Which event out of these was the most disappointing for you?

[NoTrump]

As for me, I voted for Al Gore's loss in 2000. Basically, I have a soft spot for Al Gore which I don't really have for Hillary Clinton. Plus, Hillary Clinton's loss in 2016 could hopefully energize the left wing of the Democratic Party.

[TDAS04]

Hillary's 2016 loss, but Gore's loss was also quite disappointing. 

I didn't feel too strongly about the 2008 primary results, even though I leaned Hillary.

[Alabama_Indy10]

Election Night '16 was quite possibly the worst day of my life (priveledgedboi/shelteredboi) but from a historical perspective the 2000 election was easily the worst result out of the three.

If that is the worst day of your life, you must be hella successful.

[Lechasseur]

Hillary losing the primary in 2008 probably would have been it (the only one though where at the time I would have been old enough to have strong feelings about it though would have been 2016, and there I'm glad she lost).

[Mr. Smith]

2008 by far.

Hillary vs. Obama is like LBJ v. JFK...both are disappointments for sure, but one has a slightly better record and much more know-how to dealing with opposition to get things done than the other...but the other makes a real good speech, is young, and has a pulsing, laser focus on the single one issue that allows the primary voters to forget...but is utterly doomed from the get-go to be bullied by the opposition and get little done.

Except JFK at least had a few more years of experience AND he wised up in 1963.


2000 saw someone who had no chance actually come from behind based on a risky strategy and win, it took some meddling to mess it up, and if not for 9/11, 2002 would've been a blowout against Bush anyway based on that meddling.   

My gosh, Gore doing so well in Florida....it'd be like if Hillary won Florida and came within 1 point of flipping Arizona. What would the conversation look like about the Rust Belt then?


And 2016 was trouble from day one no matter who won, even before Hillary went all Nixon '72 on the downballot, even before Trump threw his red cap in.


Also, if Hillary had won '08, none of "muh big data" EVER would've come into play, since it was Obama who pioneered that.

[Beet]

2000 was the most important. Had Gore won, North Korea would have signed a missile testing moratorium with the Gore administration, a peace treaty with Japan in late 2002/early 2003, and a peace treaty ending the Korean war not too long after that. They would have done some uranium enrichment, but the reason behind their nuclear program, the 'hostile policy' of the United States, would have ended or been drastically curtailed. The trust levels on the peninsula would have been much higher, the economic opening path would have been pursued, and we would not have the problems we have today. Instead the neocons decided to call out NK in a way that blew up the AF without a strategy on what to do next, and now we are faced with nuclear war.

[Cactus Jack]

Gore. He was far from the ideal politician, but Bush's election set us dead-on into the horrifying spiral we're in today. No Bush, almost certainly no Trump.

[mvd10]

Hillary losing 2016 by default. I would have supported Bush over Gore and I would have been pretty neutral on Hillary vs Obama (would have supported McCain anyway). If Hillary had won in 2016 the 2018 senate map would be wonderful, and perhaps the GOP would get someone more competent in charge in 2020 (though I'd hope it would be a relatively mainstream conservative like Rubio or Kasich because I'm not completely sold on the idea of president Ted Cruz/Tom Cotton with 58-60 senate seats).

[darklordoftech]

Gore's loss in 2000 because he was mr. environment and his opponent was an evangelical determined to suppress scientific research.

[NoTrump]

2000 was the most important. Had Gore won, North Korea would have signed a missile testing moratorium with the Gore administration, a peace treaty with Japan in late 2002/early 2003, and a peace treaty ending the Korean war not too long after that. They would have done some uranium enrichment, but the reason behind their nuclear program, the 'hostile policy' of the United States, would have ended or been drastically curtailed. The trust levels on the peninsula would have been much higher, the economic opening path would have been pursued, and we would not have the problems we have today. Instead the neocons decided to call out NK in a way that blew up the AF without a strategy on what to do next, and now we are faced with nuclear war.

Two questions:

1. Would the Republicans in Congress have been willing to accept the normalization of diplomatic relations with North Korea?

2. Does Gaddafi still give up his WMDs and nuclear weapons program in this TL? Also, if so, does NATO still help overthrow him and his regime afterwards in this TL?

[NoTrump]

Gore. He was far from the ideal politician, but Bush's election set us dead-on into the horrifying spiral we're in today. No Bush, almost certainly no Trump.

To be honest, I'm wondering if Trump could have won as a Republican in 2008 on an anti-immigration platform had Gore won in both 2000 and 2004.

[Mr. Reactionary]

None of them are really disappointing at all.

[HillGoose]

Hillary's 2016 loss.

Speaking as a Tennessean, Al Gore sucks. Bush/Cheney 2000.

