President Barack Obama has opined that had he been able to run for a third term, which is forbidden by the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution since 1951, that he would have defeated Donald Trump.
That brings to mind the issue whether if Vice President Joe Biden had been the nominee, whether he could have won over Donald Trump.
And also, the issue arises whether Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders had overcome Hillary Clinton in delegates, could he have won.
The gut feeling of this author and blogger is that either Obama or Biden would have been able to win enough additional support to overcome the Clinton deficit in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, and also possibly in Florida and Ohio as well.
On the other hand, this author feels that Bernie Sanders, despite his inspiring campaign and support from millennials, and seen as the protest candidate as much as Donald Trump to many, would NOT have won, and the reasons are sad and unpleasant.
Sanders being Jewish, although he is not at all religious in any sense, would have worked against him, as anti Semitism is still an ugly reality in America.
Also, the fact that Sanders calls himself a Socialist, although far from scary or terrifying in reality, would likely have been used by Donald Trump against him, as Trump actually did call Sanders a “Communist” once or twice during campaign rallies, and the ignorant, clueless people who backed Trump would not be intelligent enough to understand the difference, and that Sanders is more like a Scandinavian Socialist from Norway or Sweden, and is no danger in any sense to American traditions.
So the best judgment of this author is that Obama or Biden could have won, but not Sanders.
I give the same answer as before. But, with one change.
• Barack Obama—Pointless. He is term-limited. But, it would be a mistake to observe and not mention that his high mark of support was 2008. After that, declined support.
• Joe Biden—No. As I mentioned before, no one in the U.S. Senate or U.S. House who voted to go to war in Iraq has been elected to the presidency of the United States.
• Bernie Sanders—Yes. It helps to understand what Election 2016 was about most: “income inequality.” (This was not addressed in the Obama administration. That makes it easy for me to dismiss Obama and Biden.) The big fear among “Democrats,” “liberals,” “the left”—specifically those who voted the 2016 Democratic nomination to the pro-war and neoliberal Hillary Clinton (while they smeared during the primaries, and even after the general election, Bernie Sanders)—is not that Bernie Sanders could not have won election to the presidency of the United States. The big fear, with them, is that Bernie Sanders would have indeed won election to the presidency of the United States.
I second what the Professor said. I think Obama or Biden could have won.
Pennsylvania is the 3rd worst state in terms of GOP gerrymandering. Those are factors in the elections and those are issues we need to fight against.
http://triblive.com/local/allegheny/11698552-74/electoral-pennsylvania-congressional
“Gerrymandering†does not play a role in statewide carriage. Donald Trump won his Republican pickup of Pennsylvania by shifting Barack Obama’s 2012 carriage of the state by nearly 310,000 votes and +5.38 percentage points with nearly 355,000 and 6.10 points. Donald Trump won Pennsylvania by around 45,000 votes and +0.72 percentage points. His Republican pickup counties were: Luzerne (Wilkes-Barre), Obama +5 to Trump +19 (Shift: R+24); Northampton (Easton), Obama +5 to Trump +4 (Shift: R+9); and the northwestern Erie (Erie), Obama +16 to Trump +1.5 (Shift: R+17 to R+18). In 2012, presidential votes cast from the three counties were around a combined 375,000. In 2016, they were about 405,000—an increase of nearly 10 percent. And they were dramatic Republican shifts and, with that, flips for Trump. Those were also well beyond the 5.39 shifted points Trump needed to flip the state of Pennsylvania.
It most certainly does play a role. That’s one of the important election issues that many of the blogs that the Professor has listed here frequently talk about.
Basic fact is that economics wasn’t the sole factor.
Who would’ve won is water under the bridge now.
Democrats need to remember that Trump and the GOP’s agenda are politically unpopular. We need to fight that unpopular agenda every step of the way, rather than compromising with, and thereby legitimizing, what Republicans are trying to do.
