I’m assuming the economy would have continued to chug along. But it’s a fair bet Republicans would have held the House and done their usual thing with investigations, and Hillary would have been attacked unceasingly on social media.
It’s debatable what might have happened with the pandemic under Clinton and how it might have affected her public image. Feel free to debate that.
It’s hard for one party to hold the presidency for more that 12 years.
What do you think?
So hard to say, but I think you’re probably right. In such a scenario, my hope is that Clinton’s term would be followed by a sane Republican’s. Maybe Mitt, but more likely Rubio or even Haley (though it would be unlikely to be another woman — like how “been there, done that — no longer have to prove we’re not a racist country” might have been a factor both in some Obama-Trump voters, and in Corey Booker’s recent failed primary campaign).
I think so, yes. She would have been the Democratic George H.W. Bush. Bear in mind also that the 2018 midterms featured an extremely Republican-friendly Senate map (23 Democrats up for reelection, many in red/swing states, versus only 9 Republicans,) and so Republicans would have been riding the high of a landslide midterm victory into 2020 as well. And Trumpism would have been refuted, so Republicans would most likely be running a sane and reasonable guy like Ben Sasse against Hillary in 2020; more clout with swing voters.
Given her age, I think Ms. Clinton may have only wanted one term. Of course, we now have two even older presidential candidates, so I might be making too much of the age issue.
I think she would have had a second half of the term, assuming the House went Democratic in 2018. However, Senate obstructionism would have hampered her the way it hampered Obama.
(Speaking of which, I think the most important thing in the election is getting the Senate. The House is a solid lock for Democrats, but even if Biden wins, he does not get to write laws. The House and Senate do, and they both pass the laws too.)
I suspect the GOP-led House would have found some pretense to impeach her, with the Senate acquitting. And without anti-Trump sentiment motivating Dems, there would likely have been no blue wave in the 2018 midterms.
While you can make a case that a competent administration could have helped thwart Covid before it ever became a global pandemic – much as the Bush II and Obama administrations helped with the previous two novel viruses originating in China – you can’t say it with any certainty. The H Clinton administration would have undoubtedly handled Covid better here in the states than the current occupant’s, but it would still have likely sunk what was left of her presidency.
That’s kind of tough, but if I had to guess at something with so many variables involved, I’d have to go with her winning a second term. I think some people forget that she had a very good approval rating through 2013 or so (as high as 66 percent around that time), which of course flagged greatly as she ran for president. But I would think that after being elected, ServerGate and the rest would have been forgotten, and her undeniable desire to work her ass off for the things she believes in would have brought that rating up again. When she was out of office (that is, NOT Secretary of State) and not able to accomplish anything, the rating went down. Once able to demonstrate what she was capable of in office would have led to a fairly easy re-election. You know, if I had to guess.
Yes, I can imagine the campaign against her: On her watch, 150,000 Americans have caught Covid-19 and 10,000 have died. Shame. Elect a competent Republican. Elect Rick DeSantis.
I think she wins a second term. She won nationally +3 as widely disliked and distrusted. I think her performance in the job would demonstrate competency and quell that so she’d win in 2020 by marginally more.
The pandemic is not Trump’s fault but the poor federal response is. He is fundamentally anti-science and anti-expertise. Hillary is a wonk who knew having a good set of people around her and in goverment agencies to listen and learn from is good leadership. She’d handle the response infinitely better since it wouldn’t be about her. Furthermore she’d have handled Hurricane Maria far better than Trump. Again it’s not his fault that the event happened but the extent of the damage could have been better with proper leadership. In addition to bread and butter politics of the day, I think dissenters on the left from the 2016 primary would be won over by Hillary’s green energy and environmental policies as president.
Ironically, I think Covid would have helped Clinton win a second term. Multitasking, and dealing with various agencies is in her wheelhouse.
The thing with Clinton is, she’s an incredible bore, but she’s very good at what she does.
I’m generally in agreement with the above. She would have faced four years of an obstructionist House and Senate (much as Obama did for the latter part of his presidency), as well as endless investigations into Benghazi, email servers, etc.
And, while I have no doubt that her administration would have handled COVID far, far better than the clusterf*ck that Trump has committed, if Hiilary had been president, we would have had no idea how bad things could have been. She might have handled it amazingly well, and even so, we’d still be in a very difficult position.
