2008: Hillary vs Ron Paul

[Beebeebutt]

How does it turn out?

I think Paul does decently with independents but Hillary still wins in a landslide.

[TransfemmeGoreVidal]

Hillary wins but Paul is definitely the only Republican distant enough from Bush to make it close. It would be such a bizarre election though to have the Republican further from Bush on the Iraq war while he was still in power.

[Vice President Christian Man]

Paul loses in a landslide. He does poorly with social conservatives, in which many of them either stay home or reluctantly vote for Clinton, while liberal turnout would be at near-Obama levels for Clinton, giving Paul a limited opportunity to win over potential voters. Had this been 2012 or 2016, we'd see a much closer election and Paul could've even had a shot in 2016, but in 2008 people didn't want fiscal conservatism.

[Ferguson97]

I don't see the national environment being favorable to a fiscal libertarian in 2008. Hillary probably wins with Obama's map or better.

[VPH]

I don't see the national environment being favorable to a fiscal libertarian in 2008. Hillary probably wins with Obama's map or better.

I'm tempted to agree with you because of the economic crisis, but Paul would have had far stronger anti-Iraq War cred than Hillary. Plus his anti-bailout stance would resonate with people angry about the recession. Imo Hillary wins comfortably b/c Paul was out there but the coalitions would be interesting. He probably does far better among young voters than McCain and worse among minority voters (well if the racism stuff comes out and outdoes the impact of any pro-criminal justice reform stance).

[MATTROSE94]

I don't see the national environment being favorable to a fiscal libertarian in 2008. Hillary probably wins with Obama's map or better.

I would say that the map would look similar to 2008, but that Ron Paul would end up carrying New Hampshire and Maine, but end up losing Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, Arkansas, Missouri, and Louisiana. Indiana might also go to Ron Paul as well due to the fact that libertarianism is popular there.

[deluxedriver]

I don't think any Republican wins in 2008.

[Shaula🏳️‍⚧️]

I think it would be closer than people are suggesting.
Ron Paul being the GOP candidate would be all they need to distance themselves from Bush, given that Paul arguably was a bigger Bush critic than Clinton.
Clinton supported the Iraq War, Paul was an opponent, the ads write themselves. Paul would probably take a lot of the anti-establishment energy Obama had as well, he would upend everything in a way like Trump did.