Which defeat was tougher to take: Al Gore in 2000 or Hillary Clinton in 2016

[JasonDebenah89]

Both lost the Presidency despite winning the popular vote, who do you think had the tougher loss?

[ElectionsGuy]

Not a Democrat, but I would imagine Gore, since the difference between losing and winning was 537 votes in a huge state with a hotly contested recount request. Hillary Clinton lost because she lost a few semi large states by less than 100K votes.

[dead0man]

Not a Democrat, but I would imagine Gore, since the difference between losing and winning was 537 votes in a huge state with a hotly contested recount request. Hillary Clinton lost because she lost a few semi large states by less than 100K votes.

Yeah, but Hillary lost to Trump.  Gore lost to Dubya BEFORE Iraq and waterboarding and everything else.  Hell, you could argue the Kerry loss was worse than Gore's.  But losing to Trump has got to be the worst.

[anthonyjg]

I would think that, assuming no hindsight, Democrats would view Bush more favorably than Trump. Also, the party wasn't in as bad a position in congress then as they are now. So lean Clinton.

[Thunderbird is the word]

Hillary because Trump, I was literally physically ill for several days after the election.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

2000, because it was stolen, and everyone seemed OK with that.

[TDAS04]

Hillary because of Trump, because it was more unexpected, and because Hillary's popular vote margin was greater than Gore's.

[Blue3]

Hilllary.

At the time, people thought 2000 was going to be a rather unimportant election, even with it being so contested at the end.

[Beet]

Hillary 2016 by far. In 2000, I was expecting a Bush victory due to his lead in the polls. In 2016, I had no expectation either way, and even that was more pessimistic than most people. Also, in 2000 I hardly cared about politics as it seemed both candidates were just moving to the center. In 2016, each candidate acted as if the other candidate was so far beyond the pale; Trump said Clinton should be jailed while Clinton said Trump was fundamentally unfit. Their supporters often followed suit.

[Fusionmunster]

Winning the Popular Vote by 500,000 or winning the Popular Vote by 3 million. It's not hard to guess which one I'm more bitter about.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Without a doubt, Gore. I don't think he ran such a dumpster fire campaign, and the circumstances (while in my opinion legitimate-I interned for some of the key people involved in the Bush campaign's Florida recount and I don't think their loyalty to the Bushes outweigh their loyalty to the principles of democracy) were somewhat murkier.

Of course, Gore had the opportunity to make a comeback in 2004 and 2008, and even still is the subject of some rather fantastical 2016/2020 speculation. Hillary is finished. That is worth noting.

[DPKdebator]

When the actual results came in, it was still possible for Gore to win (537 votes) so that would be a tougher loss to stomach. But if we're talking in terms of supporters, Hillary would win that category in a landslide because of all the bratty millennials and college kids crying ("I'm literally shaking!") after Trump won.

[Mr. Smith]

Clinton would've been more painful than Gore regardless of outcome, that's how deep underwater the state of politics has gotten to.

[DPKdebator]

Clinton would've been more painful than Gore regardless of outcome, that's how deep underwater the state of politics has gotten to.

One problem for Clinton is that the way the media was portraying things, her victory was inevitable and that the election was basically her coronation.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Hillary, no question. Everybody knew 2000 was pretty much a tossup, while she, and many others, believed there's no way she can lose.

[Associate Justice PiT]

Hillary, no question. Everybody knew 2000 was pretty much a tossup, while she, and many others, believed there's no way she can lose.

    This is the biggest factor, really. When you are certain that you're going to win, to suddenly lose is very hard to deal with. Trump is certainly more divisive than Bush was pre-Iraq, but nevertheless I've seen similar reactions to what I saw from Dems after this election from sports fans whose team lost in a major upset.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Neither were tough to take for me, but Hillary's was more surprising.

[Drew]

IMO, Hillary's loss was tougher for a few reasons.  I was in Jr. High in 2000 and wasn't nearly as politically aware as I am today.  Also, the 2000 election resulted in a divided congress, vs. an ultra-GOP congress and open SCOTUS seat in 2016.  And finally, it's true that Bush did a bunch of stuff that I disagreed with.  But I unfortunately imagine Trump will as well.

[Figueira]

I mean, for me, Clinton. I was five in 2000.

And I think the same is true overall. Bush's awfulness wasn't clear from the start like Trump's.

[Mr. Smith]

But Kerry's defeat in '04 was much tougher to take than either of these options.

[politicallefty]

The latter, considering the popular vote margin and I was legitimately getting exciting at the prospect of the first woman President. My hatred of Donald Trump runs so deep I can't stomach a single word he says and this election has also shown the true face of many people. This election has shown that racism, xenophobia, and misogyny are alive and well in this country.

[Antonio the Sixth]

2016, but the PV/EC split was just the icing on the cake in terms of awfulness.

[Shadows]

I voted Gore because I agree that is stolen & a blot on democracy.

Hillary's loss was way more sad though because she lost to a Trump in what should have been a landslide win!

[Sir Mohamed]

Hillary’s, because she was leading almost all polls and highly favored to win by a sizable margin. Gore was trailing for a few months in 2000. The PV gap is also bigger and the Trumpster worse than W.

[angus]

Gore. 

Both were apparently taken aback.  Hillary certainly looked like she had been on a week-long bender when she re-emerged a week later from whatever cave she crawled into on election night, but at least her defeat was quick.  With Gore, it dragged on for six weeks.  We didn't know the winner of that election till December 12, after which Gore went into hiding, grew a beard, and holed up in his 10000-square-foot Belle Meade mansion with heated pool while he wrote about how we're warming up the globe by living large.