Should Clinton team go for landslide or just settle for a win?

[Lemon Drop]

$tevie wrote:
[quote=Filliam H. Muffman]
Winning by a landslide means very little unless it flips the Senate and House, and stays that way through the next redistricting.

My thinking is that a landslide would mean many people went out to vote for Clinton, and I'm going to assume they continued on down the ballot while they were there.
This is the other of the two reasons I believe her team should go for the kill. I do think that regardless of what happens in the other races, it's crucial to send a message to the GOP about the unsuitability of Donald Trump to be president. If it's a close race, the message could be "look we nominated somebody that terrible and they still nearly won. It's still fine to be racist and misogynistic."

Also - a focus on additional states makes it more likely that Dems can retake the Senate this year and maybe the House in 2018.

Overall I think the strategy should be to secure the Senate on Hillary's coattails. That probably requires a landslide with some wins in unlikely places.

[Lemon Drop]

beagledave wrote:
Nate's crew debated this (I'm guessing you probably read it, but link for others).

I fall in the "maybe make a play for Arizona..and less of a play for Texas" camp.

I didn't see that, I haven't been too tuned in to 538 this year. I don't agree with Nate on this one. It is not a normal presidential election. There is much more at stake this year than simply winning the electoral college.

[davester]

Go for the kill. There are two reasons for this:

1. Show the Republicans that when they sell their souls to the devil by pandering to the racists, misogynists, bigots, etc they will be crushed. That element needs to be removed from influence in the US.

2. To firmly take hold of the senate, and push the slim chance (very wishful thinking) of taking over the highly gerrymandered house.

[Filliam H. Muffman]

This is a reasonable point for running up the score.

FiveThirtyEight wrote:
The more she can run up the score, the more Democrats she brings along and the more of a mandate she can claim, the more likely she’ll be able to enact her agenda. That’s all extra important this year — though it probably shouldn’t be — as a guard against the inevitable arguments we will hear that she “only won because she was running against Trump.”

[steve...]

I think a landslide would discredit Trump's rigged ideas and calm his wacko followers.

[cbelt3]

The assumption that a vote for Hillary equals a vote for every Democratic candidate further down is a bad one. Many folk like me who nominally identify as Republican will vote for Hillary (or not vote for President at all), but will vote for qualified Republicans for Senate, House, and local offices.

However... I'm leaning towards hoping for a Senate in the hands of the Democratic Party as well as Madame President Clinton. I just don't want to see a Democratic party controlled House. IMHO, whenever the same party controls both Congress and Executive branch, bad stuff happens. (*cough* *Bush*)

[mrbigstuff]

Discussion just now on Here and Now about this topic, perhaps others here heard that.

The take is that HRC could divert resources and funds to Congressional candidates in order to make governing a bit more amenable to her ideas. The flip is that, of course, she diverts $$ from her own race, thereby finishing slightly lower.

I think she should go for the down-ballot races, the amount of her win is not going to change that much, but flipping some Rs to Ds will have a huge change in structural terms for the next 4.

[vision63]

Please. You crush him and then rub his face in it. Then slap him and slap him and yell at him:

[beagledave]

steve... wrote:
I think a landslide would discredit Trump's rigged ideas and calm his wacko followers.

I disagree. His core followers are not going to be soothed by anything.

I'd be surprised actually if Trump makes the concession phone call to HRC himself. No way will he be a gracious loser in his concession speech (if he even bothers to make one)

[$tevie]

OR does Trump go right back to donating money to Clinton and inviting her to weddings? He seems to have various forms of memory loss.