2012: Hillary Clinton vs Donald Trump
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  2012: Hillary Clinton vs Donald Trump
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Author Topic: 2012: Hillary Clinton vs Donald Trump  (Read 245 times)
NewYorkExpress
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« on: February 28, 2021, 06:09:38 PM »

Barack Obama retires after one term. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton defeats Vice President Joe Biden to win the Democratic nomination for President.

Donald Trump wins the Republican nomination over a divided, defeating Mitt Romney, his closest competition, at the convention.

Who wins a Clinton/Trump match four years early?
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Agonized-Statism
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« Reply #1 on: March 02, 2021, 02:01:30 PM »


Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (D-NY) / Fmr. Governor Tim Kaine (D-VA)
Businessman Donald Trump (R-NY) / Fmr. Governor Mike Huckabee (R-AR) ✓

Why did Obama resign? That, and the defeat of a sitting vice president in the primaries, implies some kind of catastrophe. An even matchup would be President Clinton running for reelection, but I doubt Trump would or could lead a Rust Belt revolt in 2012 against a Democrat who won on a populist campaign. Here, he would be perceived as taking on a corrupt and power-hungry insider from a failed Obama administration. And even if Obama was retiring just to retire, that wouldn't be good optics. A campaign to continue the legacy of a young guy who probably hasn't gotten much done yet and chose to give up looks bad.
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Alben Barkley
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« Reply #2 on: March 02, 2021, 03:36:28 PM »
« Edited: March 02, 2021, 03:44:07 PM by Alben Barkley »

I don't think the country was ready for Trump yet in 2012. I also think the GOP would be less likely to get fully behind him then, especially after a bitterly contested primary against Romney that goes all the way to the convention. OP doesn't give a reason why Obama retired, so absent information otherwise, I'm gonna assume it has nothing to do with scandal or anything, or that anything went catastrophically wrong compared to our timeline. Maybe he just decides to pull a Polk and retire after one term. Maybe Michelle convinces him to give it up. And I don't think Hillary beating Biden in the primaries should be read into too much either; she was also still an active part of the administration in 2012, after all, and was more popular in her own right at the time. It was already assumed she, not Biden, would be Obama's successor.

I think the map would basically be the same as real 2012, give or take FL, OH, and IA. Bitterness over Romney's defeat combined with distaste for Trump may also cause a McMullin type Mormon candidate to either win Utah outright or spoil it for Trump.

Oh, and if Hillary was the incumbent after winning in 2008, she definitely wins. In that case, it could feasibly be something like this:



The post-2008 mass exodus of the WWC from the Democratic Party would not have happened in this timeline, as they would have gotten their candidate (Hillary, ironic as that seems today). Maybe she even wins states like KY and WV in 2008, and Trump's populism could be enough to poach those from her, but I doubt much else.

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Chips
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« Reply #3 on: March 02, 2021, 04:33:07 PM »
« Edited: March 02, 2021, 04:40:44 PM by Chips »

Both Arachno and Alben make great points. But I agree with Arachno as a Clinton primaries Obama 2012 situation probably means something very bad happened on the Obama side and it rubs off on the Democratic party as a whole. Trump narrowly wins this election and possibly the popular vote. (I'm not sure on the latter)



Donald Trump: 302 electoral votes
Hillary Clinton: 236 electoral votes

Alternately, I could see Clinton pulling through in WI, PA and VA giving her the election as well.

This could also be an interesting timeline idea.
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