OTL Lincoln was incredibly hated, and I've seen some arguments that a lot of the -R vote in the 1864 election - especially among soldiers - was driven not by a comparison of Lincoln v McClellan but by the general understanding that a President McClellan could be assassinated and put his deeply unpopular DNC-mandated VP in the White House!
Lincoln got a little over 55% of the popular vote in 1864. In the whole 19th Century, only 2 US Presidents did better - Jackson in his first term and Grant in his second term, and Lincoln was less than a percentage point behind either.
Your seeing "some arguments" is meaningless. What are your sources that Lincoln was "incredibly hated" by the general public as opposed to just his political enemies? What are your sources that anyone, let alone the soldier vote in general, was worried that McClellan would be assassinated to put his VP in the White House.
(Even with McClellan's campaign a self-contradiction, as he repudiated the central 'Peace' plank of his own party's platform, the election was really quite close.)
No, the election of 1864 was not close. In 1864, Lincoln got a higher percent of the popular vote than Quincy Adams, Van Buren, both Harrisons, Polk, Taylor, Pierce, Hayes, Garfield, Cleveland, and McKinley; while Jackson and Grant barely edged Lincoln out.
I know, but the "landslide" argument electorally is not based on strong margins in those states but on rather slim ones.
Election results do not back your opinion. Lincoln had less than a 5% margin in only 3 states. Even if he had lost all three of them, Lincoln still would have won the election.
No, I'm not sure you understand what I mean. I mean he was viewed at the time as having done it improperly - that is, by packing the convention with supporters who were not representative of the state parties. (At the time the state parties chose who their delegates would support - his use of spoils was seen as an undemocratic end run around this process, which played into the meme he was a bit of a tyrant.)
Feel free to provide any credible source that says Lincoln's election was generally "viewed
at the time as having done it improperly" or that Lincoln packed in 1864 Republican Convention "with supporters who were not representative of the state parties".