2016: Ben Carson the Republican nominee

[darklordoftech]

How would Carson have done if he were the nominee instead of Trump?

[NewYorkExpress]

Carson ran a pretty much incompetent campaign the whole way through, and there's no reason to believe that wouldn't continue into the General Election. Plus, Trump probably runs an Independent campaign if he doesn't get the nomination.

Hillary Clinton/Tim Kaine (D) 49% 407 EV
Ben Carson/Sam Brownback (R) 39% 131 EV
Donald Trump/Michael Flynn (I) 9% 0 EV

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Would Romney-Clinton voters be considered big racists?

[NewYorkExpress]

Would Romney-Clinton voters be considered big racists?

If Carson was actually a competent candidate, sure.

But he might have been the only candidate Republicans could have nominated that was worse than Trump electorally.

[Alben Barkley]

Would Romney-Clinton voters be considered big racists?

If Carson was actually a competent candidate, sure.

But he might have been the only candidate Republicans could have nominated that was worse than Trump electorally.

I don’t think Jeb! or Cruz would have won either.

Trump was actually particularly well-suited against Hillary in that year. Any other candidate, any other year, he probably loses. But it was a perfect storm.

[NewYorkExpress]

Would Romney-Clinton voters be considered big racists?

If Carson was actually a competent candidate, sure.

But he might have been the only candidate Republicans could have nominated that was worse than Trump electorally.

I don’t think Jeb! or Cruz would have won either.

Trump was actually particularly well-suited against Hillary in that year. Any other candidate, any other year, he probably loses. But it was a perfect storm.

Cruz probably does lose, but by only by a handful of electoral votes.

Jeb was the only candidate running, who in my opinion would beat Hillary but lose to Sanders.

[Alben Barkley]

Would Romney-Clinton voters be considered big racists?

If Carson was actually a competent candidate, sure.

But he might have been the only candidate Republicans could have nominated that was worse than Trump electorally.

I don’t think Jeb! or Cruz would have won either.

Trump was actually particularly well-suited against Hillary in that year. Any other candidate, any other year, he probably loses. But it was a perfect storm.

Cruz probably does lose, but by only by a handful of electoral votes.

Jeb was the only candidate running, who in my opinion would beat Hillary but lose to Sanders.

That doesn’t really make sense because Jeb! is a good fit for Florida and Bernie is an atrocious fit. Jeb! is also a much better fit for Virginia, maybe even New Hampshire and Nevada. So even if Bernie wins MI/WI/PA, Jeb! could just win with FL/VA or some other combination of those states.

Also if it’s a Bush/Clinton redux in 2016, as many expected it to be for a while, I think Clinton wins because people were more sick of the Bushes. And Jeb! was an even less charismatic candidate than Hillary. He wouldn’t fire up the base, he wouldn’t convert a bunch of blue collar Obama voters in the rust belt, etc. And Hillary wouldn’t scare off D-trending NoVA types and such.

[Agonized-Statism]

Fmr. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (D-NY) / Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA)
Neurosurgeon Ben Carson (R-MD) / Governor Scott Walker (R-WI) ✓

Thrown to the House, Carson probably wins.