, not only was his weakness clearly exaggerated. With the benefit of hindsight, Trump may have been the only Republican contender who could have broken Clinton's blue wall and pulled off the upset.
"I wouldn't have believed it," said a D.C. anti-Trump conservative. "Now it sure seems like it."
Consider Trump's unlikely path to a majority in the Electoral College. Trump held on to every state Mitt Romney won in 2012 and managed to flip perennial battleground Florida into the Republican column. But the real difference-maker was Trump's strong performance in the industrial Midwest, giving him Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Iowa and likely Michigan.
more
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/was-trump-the-only-republican-who-could-have-won-this-year/article/2607397
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Nope! Not by a LONG shot!
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The results of this election weren't nearly as much the result of Trump's strength as they were Hillary's weakness.
There was a strong undercurrent of anti-establishmentism thanks to the feckless republican congress, but there were several other primary candidates in the running that could've answered this effectively, IMO.
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The results of this election weren't nearly as much the result of Trump's strength as they were Hillary's weakness.
Exactly. This wasn't a vote for Trump, it was a vote against Hillary. In fact, I'd say that Trump was the only Republican who could have potentially lost this election. Well, OK, add Jeb in there too. Other than that, it would have been a veritable landslide had Cruz, Carson, Rubio, Fiorina, erc. been the nominee.
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Well, Mr. Trump made it more competitive than others may have. I'll leave it there.
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Exactly. This wasn't a vote for Trump, it was a vote against Hillary. In fact, I'd say that Trump was the only Republican who could have potentially lost this election. Well, OK, add Jeb in there too. Other than that, it would have been a veritable landslide had Cruz, Carson, Rubio, Fiorina, erc. been the nominee.
It wasn't just a vote against Hillary. It was also a vote against political correctness, Hollywood, the liberal media, the music industry and liberal sports celebrities. The aforementioned pushed people to vote for Trump and not because he was the best choice.
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It wasn't just a vote against Hillary. It was also a vote against political correctness, Hollywood, the liberal media, the music industry and liberal sports celebrities. The aforementioned pushed people to vote for Trump and not because he was the best choice.
DING! DING! DING! We have a winner here folks!
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Definitely not. I believe that Cruz, Walker, Rubio (and in that order) could have easily beat her. The polls continuously showed that Trump was the candidate that was least likely to beat Hillary AND he won a lot of states by very thin margins; some less than l%. What I find really surprising is that she still has not asked for recounts in any state.
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Hitlary was being beat by the "Generic Republican" in polls. That means that you could insert any name into that equation and they would have beaten her.
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Exactly. This wasn't a vote for Trump, it was a vote against Hillary. In fact, I'd say that Trump was the only Republican who could have potentially lost this election. Well, OK, add Jeb in there too. Other than that, it would have been a veritable landslide had Cruz, Carson, Rubio, Fiorina, erc. been the nominee.
Not sure I agree with that. It wasn't just a vote against Hillary, but a vote out of frustration, and against the system as it currently stands. Trump correctly identified this and was willing to say the things needed to make himself the symbol of that frustration. For a lot (most?) of those who voted for Trump, it was never about Trump; and so his very outrageousness worked to solidify their support for him (as a breaker of the status quo), and to insulate him from the usual political repercussions.
A more usual candidate, especially a polite one, would likely have had trouble harnessing the energy in the same way Trump did, and Hillary Clinton might well have been able to pull this one out.
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No, with Trump as the Republican nominee, Hillary was the only Democrat that could have lost.
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I am of the opinion that any candidate who espoused conservative positions could have won.
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No, others could have won. Several already mentioned.
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The results of this election weren't nearly as much the result of Trump's strength as they were Hillary's weakness.
There was a strong undercurrent of anti-establishmentism thanks to the feckless republican congress, but there were several other primary candidates in the running that could've answered this effectively, IMO.
I think we had a lot of better candidates who could have won easier, but, hey, who the heck knows?
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Any number of others could have won.
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In ways, I don't agree with those who say some of the others would have won the Blue Collar Rust Belt Midwest and that is what basically won it for Trump, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin and Pennsylvania could be included.
So, if one is saying your candidate could have won Wisconsin, that is up to debate.
That said, these figures which probably don't include Michigan show McCain, Romney and Trump all hit the around 60,000,000 vote figure, total for the US.
https://emsnews.wordpress.com/2016/11/12/were-the-obama-election-results-fraud-how-many-illegal-aliens-voted/
I think a lot of fraud likely occurred in the last two elections.
Rubio and perhaps Kasich could have taken the upper Midwestern states. Cruz might have gotten Wisconsin. To get that whole role of states is pretty phenomenal though, Rs never win Pa., Mich. or Wisc.
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(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a6/Republican_Party_presidential_primaries_results%2C_2016.svg/959px-Republican_Party_presidential_primaries_results%2C_2016.svg.png)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party_presidential_primaries,_2016#/media/File:Republican_Party_presidential_primaries_results,_2016.svg
I would not be so sure others could have won Florida, Pennsylvania and Michigan.