You are absolutely correct, Rustbelt Democrat!
http://bluevirginia.us/2016/12/losers-2016-national-politics
There are no national winners, only losers, in 2016 national politics. Here they are:
–The Biggest Loser: Donald Trump, the most authoritarian, ignorant, unprepared, racist, misogynist, vengeful, pathetic man ever to ascend to the highest office in the land. He has no idea what he has gotten himself into or what he doesn’t know. A more clueless–and thus more dangerous–individual has never before ascended to the presidency. He makes George W. Bush look like a genius. He doesn’t even plan to remain in Washington to do his job, but instead hobnob about claiming he “made America great,†while deceiving America about what he has actually done. Just as he lied through his teeth this week claiming he was responsible for bringing Sprint jobs back to the US (this happened well before the election), he will lie about everything else. He will be the worst president in American history.
–America is a huge loser, thanks to Trump’s victory in the electoral college (note that he was routed in the popular vote by nearly 3 million).
–Democracy in America. It’s toast. Thanks corporate media and James Comey (not).
-All Americans in the 99%, whether they voted for Trump or not.
–The rest of the world for having to deal with the effects of such an ill-informed, reckless “leader.â€
–Facts and respect for science.
–Fair redistricting.
–The right to vote.
–People of color.
–Transgender persons, who are being wrongfully used by manipulative R’s to get out their base.
–LBGT citizens.
–Freedom of religion.
–Freedom of speech and the press.
–Mitch McConnell, having been shown as the lick-spittle and frightened turtle he is.
–Paul Ryan, because he is an arrogant, ignorant, Ayn-Rand-worshiping, misanthropic, hypocritical twit.
–North Carolina, because, unless courts intervene, Democrats can never again win the legislature again. Most other Republican led states are losers too.
–North Carolina Governor-Elect Roy Cooper, who now will have almost no power, unless he fights vigorously and wins in court.
–Pat McCrory, the worst governor in North Carolina history, who lost on November 8 but didn’t admit it for many weeks.
–The environment. Due to the ascendance of climate science deniers, fossil fuel industry tools, those who will end the enforcement of environmental regulations and smash climate science, the environment is hosed and thus so are we.
–Affordable Care Act subscribers. (BTW, What kind of people spend their careers trying to hurt and/or exploit for profit the sick?)
–The poor. Do any Republican leaders actually give a damn about real people they hurt? If you think Trump cares, take a look at what he actually does, not what he says he does.
– The middle class, which will be history because today corporatists won’t accept a living wage for their workforce (and many other abuses).
–Seniors, most of whom voted against their interests because of either gullible partisanship, stupidity or latent or overt authoritarianism.
–Women (all of us, though some are too slow to figure this out). Trump’s misogyny, combined with the archaic positions of his *Vice* president, the contempt for and desire for control of women and their reproduction (including birth control) by the Neanderthal, the so-called right will all set women back a century. Those who “seethe†over progress (you know who you are) will celebrate because they are too clueless to see what they have done.
–Justice. Reforming the prison-industrial-complex will not happen now and many guilty of minor crimes, non-crimes or invented ones will be incarcerated. Obviously, decriminalization won’t happen unless Trump or his treacherous adult children figure out a way to profit from pot.
–The courts. A US Supreme Court seat was stolen from us. NC buzzards still plan to pack the state court. Democrats better not let them!
–Charlotte, for dropping their human rights ordinance for nothing. PS If it was truly invalid as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Berger, Moore, Stam, Rucho ) claimed, these guys wouldn’t have been so insistent that Charlotte get rid of their ordinance.
Hillary Clinton. She won the popular vote by 2.9 million votes. But in America, the clear victor among the population doesn’t matter. The Founding Fathers, unfortunately, figured out how to make our vote less valuable than those in less populous places. Only in a country where one person/one vote is a joke could this happen. I hope that Clinton will rise like a Phoenix, not to run for president again, but to work with Bernie to lead the resistance. Hillary Clinton’s next chapter will be worth following.
There are many more who have lost due to the electoral college trumping the popular vote. We’ll report more on them as the new year unfolds. While wrong-wingers continue to defame us, as they have done for decades, and try to legislate us out of electoral existence, may we all show up for the fight. All hands on deck!
What a brilliant contribution, Former Republican, and I thank you for sharing it with all of us!