Trump

[Jamar Howard 4 President]

I think you're probably right. And even the moderate democrats that wouldn't have been willing to give Rubio a shot would be less motivated to go out and vote for the democratic nominee than they will be this November, due to Trump.

Good point. There will be some Dems who dislike Hillary but show up purely because they fear Trump. Rubio would have been much less scary to them, and therefore many more of the apathetic Dem voters would have let apathy keep them home.

There is something to be said for having a candidate that doesn't scare the other side into turning out on election day.

[shocker3]

Rubio as the nominee would have equaled Rubio in the White House.

His far right detractors due to the "Gang of 8" would have easily gotten on board once they remembered Hillary was the alternative.

Center-right folks would have supported him almost unanimously. Instead, many of these folks are #NeverTrump now.

A portion of moderate Dems unhappy with Hillary would have been willing to give Rubio a shot.

I'm convinced Rubio would have won easily and the House and Senate would have held red as well.

Grrrrrr

At the beginning of this race, Rubio was the Republican that Democratic insiders feared the most. For the reasons you stated as well as the fact that he would have done much better with Latino voters than Romney did and many assumed Florida would be a lock for him in the general election.

[RoyalShock]

I want to agree with the sentiment on Rubio (and I would have gladly voted for him in November), but there is something wrong when a candidate can't win his own state in a primary.

[Jamar Howard 4 President]

I want to agree with the sentiment on Rubio (and I would have gladly voted for him in November), but there is something wrong when a candidate can't win his own state in a primary.

That's a fair criticism in general, but I think there might be a separate factor in play that skewed that vote. 1 Month before Florida, Cruz and Rubio were fairly even, with Cruz probably the slight favorite. 2-3 weeks before Florida, Rubio began really losing ground to Cruz. Cruz benefited from having Texas 2 weeks before Florida. That win gave him a big jump on Rubio in delegates, and I think the fairly even balance of support between Cruz/Rubio for the role of challenger to Trump started swinging to Cruz. I think a lot of people that slightly leaned toward Rubio decided to jump on with Cruz because they thought he had a better chance at that point. 1 Week before Florida, Cruz grabbed 25% in Michigan to Rubio's 9%. By the time Florida hit, the damage had been done, and I think the decisions of non-Floridians greatly impacted the climate in Florida on election day.

I also think that every week that went by, a few more % went to Trump as people slowly jumped on as bandwagon fans. That happens every time a clear favorite emerges. Trump was the favorite at the time Texas voted, but he was the almost unstoppable favorite by the time Florida rolled around. I can't think of a much worse set up for Florida from Rubio's perspective. I wish it would have been 2-3 weeks earlier. That would have made it interesting. Maybe Rubio would have still lost, we will never know. Just interesting to speculate.

Speaking of speculation, let me make one more. I bet if a head-to-head poll were taken today, Rubio would beat Trump in Florida. Can't prove it. Just a gut feeling.

[ShockdaWorld]

Speaking of speculation, let me make one more. I bet if a head-to-head poll were taken today, Rubio would beat Trump in Florida. Can't prove it. Just a gut feeling.

You know we are going to need empirical data including longitudinal and latitudinal points of polling stations as well as the Atlantic ocean charts to represent the times of which you are speculating as well as the time of actual occurrence.

[DwShock]

#NeverHillary

[shock]

#NeverHillary

This. A vote for anyone other than Trump helps Hillary. Voting libertarian might make you feel all warm and fuzzy, but it ultimately helps her by splitting the conservative vote. Hold your nose if you must, but select trump.

[Jamar Howard 4 President]

This. A vote for anyone other than Trump helps Hillary. Voting libertarian might make you feel all warm and fuzzy, but it ultimately helps her by splitting the conservative vote. Hold your nose if you must, but select trump.

If Trump represents the "conservative" side, I'm not a conservative.

#Vote4Neither

[ShockdaWorld]

As far as I can tell, the Dems don't give a damn how corrupt Hillary is. She is still going to get their votes. The people that are talking about voting Libertarian or Independent or Write in are people who are historically Republicans that dislike Trump (I fall into that category), which will do very little more than lower Trump's numbers while leaving Hillary's numbers the same. I hate to say it, as I believe that both candidates are trash, but in this case I'm afraid #Vote4Neither is nearly the equivalent to #Vote4Hillary when it comes to numbers.

[Jamar Howard 4 President]

This election is lost. Even if I could be convinced to vote for Trump, it wouldn't matter. Hillary is killing Trump in the current polls and November will be a landslide.

Voting "neither" is a vote for sanity next time. We must establish that this is not acceptable. Long term, Trump must be shown to be a fluke, and one that failed miserably. He must not become the new norm.

[Kel Varnsen]

We're screwed either way, and voting for Trump just because you don't like Clinton will do nothing to stop a decline.

[ShockdaWorld]

I agree that if there is no chance Trump wins when the time comes for the actual vote, then voting outside the box (Rep + Dem) comes back into my thought process. I'm still trying to hold out the smallest bit of hope that there will actually be a chance to not have Hillary in power. And in that case, I disagree about voting for Trump being a bad thing. Do I think he's worthy of a vote? HELL NO!!! But as has been stated before, if there is any chance he can keep her out, I'll be holding my nose and checking his name.

Hell, I'm still hopeful that the legal process will do what it's built to do and put her ass in jail, but I don't see that happening either.

[Kung Wu]

Trump should select Condoleezza Rice as Veep candidate.

[shock]

Trump should select Condoleezza Rice as Veep candidate.

if he were smart he would choose newt.

[Kung Wu]

if he were smart he would choose newt.

What if he were to outflank Hillary with a female Veep. Then who would you want to see?