Not Even Obama Could Have Defeated Trump in 2016

[hopper]

The idea that Trump was the only Republican who would have been able to crack the BIG BAD BLUE WALL is pretty amusing. I don't see someone like Kasich (or even Rubio or Cruz, for that matter) losing Wisconsin either. His victory map probably would have resembled Ron Johnson's victory in the Senate race (with Kasich doing a lot better in the suburbs but maybe slightly worse in the traditionally Democratic rural areas).

People really underestimate how many Republicans and Independents only reluctantly voted for Trump because of the Supreme Court and issues like abortion and gun rights and because they despise Clinton.

Cruz wouldn't have won MI, PA, and WI. He is too conservative for those states in a General Election. Yes Kasich could have carried MI, PA, and WI because he is a good fit in a General Election in those states.

[hopper]

Obama's favorability ratings were so much higher than Clinton's that it is very difficult to believe that he wouldn't have done at least 1 percent better in PA, MI, and WI.

This. Stop with the excuses already, she was just a godawful candidate. And Trump was not some unbeatable titan.

First, Trump was a terrible candidate who was an embarrassment to American politics and would lose to Hillary in a landslide ... now he's a juggernaut who mastered fake populism in a way no good-hearted Democrat could ever muster.  Common theme?  Protecting Hillary.

I always thought Trump was the best candidate the Republican Party had to offer this year.

Yes.  Yes, he was.

Trump was the best candidate because Trump, and only Trump recognized that a huge part of the GOP involved folks who were NOT "small government conservatives" and that a goodly number of Republicans suffered from the same amount of war fatigue as Democrats do.  Trump, and only Trump, filled that void.  That formula was what expanded the map for the GOP into MI, WI, PA, and (arguably) IA.  I cannot imagine any of the other candidates, including Kasich, carrying PA, WI, and MI, and I think Kasich would have struggled to win IA.

Why do you think Kasich would have struggled to win Iowa?