Almost President

Here is a startling fact: Hillary won the popular vote in the 2008 Democratic Primary vs. Barack Obama.  She had 17,857,501 votes to Obama's 17,584,692 votes, a margin of over a quarter of a million votes.  She had 48% of the popular vote to Obama's 47.3%.  Not only that, she won in 7 of the 10 largest states: California, Texas, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan.  Obama only won Illinois (his home state), Georgia, and North Carolina.  In an electoral college contest, she wins 311 to 227 but Obama won the nomination with 2,272 delegates to Hillary's 1,978.  Of note, Hillary was in Bernie's position on Superdelegates, accumulating only 34% of them to Obama's 66%.  If that had reversed, she would have won the nomination.  So close.

 

It is an interesting coincidence that in the recent election, she again had 48% of the popular vote but she only won 3 of the 10 largest states: California, New York, and Illinois.  Those three states accounted for 45% of her electoral votes (104) and 25% of her popular votes.  By contrast, Trump's three big states - Texas, Florida, and Pennsylvania - only accounted for 28% of his electoral votes (87) and 19% of his popular vote total.  Hillary won those 3 states by a margin of 6.9 million votes.  Trump won his three largest states by a margin of 964,382.

 

Hillary Clinton is likely to be the William Jennings Bryan of our time with a dash of Victoria Woodhull.  Bryan ran for president on 3 separate occasions (1896, 1900, and 1908), losing each time.  He was Secretary of State for Woodrow Wilson and served in Congress.  Victoria Woodhull was the first woman to run for president.  She ran as the candidate of the Equal Rights Party with Frederick Douglass named as her VP candidate (a nomination he did not acknowledge).  She may even be compared to Al Smith, the Democratic nominee of 1928.  He was the first Catholic to receive the nomination but it wasn't until JFK that a Catholic was elected.  As first woman to be nominated, she will be referenced each time a woman is nominated and when one eventually wins the presidency.

 

While Bill's reputation will sink as the years progress (Only he and Andrew Johnson were impeached; can you name something else for which Johnson is remembered?), Hillary's reputation will rise.  The details of her campaign will fade and the fact that she was the first woman nominee for a major party will be what is most remembered.  Only the dedicated historians who focus on our era will have the mixed opinions of today.  For instance, Truman was very unpopular in his day but has risen in esteem as the years have passed.  By contrast, Grant was very popular but has dropped nearly to the bottom of presidential rankings since he left office in 1877.  History will be kinder to Hillary than the present has been.