Hillary Clinton in 2008 didn't matter, was gonna vote for the Republican anyway. McCain/Palin 2008.

2016 disappointed me because I doubted my perfect "Neither Trump or Clinton get 270 and Evan McMullin wins Utah, throwing the election into the house where McMullin is elected as a compromise" would happen. I was basically with Glenn Beck at that point, the whole "If electing Hillary Clinton is what's necessary to keep Trump away from the presidency, then so be it" thing was my hope.

[Kingpoleon]

Election Night '16 was quite possibly the worst day of my life (priveledgedboi/shelteredboi) but from a historical perspective the 2000 election was easily the worst result out of the three.

If that is the worst day of your life, you must be hella successful.

Or figuratively blind.

[vanguard96]

None of them in terms of being sad.

In 2000 I voted for Nader via absentee still registered in Mass. I was not so positive about a continuation of Clinton with the wooden Gore. I didn't like Dubya, but I was also in Japan so a bit isolated from the day-to-day politics and the campaign.

In 2008 I was in Michigan with a 2 year old kid and more focused about winning new business in electronics. I was really not into the party politics of either side and did not follow the Dem or GOP primaries very closely. I am not sure if it was 2008 or 2012 but I remember liking some of the things Ron Paul was saying but fell hard for the article about his old newsletters and decided that he was too socially conservative and thus I did not follow him and I stopped paying attention closely. Then Obama won the nomination and I liked his anti-Hillary stance and fell for "Hope and Change" pulling the ballot for him over the LP candidate that year who was in my opinion way too conservative. I was happy that Obama was chosen over Hillary who I did not like. I definitely preferred him to McCain that time - especially with Sarah Palin.

In 2016, I reluctantly voted for Johnson. For about 1 second I considered Trump, 2 seconds for McMullin, and 5 seconds for Darrell Castle. If it was Bernie instead of HRC I might have considered Bernie for 3 seconds but still voted for Gary.

I was sad to see how the campaign played out. With the numerous gaffes from Goofy Gary - 'What's a leppo?", the faces, and William Weld plumping for Hill-dog it was extremely cringeworthy. Still 3% was a historical number and now we have actual primaries as a result in 2018 and 2020 for all elections. Not convention nominations. So it was a mixed day.

The greater race was interesting seeing the looks of horror and amazement from the crew at Young Turks which I was watching for the results coverage election night particularly as exit polls showed Trump faring well. Of course Cenk and his buddies were big for Bernie and behind HRC as anti-Trump so they were not ultra-hardcore but closer to the main group of online friends on the left that I knew - more Bernie than HRC. As the night progressed and the numbers showed Trump leading I had a feeling that the tide was not going to turn. Florida was the clincher in my mind - as Michigan was a gut feeling from seeing the campaigns here and the primary. At the end the memes of liberal tears, and others about Hillary's post about the picture of the next president with her photo as a young girl were interesting to see and chuckle at along with all the dead wrong predictions from all the pundits from big data like Crystal Ball & 538 (who maintain they were the least worst to paraphrase their wrap-up).

I was not celebrating as the best US senate and house LP candidates merited around 10 percent in CO and MA I believe. I was not a Trump fan at all, did not want to see him in the White House any more than Clinton or Bush. I knew this would mean his own selected pro-drug war, pro-police state, pro-military industrial complex staff would be coming in instead of her anti-gun, big-Blue union, and expand the state appointees.

So on a corollary 2016 with just getting 3% for Johnson/Weld instead of earlier poll numbers around say 5-6 made it the most disappointing night.

In retrospect the hard polarization of the left in becoming anti-Trump, the rise of Antifa, the increased severity and frequency of doxxing, the Russian meddling investigations taking center stage over so many other things, the loss of credibility of certain anti-war progressive voices who took the results of 2016 as a chance to stop focusing on issues they shared with libertarians but instead played to the Resistance/SJW crowd (C.F. Pro Publica and The Intercept). Even though it had been developing in the past 3-4 years the transgressors on the right became even more focused as the alt-right.

Both sides reacted with more and more intensity as people realized that Hillary had lost, there was absolutely no chance for Bernie (something that was a regular headline of his followers), and even the recounts, charges of voter fraud, voting machine deficiencies, and possibilities of faithless delegates had almost no hope of changing anything.

I think it has brought a lot of hyperbole and shattered many people's faith in politics. Tonight is the first major election night since. Few key elections will result but we will see how it plays out.

I am definitely excited for the direction of the liberty movement even with all the challenges both externally from the far left, establishment left, establishment right, and populist right and internally as we deal with the added responsibilities of primary ballot access and setting up our leadership and candidates at local, state and national levels as we go into 2018 and beyond.

[RINO Tom]

Third by default, though I was FAR from super sad or anything.  The second one was off my radar, and the first one made me happy.