Even if cases and deaths under her administration were a tenth of what they’ve been in our timeline, the combination of a five-figure death toll, and a recession, on top of a legislative branch which had blocked her at every turn, and I think she would have had a very steep uphill path to re-election.
There’s two historical trends in opposition here: incumbents usually get re-elected and one party usually doesn’t win four presidential election in a row. Clinton would have been facing both of these if she had won in 2016.
I feel that she would have done a competent job as President. And I feel that the Republicans would have tried to destroy her from Election Day 2016 on. But I feel Clinton would have handled this opposition better than Obama did; he was always trying to reach an understanding with the Republicans, which was impossible. Clinton would have seen the Republicans were implacable enemies and would have fought back.
Just a speculation but I think Paul Ryan might be the Republican nominee this year. I think his original plan was to skip the 2016 elections, which he expected Clinton to win. If she had, I think Ryan planned on staying on as Speaker of the House and would have spent the last four years acting as the unofficial leader of the opposition to her Presidency. He would have been building up his stature while working to diminish hers so he could challenge her as an equal in 2020. This plan got derailed when Trump won; Ryan now faced having to wait until 2024.
The problem with Covid is that even a good performance can look awful. Even with an infected toll and death toll of “only” 300,000 Americans infected and 14,000 dead (which is one-tenth of what it is now,) that is a piece of cake to spin in the media as a balls-up. Just say something like “That’s nearly five times as many as died on 9/11.” As someone already pointed out, Hillary got raked over the coals for just four Americans dead in Benghazi.
So Hillary could have done ten times better than Trump on Covid, and still be made to look bad, especially given that there is no Trump screwup to compare her actual performance to. Saying, “But Trump would have been ten times worse!” isn’t convincing; hypotheticals don’t sink in in people’s minds.
Only an utterly spectacular, spectacular number - such as Vietnam’s <500 infected and no deaths - can be made to look good to the average American media-reader at first glance.
We still could have compared to the rest of the world.
If the US was doing better than Canada and the UK and everybody else, then that’s some bragging rights.
Of course, had things been different, things would have been different, and we may not have had Covid make it to our shores at all.
Unfortunately, a lot of Americans don’t think in terms of per capita; they only look at raw overall numbers. So it wouldn’t be hard for Republicans to spin it as, “We have far more deaths and infections than Canada and UK in total.”
That being said, since Republicans would be even more resistant to wearing masks if it’s a Democrat in charge, that might undermine their argument.
As for Covid not making it to our shores at all, I don’t think that is possible. There are just too many people coming into the US in any given month.
Probably. Her coronavirus response would have been a million times better than Trump but at best Americans still would have died - to this day they’re still screaming for her head over four deaths in Benghazi - and for sure Americans would have been inconvenienced and the economy would have definitely still taken a dip.
Her supporters would be pointing out how we were doing much better compared to many other countries, but that would never do for the rest. Republicans in congress and red state governors would scream every time she tried to make the right choice to save lives and control the outbreak. Hell, Fox News would be holding “mask burning parties” because she would have dared insist people wear them (the media would also spend a lot of time giggling at how she looked in her mask).
She would have never stood a chance. I am still furious that Donald Trump won that election and I am convinced that Hillary would have been a good leader, but looking at it this way, I can at least placate myself thinking that there’s a good chance that in the reality in the world where she got those 70,000 extra votes, she is blown out of office after one term over something that she probably handled way better than the guy who did win in this reality.
Don’t know if I can really say how things would have gone; just so many variables to consider. To build off what others have noted, the one net positive of the Trump years may be that we have an official yardstick to show how bad things can get.
I would guess yes. Hilary Clinton is a policy wonk and has performed adequately in a number of difficult roles. Obviously, she has some limitations as a retail politician and is less well-liked than her husband. Indeed, the level of opprobrium she acquired still surprises me a little. If she was going to win, it would be easier against a flawed candidate. Trump has surprised many with his narcissistic evaluation skills and election nous (probably not the right word). If she didn’t beat Trump, she might have struggled against a less divisive candidate too?
“With the annual deficit reaching nearly 100 trillion New Dollars, continuing questions about the Lunar Mining Concessions Scandal, and what many are called a seriously botched handling of the Clone Rights issue, President Alpha-1138’s re-election chances now seem slim. Of course, he’s still doing far, far better than Trump.”
Hey, I happen to agree with Alpha-1138. If corporations are people, then clones should be too!
This may be the funniest thing I’ve ever read in my entire life! Thank you. I will never forget you!