WI: Hillary Clinton in 2008

Yes Powell did not want to be involved in electoral politics. Although Eisenhower did well, the military is not good training for politics. I don't think you could get a majority of the delegates of a Republican convention to vote for a pro choice candidate. sSure Powell beat Clinton in a poll, but that was a poll of all voters not the Republican base.
 
Powell did not want to be elected to the presidency. He would not run for the vice presidency.

Ah, but with this POD, he gets motivation, ie the dems have "stolen" the nomination from Obama.

His wife and or family and friends who may have been resistant to him running as a Republican, now may be supporting the idea.

And, it's a late entry. He avoids a lot of the brutality of the primaries by coming in after that's over.

And who knows what kind of selling job, the GOP establishment might be able to come up with if they smell blood in the water, ie a chance to weaken the dem hold on the African American vote?

It doesn't have to actually happen, just be a potential to get the Country Club Republicans to wind up the Party big wigs.
 
Yes Powell did not want to be involved in electoral politics. Although Eisenhower did well, the military is not good training for politics. I don't think you could get a majority of the delegates of a Republican convention to vote for a pro choice candidate. sSure Powell beat Clinton in a poll, but that was a poll of all voters not the Republican base.

Powell was very popular in the GOP, during the time period in question.

His pro-choice stance notwithstanding.

People keep bring it up. But it was well known when all those polls were taken, and all those write ins were done.

The Religious Right is a strong block in the GOP, but they don't always get their way.
 
Ah, but with this POD, he gets motivation, ie the dems have "stolen" the nomination from Obama.

His wife and or family and friends who may have been resistant to him running as a Republican, now may be supporting the idea.

And, it's a late entry. He avoids a lot of the brutality of the primaries by coming in after that's over.

And who knows what kind of selling job, the GOP establishment might be able to come up with if they smell blood in the water, ie a chance to weaken the dem hold on the African American vote?

It doesn't have to actually happen, just be a potential to get the Country Club Republicans to wind up the Party big wigs.

No. It was not his wife that made Powell not run; at least it wasn't the prime reason. Powell himself said in an interview some years ago, when asked why he didn't run and if it were true that it was his wife that made him not run for the presidency that no, he himself did not want to run for president. Colin Powell does not want to be president, Colin Powell was not going to run for president, nor the vice presidency.
 
No. It was not his wife that made Powell not run; at least it wasn't the prime reason. Powell himself said in an interview some years ago, when asked why he didn't run and if it were true that it was his wife that made him not run for the presidency that no, he himself did not want to run for president. Colin Powell does not want to be president, Colin Powell was not going to run for president, nor the vice presidency.


So, a man doesn't want to blame his wife for something in public. And you believe him?

Never married I take it?:D

Still, the impact of the POD is not limited to his wife, as I said.


Powell endorsed Obama. He will be personally annoyed with the dems for this.

The feedback from those closest to him will change.

And we don't know what selling job McCain and his big wig backers might be able to come up with, if they smell blood. Which they very likely will.
 

scholar

Banned
There seems to be something that is being overlooked. Barack Obama didn't win over traditionally conservative and non-liberals because of his message, or at least not to the degree that was mentioned.

Barack Obama had several things going for him that guaranteed his victory and the defeat of the Republicans:
-The Financial Ruin of 08-09. Ironically Bush would do many of the measures that Obama would copy and proliferate, and there is an exceptional exaggeration of power that the office of the presidency has over the global economic community especially in a free market scenario. Still Bush and the right was thoroughly condemned, and not undeserving so for different reasons.
-Mounting unrest in regards to the war, McCain made several comments that set him decidedly against the will of the nation at that time. While Afghanistan was still something of a gray area, Iraq had become a black stain on America's record. A war that already succeeded years prior and was now merely a money sink and death pit. McCain touted something along the lines of he'd keep the troops there until the end of the century in order to truly succeed.
-A series of unfortunate and unintentionally hilarious tragic occurrences inside the McCain campaign, not the least of which was virtually everything to do with Palin. Palin is not, surprising to some people, as stupid as she sounds. He folksy accent, however, was too reminiscent of George Bush's own cowboy style of speaking. Her lifestyle which she was proud of led to an odd sense of fascination rather than identifying with her. Her obvious use of hyperbole ultimately became confused with her own rather poor understanding of the global arena. McCain himself was not without his shortcomings and suffered no small amount of ageism.

These three things guaranteed something that should be a landslide victory for any opposing party. Anyone who had begun to turn against the war in Iraq, who was struggling during the Financial crisis, or found McCain lacking and frail would have been ready to vote for another party. Palin probably made the decision easy for quite a few people. Barack Obama had stronger support amongst young people, but Hilary Clinton had a stronger broad appeal and would be able to circumvent some of the things that most likely made the 2008 election much closer than it should have been.
 
Barack Obama had stronger support amongst young people, but Hilary Clinton had a stronger broad appeal and would be able to circumvent some of the things that most likely made the 2008 election much closer than it should have been.

This smacks to me of applying post-Secretary of State tenure thinking onto the Hillary of 2008. She wasn't the kind of figure she is now, then. She was deeply divisive back then. Polls about her electability suggested that large amounts of the electorate, beyond the GOP hardcore response, said they would never consider voting for her. When you add in Obama's ability to energise and turnout African-Americans and the youth vote - not to mention the level of campaign 'skill' she showed in the primaries - the notion that Hillary would have won bigger is very shaky.
 
This smacks to me of applying post-Secretary of State tenure thinking onto the Hillary of 2008. She wasn't the kind of figure she is now, then. She was deeply divisive back then. Polls about her electability suggested that large amounts of the electorate, beyond the GOP hardcore response, said they would never consider voting for her. When you add in Obama's ability to energise and turnout African-Americans and the youth vote - not to mention the level of campaign 'skill' she showed in the primaries - the notion that Hillary would have won bigger is very shaky.

AND Hillary is not really in a position to use the war against McCain, since she such a strong supporter of the War.
 
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