2008 Election: Hillary Clinton Vs. John McCain

[Zyobot]

With the Iraq War, Hurricane Katrina and a massive, eleventh-hour economic recession all having blown up in George Bush's face, the 2008 election cycle was not a good year for the GOP. Naturally, the Democrats seized on this fact by putting forth their own candidates--the most prominent of them being a young, fresh-faced senator with lightning-in-a-bottle charisma who rocketed to the top of the field and went on to defeat the Republican nominee with 365 electoral votes and an unprecedented 69 million popular votes.

But what if instead of Barack Obama becoming the Democratic nominee, it was former First Lady and New York Senator Hillary Clinton who got the nod and went up against John McCain later that same year? Maybe people would find this interactive 2008 election map from 270 To Win a useful means of illustrating their prognostications.

Thank you in advance,

Zyobot

[James G]

Clinton wins, I would think, but is it no walkover for her.
She won't get Indiana nor North Carolina and, maybe, McCain might hold Nevada too. He certainly will not be choosing the walking disaster which was Palin either!

[Zyobot]

Jul 15, 2020 16:33:48 GMT James G said:

Clinton wins, I would think, but is it no walkover for her.
She won't get Indiana nor North Carolina and, maybe, McCain might hold Nevada too. He certainly will not be choosing the walking disaster which was Palin either!

She doesn't overtake Obama's 365 electoral votes, I take it? Also, if not Palin, who else might McCain choose as his running mate (with the same question apply to Hillary as well)?

[James G]

Jul 15, 2020 16:35:17 GMT Zyobot said:

Jul 15, 2020 16:33:48 GMT James G said:

Clinton wins, I would think, but is it no walkover for her.
She won't get Indiana nor North Carolina and, maybe, McCain might hold Nevada too. He certainly will not be choosing the walking disaster which was Palin either!

She doesn't overtake Obama's 365 electoral votes, I take it? Also, if not Palin, who else might McCain choose as his running mate (with the same question apply to Hillary as well)?

I cannot see it. Whether the election strategy or not, Bill will be part of the campaign. He will cost Hillary votes among Republicans, or more likely Independents, who voted for Obama but would be opposed to Bill back in the White House.
Running mates? Not sure. McCain picked a woman to try to steal female voters annoyed at Hillary losing out to Obama. Facing her, McCain might go for a 'traditional' candidate alongside him. With Clinton, I'd assume she wouldn't do what she did in 2016 and pick a nobody - c'mon, Kaine really was a nobody - because she was a less-experienced, weaker politician in 2008 in the publics eyes. So she'd pick someone with more prominence... but again I am not sure who.

[Zyobot]

Jul 15, 2020 22:51:45 GMT James G said:

Jul 15, 2020 16:35:17 GMT Zyobot said:

She doesn't overtake Obama's 365 electoral votes, I take it? Also, if not Palin, who else might McCain choose as his running mate (with the same question apply to Hillary as well)?

I cannot see it. Whether the election strategy or not, Bill will be part of the campaign. He will cost Hillary votes among Republicans, or more likely Independents, who voted for Obama but would be opposed to Bill back in the White House.
Running mates? Not sure. McCain picked a woman to try to steal female voters annoyed at Hillary losing out to Obama. Facing her, McCain might go for a 'traditional' candidate alongside him. With Clinton, I'd assume she wouldn't do what she did in 2016 and pick a nobody - c'mon, Kaine really was a nobody - because she was a less-experienced, weaker politician in 2008 in the publics eyes. So she'd pick someone with more prominence... but again I am not sure who.

Alright, then. Somehow, I was initially positing John Kerry as a running mate. But then I dismissed the idea, due to how picking the guy who lost to Bush four years ago might've made for bad optics. Not to mention how tepid and boring of a candidate he was on the campaign trail.

[Zyobot]

So...since I linked to that site, any projections on how the election map would look in this alternate 2008? One guy whose take I watched thought that based on real-life polling figures, Clinton would've swept with 395 electoral votes to McCain's 143--meaning that if this were the case, she would've done markedly better than what Obama managed IOTL.

[EwellHolmes]

She wins West Virginia, Missouri, and Montana but, conversely, losses Virginia and North Carolina due to the turn off of non-White Democratic voters.