Was Hillary Clinton always unelectable nationally?

[Suburbia]

Yes, she is a divisive, polarizing politician. Former Arkansas Lady, U.S. First Lady, New York Senator, and Secretary of State,  but with baggage from the 18th to present, with her second presidential loss, was Hillary Clinton always unelectable? Could she had won in 2004 against President George W. Bush?

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

This is nonsense, she was electable, as the fact she won the PV as well as deciding states were literally nail-biters shows. A little diffrent strategy and she would've won.

Now, whether she was a "good candidate" (not referring to the way she ran her campaign), is another matter.

[Da2017]

She lost to Donald Trump,the most unpopular candidate.Trump did not manage his campaign well,but her,s happened to be worse.She lost to Obama in 2008.  The only reason she came close because Trump was just as Unpopular.Almost any other repubican would of beaten her easily. Hillary is probably the most experienced candidate the country had seen. Her chrisma is lacking. No Democrat should lose Michigan,Wisconsin,and Pennsylvnia. Trump barely won those states. Maybe she had a shot in 2004. There would be no emails or benghazi.

[Virginiá]

Had she stayed a Senator and not served as SoS, I think she probably would have been much more formidable. The issues that dogged her most - the email server issue, Benghazi, Clinton Foundation, they all would have never happened or would have been mitigated significantly had she not taken that executive position. That was the worst blunder of her political career.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Had she stayed a Senator and not served as SoS, I think she probably would have been much more formidable. The issues that dogged her most - the email server issue, Benghazi, Clinton Foundation, they all would have never happened or would have been mitigated significantly had she not taken that executive position. That was the worst blunder of her political career.

Also it looked, when she took the job, like she was saying "I didn't become President, so screw the Senate, never really cared, let's look for another sprinboard".

[Mr. Morden]

She easily would have been favored over McCain if she'd been the nominee in 2008.  (Which isn't so much a knock against McCain as it is a commentary on the extent to which Bush's unpopularity was inevitably going to sink McCain.)

I don't know to what extent she actually became less electable over time by her own actions, and to what extent she just wasn't suited to the times anymore by 2016.

[dead0man]

This is nonsense, she was electable, as the fact she won the PV as well as deciding states were literally nail-biters shows. A little diffrent strategy and she would've won.

This would be an excellent point if it wasn't Trump that she lost to.

Yes, against a "regular" Republican she was always unelectable.  But I do agree with Virginia that taking the SoS gig was huge mistake.  It showed how sh**tty she handled positions of actual power.  She would have beaten Trump had she stayed in the Senate or did good job as SoS.




(yes yes, I know that some of you think she did fine, but that's not how America saw it)

[OSR stands with Israel]

she would have crushed McCain  in 2008

Clinton/Bayh 371
McCain/Romney 167


Even without the crash she beats McCain

Clinton/Bayh 286
McCain/Romney 252

[Antonio the Sixth]

She'd probably have won against Jeb!, CRUZ or another one of the lunatics (though she'd definitely have lost to FBM). T***p was in many ways the ideal candidate to exploit her weaknesses.

[Lexii, harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy]

she would have crushed McCain  in 2008

Clinton/Bayh 371
McCain/Romney 167


Even without the crash she beats McCain

Clinton/Bayh 286
McCain/Romney 252

You really think she could've won Arkansas and WV? And winning Ark. while still losing MO/VA/CO, LEL

[OSR stands with Israel]

she would have crushed McCain  in 2008

Clinton/Bayh 371
McCain/Romney 167


Even without the crash she beats McCain

Clinton/Bayh 286
McCain/Romney 252

You really think she could've won Arkansas and WV? And winning Ark. while still losing MO/VA/CO, LEL

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statewide_opinion_polling_for_Hillary_Clinton_for_the_United_States_presidential_election,_2008#/media/File:McCainClintonMatchup.png

[Mr. Smith]

Nope. Given her propensity to snag the popular vote despite the odds, electability was clearly not the problem. And she wasn't that bad a candidate either.

But there was always an Achilles' Heel regarding what happens when dealing with a phenomenon in that she doesn't take them seriously until too late.

Cruz, Rubio, Jeb, Kasich, all of them would've been taken seriously and thus destroyed. Pretty much any Republican besides Trump would falter.

In the primaries of '08, the same could be said for Richardson, Biden, and even John Edwards. But not Obama.



For these reasons, I'd say 2004 was clearly her time, but '08 would've been fine too, if it weren't for Obama stepping in.

