So, 100,000 votes in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania went the other way, due to Hillary spending more time there and less in Arizona, and now HRC is the first woman president. But Republicans retain a 52-46-2 majority in the Senate.
What does her presidency look like at this point, less than five months in?
[ul]
[li]Republicans would have confirmed Garland in a hurry, for fear that Hillary would withdraw his nomination and substitute a more liberal SCOTUS nominee in his place[/li][li]Clinton might be taking stronger action to topple to Assad regime.[/li][li]Less concessions to China on the North Korea issue.[/li][li]Kept the ACA intact, but begin to add some add-ons to it. Maybe a public health insurance option. But the GOP majority might block all of this.[/li][li]The US, of course, doesn’t withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord.[/li][li]No talk about travel ban.[/li][li]Keystone XL pipeline remains unbuilt.[/li][li]Probably still approves a massive $100 billion+ arms sale to the Saudis nonetheless.[/li][li]James Comey still keeps his job.[/li][li]Hard to say whether Hillary withdraws the US from the TPP or not.[/li][/ul]
First state visit wouldn’t be to Saudi Arabia. Might be to the UK, or Israel, or Canada.
Hard to say how Marine Le Pen and Theresa May fare in the French and UK elections, because the Trump effect might not have persuaded voters to vote for Macron/Corbyn the way they did.
Who does President Clinton nominate to each Cabinet position?
The 2018 midterms would probably be a lopsided GOP win, with the Republicans possibly snagging a filibuster-proof 60-seat majority in the Senate.
It would be very much like the last two years of Obama’s Presidency. Any domestic initiatives would be paralyzed by the Republicans. On foreign policy Clinton is more hawkish than Obama and the Republicans would probably support this. But the general public is very negative about unwinnable foreign wars (particularly in the Middle East) so there probably wouldn’t be any big expansions of military activity.
I would see the 2018 midterms as continuing the status quo.
Oh…4-5 countries bombed. But no new ones. The arms sale goes through to SA.
A lot of same ol same ol. The Republican Party has a lot of soul searching to do for running a clown against such an unpopular candidate
Hillary is either dead or in a bunker somewhere after her reckless humanitarian intervention in Syria and the “No fly zone” leads to a strategic nuclear exchange…seriously this guess is as good as any.
Lefties would be very unhappy; righties would be very pleased — she would be accommodating of their concerns, willing to make concessions and not a petulant buffoon. A strong law and order president willing to use the bully pulpit to enlighten and lead. Particularly to lecture.
Hillary was first for the Keystone Folly; then against it, despite telling environmentalists to ‘get a life.’, but since the first was what she called one of her ‘private positions’ against necessary ‘public positions’, she might well have revisited it after a discreet amount of time for deliberation.
Her cabinet would be extremely diverse, ranging from old white rich men to old white rich women, plus: Black Person To Be Named Later.
Lefties would be upset and righties would be pleased?? Ha hell no
Tribalism keeps a democrat president from doing no wrong. Obama went further than Bush on a lot of stuff and it was pretty much me, Glenn Greenwald, and a handful of people who gave a shit.
*A Clinton presidency comes with scandals, both real & imagined, conveniently baked in, so there would be endless investigations in the Republican Congress. She would lurch from one crisis to the next & be paralyzed to accomplish anything, not unlike Trump currently.
*The Dem base almost immediately turns on her, as it becomes clear that even slow, incremental progress is out of reach, and all Clinton is able to offer is a series of “compromises” with Republican. Probably nothing more than budget cuts, arms deals and foreign wars.
*Garland doesn’t get confirmed. It’s openly spoken by McConnell and other republicans that Scalia’s seat won’t be filled until there is a president with an R by his name. The public largely shrugs and promptly forgets that we once had 9 Supreme Court justices.
*The dems suffer a catastrophic loss in the 2018 midterms, and shortly after republicans begin impeachment proceedings. It doesn’t matter for what reason, as a reason will be manufactured in the event one is not found. The Clinton’s self-manufactured aura of shadiness doesn’t make this hard, and by this point a majority of the American public believes HRC is capable of any evil thanks to a non-stop propaganda campaign from the GOP, Russia & an antagonistic Left.
*If she somehow does not end up removed from office, she suffers a primary challenge and possibly is not even on the ballot in 2020.
I wonder sometimes if this admittedly pessimistic (though certainly not unlikely) chain of events is preferable to the current dark timeline. The Democrats have a chance to rebound after President Trump, I don’t know if they could after President Clinton II.
Utah congressman Jason Chaffetz continues to bask in the limelight of all the Clinton investigations he had lined up. Definitely decides to stay on in congress.
All Republicans are herded into “resettlement” camps, Sarah Palin and Ted Nugent’s heads are put on pikes in front of the white house. Universal healthcare law is passed that covers everything and is free. Cheap solar power is perfected. Safe, clean drinking water is provided for the entire world.
An era of unpresidented (hehehe) peace and prosperity dawns that lasts for hundreds of years. World hunger is ended. War becomes obsolete. Dogs and cats live together.
And then the sun goes nova.
Or, more likely, Obama third term. GOP fights anything the Dems propose, and nothing changes.
Obama would withdraw Garland while still a lame duck, saying to the Republicans, “You were right, the new President should name this justice.” Hillary tells the Republicans: “You said that President Obama would not fill this seat. I’m telling you that HE WILL.” Nominates Obama.
If HRC won but the makeup of Congress was what it is currently then, by this point the House would have already passed articles of impeachment and the Senate would be gearing up for trial.
If Hillary won, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania would also have Democratic senators, and VP Kaine would be breaking ties in the D’s favor. Huge difference in court appointments and cabinet secretaries. The government would be functioning, though no doubt the Rs would be doing their best to keep obstructing.
Bill volunteers to be Ambassador to Thailand only to be clandestinely imprisoned in Guantanamo by Hillary and replaced by a body double, meanwhile Hillary and Huma Abedin hold nightly meetings in the Oval Office.
This. The same lack of momentum among Democratic voters that cost us the White House is what cost us the Senate. Of course the special election for Tim Kaine’s Senate seat would’ve been trench warfare, so who knows how long the Senate would have remained blue.
Conservatives would be assuring us that if Trump had been elected he would have repealed the ACA, enacted his travel ban, imprisoned Hillary Clinton, and would be nearing completion of the border wall by now. Because he promised to do all those things if he was elected.
The same election in which Clinton wins the states necessary to win the Electoral College would have also likely produced a 50-50 Senate. The margins in the Pennsylvania and Wisconsin Senate races almost exactly mirrored those at the presidential level (Wisconsin less so, amazingly, since everyone assumed Feingold would do much better than Clinton, but ended up doing a bit worse)
In order to answer this question, it’s probably worthwhile to consider just how Hillary Clinton hypothetically wins. Even if she wins with 300+ electoral votes and the official legitimacy of the election results are not contested, there would still be Trump and his army of conspiracy theorists claiming that the election was rigged. It’s doubtful that the election results would be seriously challenged, but there would be a cloud hanging over her head. This would fuel efforts to embarrass the opposition party with the threat of impeachment. Articles of impeachment would be voted on in the House and then the case would be considered by the Senate, which would fall short of the 2/3 majority required to remove her from office but would still potentially cripple her presidency. Virtually nothing would get done until 2018. McConnell would refuse to consider filling Scalia’s vacancy and would probably refuse to fill any additional vacancies by departing left-leaning justices like Ginsburg. We would have political paralysis until at least 2018.