I am going to lean on ‘yes’ based on the economy and the general hunger for change, but I think it would have been closer.
I’m postulating that over the summer, Hilary had slowly pulled ahead to the position Obama was in. I think he would have conceded gracefully, then done his best to get the two organizations to work together for her benefit, and I’m assuming that he would have been the VP nominee.
However, I don’t think McCain would have gone for nominating Palin. I think Huckabee may have gotten the nod - evangelical, but not nearly as out there, also letting him keep his nice big ‘experience’ drum.
The race would have been closer, but I think we would be looking at President Clinton right now
If it were Hillary, Palin would definitely not have been chosen as VP candidate. The “appeal to the base” would not have been necessary, as the base would have crawled over molten glass to vote against a Clinton. The “she’s a woman” factor would be negated.
This would have freed up McCain to select someone like Lieberman to appeal to moderates. His path would have been easier because he could appeal to moderates while counting on the Clinton hate to cement his base.
However, this might have left him vulnerable to a third-party vampire, sucking votes away.
I think the market crash would have pushed it to Hillary anyway, but somehow I don’t thikn the margin would be as great.
Clinton did very well on economic issues in the primaries, so the credit meltdown would have certainly helped her. She could have won, and I think many of the Obama supporters on this board would have backed Clinton more strongly than they let on today.
But Obama got a lot of benefit from supporter enthusiasm and had a different idea of how to compete against the Republicans. Clinton wouldn’t have had Obama’s campaign machinery, with its volunteers and internet talents and voter ID skills and so on. She would have gotten strong support from women, but her idea of winning the race appeared to be based more on getting just enough to win and in garnering support from typical Democratic bastions. She would have been the first female president but based on how she campaigned, she wouldn’t have tapped into people’s desire for big-time change in the same way. So it’s hard to see how she would have won Virginia or North Carolina (I think Obama will get the win there) or Indiana or Colorado - if you leave all the other states alone, that would give Clinton 301 electoral votes against Obama’s 364, and changes the way resources get deployed and so on. She could’ve won, but not 364-whatever and 52%-46%.
I don’t know. In 2004, told myself I was going to vote for Obama for president no matter what. I hoped that he would do what needed to be done so it was not a write in, but I thought about that possibility.
I really don’t like the idea of voting for anyone who pushes for unconstitutional laws, expecially in an effort to pander, as Hillary did with laws restricting access to violent video games.
I voted for Obama but if it was Clinton vs McCain I would have gone Republican vs vote for Hillary. I’ve had more than enough of Bushes and Clintons at this point,
Very few right wingers would’ve stayed home if it meant the chance of a 2nd Clinton presidency. But quite a lot of black voters would not have made the effort for her the way they did for Obama (even if he gave her his full support). Even if Obama had been her VP, it seems unlikely that she would have won any of the red states that Obama turned over to blue (except perhaps NM), and she certainly would have had nowhere near the size of Obama’s warchest. She might have kept all the Kerry states plus Ohio, but it would have been razor-thin most of the way, particularly if McCain had the Rove machine at full tilt and a more moderate Veep pick to entice the independents.
Ultimately, she could have won, but she just as easily could have lost, and even a victory would have been in a dramatically more divided electorate.
I thought Dems had it in the bag. Any living breathing Democrat would have probably won. OK, maybe even a few dead ones could have.
I was sick of republicans and would have voted for anyone that stood up for the job.
You might be right. But McCain would still have to either go left or go right. If he went right, he’d have the same problem he had against Obama. If he counted on the right being in the bag because of Clinton and picked a pro-choice VP, the Dobsons might have bailed on him.
I think McCain was going to be in a pickle unless his opponent made a major error. Obama didn’t. Would Clinton? I doubt it.
I would have stepped over my dead mother to vote for McCain if Hillary had been the alternative. Fortunately, I voted for Obama and my mother is very much alive.
I don’t know. Read the full article on How He Won in Newsweek - the summary of which Dio linked to in another thread. Her campaign was a mess. She could have easily screwed up - after all she did in the primaries.
The turnout wouldn’t be anything like it was, which would have helped. The far right would have been for McCain without the dope hurting him with independents. I doubt she would have been able to raise anywhere near the money Obama did. She might have won because of the economy, but it would have been closer.
She also supported an amendment to make flag burning illegal. That was a shocker for me.
I probably would have voted for her, over the McCain of 2008. There would have been so much dirt flung by the Republicans at her, it would have been much uglier. Hard to imagine, I know, but they said there were warehouses of opp research on her we would have been treated to. At least with Obama, they weren’t ready.
I agree that any Dem this year had a good chance. I don’t think she would have done as well as Obama.
