Dems: Do you wish Hillary had decided not to run?

[IceSpear]

Yes. And not because of their politics, but because she's objectively a terrible candidate. She might blow this election yet, when any remotely competent Democrat would have it in the bag.

You know that hypothetical polls only had Obama doing a few points better, right? And that's while he was floating above the fray for a while while Hillary was subjected to the Republican hate machine for over a year.

Some of you guys seem to have a hard time grasping that 45% of the country will vote for any Republican under any circumstances. Secondly, the Republican hate machine/attack machine was not going to roll over and die if Dems nominated anybody else. And lastly, the media has a vested interest in forcing/manufacturing a horse race under any circumstances.

NO candidate would be a lock against Trump.

[IceSpear]

I would have liked it much better if Warren had been the nominee. I feel confident she would do even better against Trump. Clinton isn't someone I look up to at all, and she has so much freakin baggage it's unbelievable. In terms of this election, it doesn't really matter if her "scandals" are real or imagined - She has been the right's punching bag for years and has suffered from that. Her approvals/trustworthiness polls show it.

I could be wrong, but I legitimately feel like we blew a chance to have a true landslide this election. We may have a big win yet with lots of downballot wins, but I can't help but think it will be less than we could have gotten with a better candidate.

* And yes, maybe polarization may prevent a 61%+ PV win, but I don't think a 57% - 58% margin is off the table with Trump had we fielded a better, less controversial candidate that could inspire people to vote. Polarization may prevent large wins most of the time, but it's not universal.

I think a white male populist (preferably a Southerner, think Bill Clinton or John Edwards without the scandal) could've gotten 57-58% in 2008, since the country was much less polarized then. But now? Forget it.