What this says to me, more than anything, is that Obama and the circumstances around him were completely unique and will never be replicated. It's just good to see that Democrats can still win without all that though no matter how nerve-wracking as it is to see incredibly important battleground states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin be decided by 1% or less.
WI likes populist candidates it seems (Obama 2008 and Trump 2016/20).
Trump lost in 2020, and Hillary was simply a bad candidate in 2016/ that allowed Trump to win
Honestly, 2020 kind of vindicates Hillary Clinton. Biden’s win is not especially impressive. He won because he fast-tracked the trends Hillary Clinton started to a larger degree than Trump fast-tracked his own 2016 trends. To me, the single biggest reason Biden won and Clinton didn’t is that voters in 2020 had the benefit of hindsight. That’s not a ringing endorsement of any special qualities Biden brought to the table.
I echo your sentiments here, especially about hindsight being the biggest advantage Democrats had this year, but I wouldn't discount the fact that Biden is a white man who wasn't character assassinated into becoming a right wing pariah over the span of 25+ years. Those advantages were clearly worth their weight in gold, as unfair as it is to Clinton. It's just the country we live in.
