If Rubio had won

[Lord Admirale]

The fact is Drumpf simply was the most electable GOP candidate in the social media age. Let's not pretend otherwise.

Ew.

[Lord Admirale]

Rubio probably would've won like HW in 1988 (as someone said earlier). I could see him winning Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, New Hampshire, the rest of Maine, Virginia, and New Jersey (by a hair). He'd probably lose Michigan and Wisconsin though.

Might I add that Rubio would've definitely won the popular vote. Hillary wouldn't drive up the Hispanic vote in Arizona, California, and Texas. If anything, Rubio pushes them to vote for him.

Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL)/Governor John Kasich (R-OH) - 334 EV, 66,452,213 votes (51.1%)
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (D-NY)/Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) - 204 EV, 62,340,234 votes (45.2%)

[Lord Admirale]

Rubio probably would've won like HW in 1988 (as someone said earlier). I could see him winning Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, New Hampshire, the rest of Maine, Virginia, and New Jersey (by a hair). He'd probably lose Michigan and Wisconsin though.

You also estimate Clinton-Cruz 279-259, rubio and cruz aren't that different. It's extremely hypocritical to see big contrasts like that for such similar candidates.

No, I didn't? Never have I once mentioned Cruz in this thread, nor discussed Cruz with you.

The reality is that they wouldn't do that differently. Rubio is closer to Cruz than Kasich, and in a general election he'd have to either  acknowledge the nature of his right-wing platform, or he'd try to deflect it by going into repeat mode, which would be just as damaging or even worse.

Again, no. Rubio is a moderate conservative, Cruz is an ultra-conservative, and Kasich is a moderate. But we're not talking about Cruz, buddy.

The irony of the Bush Sr.-Dukakis analogy is that Clinton is a better profile match for Bush Sr., and rubio is a better profile match for Dukakis. Bush Sr. being an out-of-touch northern 'WASP' elitist, and Dukakis being a child of immigrants who tries to be as cautiously inoffensive as possible.

Not sure why this was put here, but Bush Sr. was succeeding a highly popular president. Dukakis could not compete and was a poor campaigner.

[Lord Admirale]

I feel like without Trump's unique appeal and candidacy, Rubio would not have won the same kind of non-college educated whites that Trump won over Obama. The coalition would look a lot different, because both Clinton and Rubio were seen as appealing to college-educated upper-class suburban whites. He probably wouldn't have won MI, WI or PA. Probably his map would've looked closer to a Romney map +4-5 points everywhere. Clear popular vote victory though.

I can see him pulling off PA with completely different demographics (probably focusing on the Philly suburbs rather than Western PA), but are you saying there's a potential for a reversal of the electoral and popular vote? As in, Clinton wins the electoral college but Rubio wins the popular vote?

[Lord Admirale]

I feel like without Trump's unique appeal and candidacy, Rubio would not have won the same kind of non-college educated whites that Trump won over Obama. The coalition would look a lot different, because both Clinton and Rubio were seen as appealing to college-educated upper-class suburban whites. He probably wouldn't have won MI, WI or PA. Probably his map would've looked closer to a Romney map +4-5 points everywhere. Clear popular vote victory though.

I can see him pulling off PA with completely different demographics (probably focusing on the Philly suburbs rather than Western PA), but are you saying there's a potential for a reversal of the electoral and popular vote? As in, Clinton wins the electoral college but Rubio wins the popular vote?

That's what GWB did in PA, still didn't work for him. The GOP senate candidates (each being of very different stripes) won both times, the 2000 GOP PA senate candidate being hard-right, and the 2004 GOP senate candidate being a moderate (as in a real moderate, not a hardcore social conservative who also wants a hardcore fiscal conservative economic plan and is basically very close to Cruz policy-wise).

Will you stop talking about Ted Cruz? Ted Cruz is irrelevant in this thread. Also minority turnout was relatively low in PA this year, so if Rubio could use low turnout among blacks and garner more votes from Latinos, along with the suburban vote, he could pull the state to his side.