# Go back in time and change the election - How would you? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 3, 2017, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-back-in-time-and-change-the-election-how-would-you/778921 "2017-02-03T18:21:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![quiltguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e47774/32.png) [@quiltguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quiltguy)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-back-in-time-and-change-the-election-how-would-you/778921/21 "2017-02-04T21:06:40Z")
I’d have put Hillary on stilts. The taller candidate usually wins, right? Seriously though, add me to the camp who feels that Biden would have made the difference. I know, I know… his age, the son dying, his many gaffes, and probably his being tired of it all, but damn, he would’ve given us PA at the least. I wonder if Uncle Joe feels he SHOULD have pursued the nomination? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-back-in-time-and-change-the-election-how-would-you/778921/22 "2017-02-04T22:12:04Z")
I’d maybe tell Hillary to (a) tap Bernie for VP, and (b) avoid saying ‘deplorables’. ---
**Author:** ![StrangeBird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e480ec/32.png) [@StrangeBird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StrangeBird)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-back-in-time-and-change-the-election-how-would-you/778921/23 "2017-02-04T22:29:19Z")
> [@Calatin](#): > > You are the most trusted adviser of any candidate from the 2016 primaries (in any party), and they’ll listen to your advice. It might be best to be Trump’s trusted advisor. I’d have him say working class Americans are sad losers, as a starting point, and also encourage his Twitter meltdowns. ---
**Author:** ![Dereknocue67](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6de8d8/32.png) [@Dereknocue67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dereknocue67)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2017, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-back-in-time-and-change-the-election-how-would-you/778921/24 "2017-02-05T10:00:55Z")
Since they may have more to lose, I’m still waiting for people to return from the future and change this mess. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2017, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-back-in-time-and-change-the-election-how-would-you/778921/25 "2017-02-05T17:43:47Z")
So no one is going to tell the DNC to secure their email servers and educate their people about social engineering attacks? I believe that the closest thing to the ‘straw that broke the camel’s back’ and ruined it for them was the revelation that they’re just as corrupt , if not more so, than everyone they were railing against. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2017, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-back-in-time-and-change-the-election-how-would-you/778921/26 "2017-02-06T16:32:33Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#): > > This. Also, fewer “Trump is an asshole” ads belaboring the obvious and more economic-focused ones (relentless repetition of that “Wages are too high” sound bite, frequent appearances from small-business contractors ruined by Deadbeat Don’s chicanery, etc). Yes, I think really all you need to do to make sure Trump doesn’t get elected is to use your ‘one candidate will listen to me’ power to convince Hillary that she can actually lose the race, that people aren’t enthusiastic about her, and that she isn’t going to get voters to switch away from Trump. A campaign focused on ‘why you should vote for me’ like you laid out would be a big part of that, especially if if focused on non-CA, non-NY voters. > [@DrCube](#): > > Nominate Bernie. I can’t stand Clinton, but the OP stipulated that the objective is simply to make sure Trump doesn’t get elected, and that only the candidate you’re helping will listen to you. I don’t know that Bernie on his own could overcome the DNC, and I don’t have the ability to make them believe me. Further, I don’t know what might happen in a Bernie-Trump race - the specter of Commie Bernie visiting Soviet Russa (and whatever else the Republicans throw at him) might just be too powerful to actually win the race. So while I’d much rather have seen Bernie in the White House, I would have to push for a Clinton win in the hypothetical, as I can’t be sure that me picking Bernie would even let him win the primary, much less that he’d win the race. > [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > I have no idea. Trump is made of teflon, no criticism of him seems to hurt. No failing on his part seems to harm him with voters. He was right, he can shoot someone and not lose votes. He can shoot someone and not lose votes, but it also doesn’t gain him anymore votes. If you’re trying to make him lose under the OP’s conditions, then you don’t try to get people to stop voting for him, you just need to get people in contested states (not NY and CA) to vote for the other person. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2017, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-back-in-time-and-change-the-election-how-would-you/778921/27 "2017-02-06T19:06:11Z")
