# Would Clinton be the nominee if Edwards' affair had come out earlier? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 11, 2008, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-clinton-be-the-nominee-if-edwards-affair-had-come-out-earlier/459680 "2008-08-11T23:43:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![burundi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@burundi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burundi)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2008, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-clinton-be-the-nominee-if-edwards-affair-had-come-out-earlier/459680/21 "2008-08-12T15:28:21Z")
Clinton seems like the last person in the world who should want sex scandals to break out. Not only do I think she’d have some damn empathy for poor Elizabeth Edwards, but I imagine there’s all kinds of stuff that could still be dragged out of Bill’s closet if things went that way. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2008, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-clinton-be-the-nominee-if-edwards-affair-had-come-out-earlier/459680/22 "2008-08-12T15:50:46Z")
[QUOTE=elelle] Well, perhaps, but you can’t just pedal back on the wayback machine and lay claim to votes in But Only What If Land. People voted on what they knew at the time. [/QUOTE] Yup, and Obama harvested most of the Edwards votes: [Edwards voters’ second choice, Part II](http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/8/12/1101/20327/19/566444) > [@](#): > > Mason-Dixon for the Denver Post. 1/21-23. Likely voters. MoE 4% > > Obama 34 > Clinton 32 > Edwards 17 > > Actual results: > > Obama 66.6 > Clinton 32.3 > Uncommitted 1 ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2008, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-clinton-be-the-nominee-if-edwards-affair-had-come-out-earlier/459680/23 "2008-08-12T15:58:08Z")
[QUOTE=burundi] Clinton seems like the last person in the world who should want sex scandals to break out. Not only do I think she’d have some damn empathy for poor Elizabeth Edwards, but I imagine there’s all kinds of stuff that could still be dragged out of Bill’s closet if things went that way. [/QUOTE] I wonder. I think if a sex scandal broke out on a daily basis, she would skyrocket in the polls. Her supporters seem to get all worked up whenever they’re reminded what a victim she’s been, what a tool she’s been played for, how unappreciated she is, how much like them she is, how she’s a shot and a beer kind of gal, etc. BTW, I was watching a “Curb Your Enthusiasm” DVD this weekend, the one where Larry David has a revelation, and starts doing all these manly, middle American type things (read: non-elistist)–in one part of the montage, he did a shot and a beer that was filmed like a prototype of Hillary’s fakery. Seriously. Look at it. ---
**Author:** ![burundi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@burundi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burundi)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2008, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-clinton-be-the-nominee-if-edwards-affair-had-come-out-earlier/459680/24 "2008-08-12T16:05:38Z")
[QUOTE=pseudotriton ruber ruber] I wonder. I think if a sex scandal broke out on a daily basis, she would skyrocket in the polls. Her supporters seem to get all worked up whenever they’re reminded what a victim she’s been, what a tool she’s been played for, how unappreciated she is, how much like them she is, how she’s a shot and a beer kind of gal, etc. [/QUOTE] I agree that Hillary gets props from folks for standing by her man, but how many Americans would really want pussy-hound Bill as the First Gentleman? I don’t care what the dude does in his personal life, but I also don’t want to see it in the papers. ---
**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:** [August 13, 2008, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-clinton-be-the-nominee-if-edwards-affair-had-come-out-earlier/459680/25 "2008-08-13T01:20:04Z")
If the Edwards affair had become public knowledge before the Iowa primary, then the top 3 Dems would have become Clinton, Obama, & someone not Edwards. Kucinich would have drawn a big part of Edwards’s populist base, but the third place might have been Richardson, possibly Biden or Dodd. The “anyone but Hillary” vote would have played out much the same way, with some other also-ran eventually conceding to the BHO/HRC duel. I could see Richardson throwing some small amount of support to Clinton, but after costing her early votes; Kucinich would have hung in longer than Edwards, & I don’t know how relevant he’d end up being; but I really think Biden or Dodd would have thrown their support to Obama even more blatantly than Edwards seems to have done. If the affair came out after Iowa, then Edwards would have had to pull out uncomfortably, & his support would have fallen to a mix of the various candidates, which is what happened anyway when he begged out of Super Tuesday. Very small change, in the end. HRC lost due to being unprepared for the caucus strategy, not so much because of Edwards. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-clinton-be-the-nominee-if-edwards-affair-had-come-out-earlier/459680.md?page=1)