[Associate Justice PiT]

she would have crushed McCain  in 2008

Clinton/Bayh 371
McCain/Romney 167


Even without the crash she beats McCain

Clinton/Bayh 286
McCain/Romney 252

You really think she could've won Arkansas and WV? And winning Ark. while still losing MO/VA/CO, LEL

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statewide_opinion_polling_for_Hillary_Clinton_for_the_United_States_presidential_election,_2008#/media/File:McCainClintonMatchup.png

     The file was uploaded in April 2008. Clinton just did not have a realistic chance of winning Arkansas or West Virginia; she would essentially have had to run as Republican-lite to appeal to voters there and that wasn't going to happen.

[Gustaf]

Come on. She was a) extremely close to winning the nomination in 2008 and would obviously have won that general election and b) was very close to winning last year.

And she was an incredibly popular SoS. With hindsight a lot of these decisions are easy to make but I think it's weird to call it a huge blunder just based on that hindsight.

[OSR stands with Israel]

she would have crushed McCain  in 2008

Clinton/Bayh 371
McCain/Romney 167


Even without the crash she beats McCain

Clinton/Bayh 286
McCain/Romney 252

You really think she could've won Arkansas and WV? And winning Ark. while still losing MO/VA/CO, LEL

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statewide_opinion_polling_for_Hillary_Clinton_for_the_United_States_presidential_election,_2008#/media/File:McCainClintonMatchup.png

     The file was uploaded in April 2008. Clinton just did not have a realistic chance of winning Arkansas or West Virginia; she would essentially have had to run as Republican-lite to appeal to voters there and that wasn't going to happen.

Arkansas 08 was way different then Arkansas 16 , Arkansas then still voted for Clinton Dems and Mark Pryor was so popular he ran unopposed. Arkansas in 08 was still a clinton democratic state if only started to move to become a republican state in the obama admin .

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/ar/arkansas_clinton_vs_mccain-591.html

https://www.google.com/amp/www.arkansasbusiness.com/amp/article/42659/poll-john-mccain-leads-barack-obama-trails-hillary-clinton-in-arkansas

[Intell]

she would have crushed McCain  in 2008

Clinton/Bayh 371
McCain/Romney 167


Even without the crash she beats McCain

Clinton/Bayh 286
McCain/Romney 252

You really think she could've won Arkansas and WV? And winning Ark. while still losing MO/VA/CO, LEL

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statewide_opinion_polling_for_Hillary_Clinton_for_the_United_States_presidential_election,_2008#/media/File:McCainClintonMatchup.png

     The file was uploaded in April 2008. Clinton just did not have a realistic chance of winning Arkansas or West Virginia; she would essentially have had to run as Republican-lite to appeal to voters there and that wasn't going to happen.

That's not how WV or AR worked before 12'.

[7,052,770]

While there would have always been some perception that she was too liberal to win nationwide, she most likely wins the 2008 general election over McCain and 2016 against a more establishment Republican.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

I think pretty much every not-fringe (that is like Gravel, Kucinich) Democratic candidate in 2008 would've won, including her of course. And again, she almost won this year, a little swing and she would've been the president now.

[SUSAN CRUSHBONE]

seeing as she was elected, no.

[OSR stands with Israel]

Nope. Given her propensity to snag the popular vote despite the odds, electability was clearly not the problem. And she wasn't that bad a candidate either.

But there was always an Achilles' Heel regarding what happens when dealing with a phenomenon in that she doesn't take them seriously until too late.

Cruz, Rubio, Jeb, Kasich, all of them would've been taken seriously and thus destroyed. Pretty much any Republican besides Trump would falter.

This is probably the most hackish thing I've read in a long time.

Also, lol@Clinton winning WV, AR, IN and NC.

Did u look at those polls I linked hillary was easily winning in AR in may of 08 which was before the crash , when the election was a toss up to lean dem at best .

I only have her winning IN for one reason , just look at who I think would be her vp choice

[NeederNodder]

She probably would've done much better against Trump had Bernie not ran or the Wikileaks emails about the Democratic Primary. She probably could've better United the Sanders wing better and should've picked a better VP that wasn't a boring corporatist like Kaine. She's electable but her staff made really stupid and arrogant decisions this election.

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

No. If the election had happened in the immediate aftermath of Access Hollywood, she would have won.

[dead0man]

She probably would've done much better against Trump had Bernie not ran or the Wikileaks emails about the Democratic Primary.

yeah, how dare anybody challenge her or uncover her corruption.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

She was electable in 2008 and would have brought immigration reform to the country. But, Obama didn't act on it and this is what happens when you don't bring in that third ethnic group as a voting block in, you get a GOP control of the gov't.

But, won't it won't last, just like it only lasted 2001-2007,

[Confused Democrat]

She's electable but her staff made really stupid and arrogant decisions this election.

That was always a problem for her.