What If Hillary Was Winning?

[THUNDER HANDS]

I'm reeeally curious to see what this board would look like if Hillary was the leading candidate in the primaries right now. I wonder if as many people would be behind her as there are behind Obama.

Would there be as much excitement?

Would there be as much fighting?

Do you think this place would be better, worse, or about the same in terms of the tone?

[izquierdista]

1. I would have gnawed my leg off

and left it behind for her.

[RooferDem]

2. About the same.

A third of the Obama supporters would throw their weight behind Clinton.

Another third would leave forever for a month or two but would return for the Convention and support teh Clinton.

And a third would fill the roles of e-street vigilantes.

[Straight Shooter]

36. "a third would fill the roles of e-street vigilantes"

e-street vigilantes

I don't know if you invented that term or not, but it ought to be part of the blogosphere vernacular.

Welcome to DU. :hi:

[Cooley Hurd]

3. The contingents would be the same size...

...and hope would be at a minimum.:(

[Radical Activist]

4. Cynthia McKinney

would be looking real good.

[flor de jasmim]

5. It depends on the type of campaign she was running... if it was the same as now, no thanks!

[cyndensco]

27. If she had been the front-runner throughout the race, as she was expected to be,

her campaign would never have gotten as ugly as it has. She would look world's better than she does now and would probably have more support and respect from most of us. Obama, I believe, would have bowed out gracefully "for the good of the party" by now.

She would still be a clinton, though, (bush/clinton/bush...) and still would have her war vote following her. I, for one, would not feel at all excited about 2008 and would know that, once again, I would not be voting FOR a candidate but AGAINST mccain.

[Rhiannon12866]

31. I'm an Edwards supporter, too, really thought he was our best chance... *sigh*

But I have to agree with you about Hillary Clinton. She's my senator and I voted for her twice, as I did for Bill Clinton. I had the privilege of hearing him speak in 2006, when he came to my little burg to campaign for the Democratic Congressional candidate, and he was just awesome. But the way things are going now make me sad. I heard her interview with Wolf Blitzer, and Bill's latest campaign speech, and they are beginning to sound a little unhinged, IMO...:shrug:

[youknowmenotdlc]

6. I would be telling Obama to get the hell out of the way

because he would be unnecessarily hurting the party by staying in.

But thats just me, I'm a realist.

[IndianaGreen]

7. A better question: What if Hillary had opposed the rush to war in 2002?

What if she had been as committed then to hold Bush accountable as she is today to take the nomination from Obama by whatever means necessary?

Answer: She would be a Goddess today, a champion of peace, and our nominee!

[Spazito]

8. I believe it would not be very different....

If Hillary were winning then it would mean she would have more supporters than Obama and I think that would be reflected, to some extent, on DU as well.

I have no doubt there would be as much fighting as there is now, I vividly remember the 04 Primary, major fights then as well.

Excitement, yep, that too, given most of the posters who come to GDP are political junkies like me, I think there would be excitement had the position of the two current candidates been reversed.

Just my .02 cents.

[Crazy Dave]

9. Florida and Michigan would have to suck it up and learn to play by the rules n/t

[L0oniX]

10. What do you mean ..."if"??? She is winning and is ahead with the popular vote and the elected...

and the super delegates.

Here have some...

[newmajority]

11. I'd be spending a lot of time in Vancouver, meeting Canadian women

and trying to get a green card marriage before November when Grandpa McLoon won the election. :evilfrown:

[goclark]

18. I'm going to Vancouver real soon

Glad you gave me the idea.

If HC is still in play in this election, I'm going to check on real estate in Canada.

I really don't see how I could put up with her smears and lies.

[lisa58]

12. I would vote for her...

...and would hope that Obama would graciously concede and not "move the goalposts" constantly.

[haymakeragain]

13. Obama would have already conceded for the good of the party if

things had played out exactly opposite. But the Hillarians think only she can win, and they may be right if they stay home or vote McShit like spoiled, entitlement brats.

[JVS]

14. We'd have a resigned acceptance of reality on this board.

[NotThisTime]

32. Exactly /nt

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

15. They'd all be yappin' about Obama being a sexist for staying in the race.

[liberalmuse]

16. I'd plan on voting for her.

She does have a very solid support base. I don't see how the tone could be much worse than it has been here.

[AllentownJake]

17. This board would have been closed

if Hillary had run 11 in a row and got that far ahead because Obama is practical and wouldn't continue to waste resources the democrats could use in the fall chasing windmills.

[BlooInBloo]

19. Then Obama wouldn't be in it still. Duh.

[WeDidIt]

20. If the roles had been precisely 180 degrees in reverse

This board would be united behind out nominee becaue Obama would have dropped out in February after losing so many races, just like Hillary should have done.