Tell Bill Clinton to stay the hell away from Loretta Lynch, and tell Lynch to keep a tight reign on Comey Tell Huma Abedin that she has some e-mails from Hillary Clinton on her husbands computer which she should send over the the FBI ASAP. Tell Obama to not wait until after the election to publicly investigate Putin’s attempts to influence the election. Tell Bernie to lay off the personal attacks on Clinton. It should be made clear that while they disagree on policy and the direction of the Democratic party, Neither are evil and both are infinitely better than anyone the Republicans are going to nominate. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2017, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-back-in-time-and-change-the-election-how-would-you/778921/28 "2017-02-08T06:14:54Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > I have no idea. Trump is made of teflon, no criticism of him seems to hurt. No failing on his part seems to harm him with voters. He was right, he can shoot someone and not lose votes. I think the Russian allegations could have hurt him significantly if it had been released right before the election instead of right after. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2017, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-back-in-time-and-change-the-election-how-would-you/778921/29 "2017-02-08T06:57:53Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > I have no idea. Trump is made of teflon, no criticism of him seems to hurt. No failing on his part seems to harm him with voters. He was right, he can shoot someone and not lose votes. > > If I could go far enough back in time, I’d go to the 80s or 90s and use my knowledge of what would happen with stocks and businesses to become extremely rich, then use my wealth to bankrupt him and keep him bankrupt. Also hire private investigators to dig up whatever dirt they could and widely publicize it. That way he wouldn’t have the credibility to run in 2016, but who knows. > > I’d get someone other than Hillary to run if I could only go back to the election starting. there are millions of people who hate her due to 20 years of right wing smears, and a different democrat wouldn’t have that problem. Pretty much this. Short of eating a baby in public, and maybe not even that, nothing we now know in hindsight was going to touch him. Trump had a magical Teflon because his base was tired of the same old GOP do nothing androids and wanted a fire breather to kick ass. They would forgive him almost anything. Plus the left way over estimated how much mileage they were going to get with conservative leaning women out of his ham handed sexism. The answer was not much. Women will tolerate some pussy grabbing if he’s going to implement policies and do things they want. Adult women have been making those relative calculations for thousands of years. Comey and the email issues did not in and of themselves cost HRC the election. She was a terrible POTUS candidate with poor big screen charisma. Trump was a campaigning freight train. There are no “tweaks” here and there that would have changed the election outcome. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2017, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-back-in-time-and-change-the-election-how-would-you/778921/30 "2017-02-08T08:12:37Z")
**For either Democrat:** Run against Mitch McConnell and the GOP congressional caucuses, not against Donald Trump. Run as the challengers to the GOP in Congress, not as the incumbent party. The economy may be fine on the coasts; it is not remotely fine in the Midwest. Poor economic numbers the year before election are bad for the incumbent party. Once the Fed talked themselves into seeing “green shoots” and raised interest rates in December 2015, they doomed a “more of the same” candidacy. So make America feel like you’re not the incumbents; the TEA Party is. You can’t win as an incumbent; so don’t run as one. Run against the GOP in Congress. Spend almost all your time talking about taking Congress. Give campaign help to as many Dem Senate candidates as you can. It’s the only way you can win. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2017, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-back-in-time-and-change-the-election-how-would-you/778921/31 "2017-02-08T08:22:05Z")
**For any Republican:** Make it very, very clear that Donnie the don Trumpolio is a career criminal, a racketeer, a mobster, a swindler, a confidence artist, a scam machine, who has robbed his investors for thirty odd (and I do mean odd) years, and just stayed two steps ahead of the FBI. He doesn’t belong on that stage. It’s an insult to anyone ever in public service that he’s on that stage. He belongs in prison, period. Make no secret of your contempt for him. If he gets mad, glare at him and say, “Whaddaya gonna do, Fart, have me whacked?” Run campaign ads with people he’s screwed over until he’s out. Say that your DoJ will be the people’s friend. There may come a time when Reince Priebus tells you to knock it off. At that point, [del]if you can’t catch Reince Priebus to mail him back to his home planet, at least threaten to do so, publicly and often.[/del] wonder aloud why Reince Priebus is so intent on nominating a gangster to the Presidency; and wonder this a lot, like every speech. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-back-in-time-and-change-the-election-how-would-you/778921.md?page=1)