Erase everything about the presidential campaign so far and just pretend that the major party candidates for President that emerged were different. Let’s just leave Vice Presidents out of this while we also play a bit fast and loose with current party affiliations. Without fighting the hypothetical too much, who would you vote for?
Tim Kaine (Alternate-reality Democratic nominee)
Bill Weld (Alternate-reality Republican nominee)
Clinton and/or Trump (The *actual *major party nominees)
I see no point in breaking down the Clinton/Trump votes here, so if you’d prefer to vote for one of the two actual nominees, their totals will be combined. Simply put, would you prefer to choose one of the alternate reality nominees, and if so, which? Or, do you think one of the *actual *nominees would be preferable to either of the alternates?
Perhaps you could specify this a little better? In any real US election, there are only two candidates with a real chance of winning, the nominees. In the alternate reality, you seem to have allowed 4 possibilities, and it’s not clear what you’re asking. “Who would make the best president out of these 4 people” and “who would you vote for in this situation” are rather different questions.
I hoped my last sentence had summed it up. Would you prefer one of the two alternate-reality candidates to the two we have now, if so which? Or would you prefer one of the two actual candidates?
Basically, it’s a binary choice between picking an alternate-reality candidate or an actual candidate, but if you pick an alternate-reality one, I want you to choose a specific one.
I picked Kaine, but Weld would be my second choice. Either of them is better than what we have now. Weld would be a decent sane Republican, especially if he is separated from the economic lunacy of the Libertarian party. I’m voting for Hillary in the real world, because what choice do I have? Trump cannot be allowed in the White House.
I suspect that this poll largely confirms the old truism that the more you know about a candidate, the less you like them. I know ten times as much about Clinton and Trump compared to the other two.
I voted Bill Weld. I saw the CNN Libertarian town hall and was certainly convinced he ought to be the top of that ticket, not as Johnson’s VP. He was once a Republican and seems to be pretty rational… but other than what I saw in that one evening, I know nothing. It’s entirely possible that I would find out more about him that would make me prefer Clinton.
(Also, there’s a good chance the Tea Party/Trump wing of the GOP would annoy me enough to make me vote against their candidate in principle. I did that in 2012 even though I kind of liked Romney.)
Hillary. Just so the Republicans can look really, really stupid when they institute impeachment proceedings before she’s even sworn in.
Also, because the bit about her being more prepared for the Presidency than anyone in eons is true. And because she’s better prepared than anyone alive, with the possible exception of the current President, for dealing with the Republicans in Congress. She’s not gonna be surprised by anything they pull.
I’m not a big fan of Clinton, and I can think of at least a half-dozen plausible Democrats who I know I would prefer. Kaine isn’t on that list, mostly because I know basically nothing about him. If he were actually running for President, I would research him much more closely, but as it is, I have no basis on which to say whether I’d prefer him or Clinton.
I’m still not a hundred percent sure what you’re asking. But I think your choices are:
If Kaine was running against Trump, I’d vote for Kaine
If Weld was running against Clinton, I’d vote for Weld
I’d vote for Clinton against Weld and/or for Trump against Kaine
I’ve been really impressed with Kaine. I know a lot of people thought he was a bit fidgety during the vice presidential debate but in interviews he comes across as forthright and seems to have a grasp of the issues. He’s handled questions about Hillary Clinton’s email investigation much, much better than Hillary herself. He seems global and has a good grasp of how things on one side of the planet affect people on other side of the globe. He’s someone who clearly would have his own vision and opinion on the issues but he’d also take other input into consideration. He seems like the kind of personality who’d probably be able to achieve a limited measure of bipartisanship.
Not even close, but that would make for another interesting poll! (Feel free, anyone, I obviously suck at theoretical polling…)
At it’s core, it’s asking whether you would prefer to have Clinton and Trump to choose from for President, or would you prefer to have Kaine and Weld as your two choices for President.
I formatted it that way for a couple reasons:
I wanted to see who would win the SDMB vote in that alternate reality election with those two alternate reality nominees.
I’ve been around a while and I know you guys. If I would have separated Clinton and Trump so that each could be voted for individually, half of you people would have not taken the time to comprehend my muddled meanderings and voted for Clinton just to make sure that Trump didn’t somehow win. I figured sticking Trump in there would make people take pause and actually think it through before insta-clicking.
The goal for my alternate reality was to choose two candidates from the candidates who will actually be appearing on your ballot, while eliminating the poor choices for the top of the ticket.
I probably would’ve voted for Weld. I was originally thinking of supporting Johnson but he quickly proved himself to be a total space cadet. Like dracoi I came away from their joint appearances convinced Weld should’ve been at the top of the ticket - he’s much more of a moderate, and his brain neurons seem to fire properly. But there’s also always the chance that if he were the top nominee some bad things would come out under the microscope.
Of the options presented in the poll, I’d go with Tim Kaine. He did a good job as mayor, governor and in the Senate. He’s honest, smart and capable, and doesn’t have nearly the baggage that Hillary has.
But my preferred candidate this year who actually ran was Martin O’Malley, about whom much the same could be said. He went nowhere in the primaries, though.