[nxylas]

35. For the roles to be exactly 180 degrees in reverse...

...Obama would have to still be in the race, dragging it out and preventing the as-good-as-nominee, Hillary Clinton, from starting her GE campaign against McCain. I don't think that would happen, but if it did, I'd be among those calling for him to get out of the way.

[Midwestern Democrat]

21. Much less divisive - for one simple reason: supporters of candidates

other than Hillary had to deal with the prospect on day one that their candidate most likely wouldn't win the nomination. Obama's, and to an even greater extent - Edwards's, Biden's, Richardson's, and Dodd's supporters had to mentally prepare themselves for the possibility (more accurately, probability) of defeat right from the beginning. If Hillary had prevailed, Obama supporters would most likely have accepted the results in the same manner Edwards, Biden, Richardson, and Dodd supporters accepted the results.

[Warren Stupidity]

22. we will never know

but my guess is that Obama would have dropped out long ago if the situation were reversed and that there would have been no support in the Democratic Party leadership for his continuing if he hadn't and there wouldn't be much support if any here for some sort of vanity campaign a la Senator Clinton.

[Drunken Irishman]

23. Less excitement and less fighting.

And that's because Obama probably would have dropped out after he lost the Wisconsin primary to Sen. Clinton, maybe even before then. He would not have gone on and on and on in hopes of somehow winning the nomination at the last second.

[juno jones]

24. Maybe it would be a good thing

I'd be on my way (or working on it) to Canada or Costa Rica or any old place that I could find a job.

I wouldn't be here, waiting, hoping that Obama wins this and I can feel comfortable in my American skin again.

[Swamp Rat]

25. ... and she did not vote for the IWR, was against NAFTA, etc.

She would be the nominee by now, and I'd be wearing 'Hillary 2008' pajamas.

[Buck Rabbit]

26. Me too.

I'd even continue to defend Bill from right wingers even though I have always secretly felt he should have resigned in 1998.

[Lucky 13]

28. We'd all be singing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXscHOZXfok

[greguganus]

29. Then the 4 horsemen would be getting ready to descend on earth as the Anti-Christ arose. n/t

[Major Hogwash]

30. What if Paul Bunyon was her pick for vice president?

It seems to me that there is a whole of "what if's" going on here that make no sense.

If Hillary were the nominee, she wouldn't have gotten here by talking about the color of her supporters.

But, what if, we were all green when she stated that her supporters were "hard-working Americans, white Americans"?
That would certainly raise some eyebrows, don'tcha ya think?
Maybe she would want the Jolly Green Giant to be her veep at that point.

But, who knows what she will do once she drops out of the race.
Maybe she'll start her own game show, "Hillary or Not to Hillary", a show that asks contestants to decide if Hillary actually did what she had claimed, or not.
Like, "ducking sniper fire".
Or, "tossing bookbags".

Or, my favorite, "making sure everyone's vote counts", especially after they played her comment from last year on Meet the Press yesterday -
"I'm in it for the long haul. Don't worry though, it won't take long. This thing will all be over by February 5th."

[L0oniX]

33. Please ...I can't afford more meds.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

34. As the saying goes: If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, oh what a party we'd have.

[reflection]

37. Then she'd be Barack. n/t

[butterfly77]

38. A lot of Barack supporters ...

use to be Hillary supporters until she gave them time to see the real Hillary...

[styersc]

39. You mean what if Hillary was winning the Delegate race.

She is ahead in popular vote. Obama is leading the race in delegates. Sort of like how Gore was ahead in the popular vote but Bush led the race in Electoral college in 2000. See how that turned out.

[SoFlaJet]

40. I'm sure there would be MR

I know I'd be fighting just as hard for OUR nominee-no matter WHICH one it was. I was for Gore 1st, Kerry next considered HRC (until throwing Kerry under the bus)Edwards and then voted for Obama in the Florida (non) primary. If it had been Hillary I would be doing everything in my power to get her elected-too bad we can't say HER people feel the same way.

[hendo]

41. if hillary had run her campaign the way Obama did

and had refrained from insulting his supporters
and had refrained from making excuses about sexism
and had not come across as so desperate
and had not sent campaign workers out to create media scandals
and had not made claims to alienate the AA community

then maybe I would support her


However, for Hillary to have never done any of those things she would have had to be right about the election being over after Super Tuesday. And, she would have had to be more relaxed and have gone with the flow.

Would this be a better forum? Well, I think a lot of Obama supporters don't like her because of the ways she has acted. If she would have acted differently, we might feel differently.

[Terran]

42. Obama would have long since dropped out for the Party's good

and basically we'd all be supporting HRC...some more enthusiastically than others. Oh, and there would be no more GD-P and no Clinton-bashing allowed, mod-enforced.

[susankh4]

43. We would have a unified party....

cuz we would already know that Obama was on the ticket as VP.