Clinton loss in W.Va. would say more about battle with Trump than Sanders

[tabasco]

If Hillary Clinton loses West Virginia’s Tuesday primary, it’ll probably matter little to her presidential nominating battle with Bernie Sanders.

But it is a powerful reminder of her challenges in a general election matchup with presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.

West Virginia has a large number of working-class white voters, the demographic Trump is hoping will carry him to victory in Rust Belt states like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Ohio in November.

Clinton’s performance in West Virginia — a state she won by a wide margin in the 2008 primaries, but where polling averages show her trailing Sanders — could point to problems with a critical voting bloc that supported her husband during the more economically prosperous 1990s.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/05/10/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-west-virginia-trump-nebraska/84185016/

[thelordofhell]

1. Didn't she basically tell WV that coal is dead..........

They'd rather hear some candidate blow smoke up their ass than hear about the reality of how shitty the coal industry is to people who don't own the companies.........

[lagomorph777]

22. A candidate who is in touch with workers (Democratic party base, by the way) would have said

"We will find ways to transform the energy economy to benefit America as a whole and workers in particular. We will build and maintain solar and wind farms on the flattened mountains of WV, and we will do so with LOCAL labor."

How hard would that have been?

[JaneyVee]

2. Obama won without independents or white males as a voting bloc.

[NWCorona]

4. Obama didn't/doesn’t have the baggage that Clinton has. nt

[JaneyVee]

6. LOL we'll be ok.

[NWCorona]

11. How? Hillary can't even handle an unheard of from Vermont. nt

[JaneyVee]

12. This race was over in March.

[Demsrule86]

18. She handled him just fine

He lost but can not except his defeat...really sad.

[Cali_Democrat]

8. Your concern is noted

But I think we'll be just fine.

We'll take it from here.

[NWCorona]

15. I'll gladly leave Clinton’s campaign in your hands. nt

Believe it or not. If it is Hillary in the GE, I would definitely prefer her to trump. I'm just not sure Hillary would make it.

[Demsrule86]

21. Seriously?

That is just funny...the GOP played Rev Wright night and day...it just did not matter...and Clinton rightie smears are old news.

[NWCorona]

24. You are wrong.

They had nothing on Obama but BS stories. Rev Wright was nothing and same goes for the birther movement. That only played to the RW, bagger demo that wouldn't vote for a black man to begin with.

You shouldn't be worried about the old smears. It's the new ones that are based on hard info.

[Demsrule86]

30. That is not true

They had all sorts of crap about Obama...luckily none of it stuck. Obama was a much more attractive candidate than Bernie...because he is a Democrat, and say what you will ...I do not believe Americans will put an independent socialist in office. They don't understand what a Democratic socialist is.

[tabasco]

9. What about liberal Democrats?

Do they still count?

[HooptieWagon]

28. Obama split indies nearly 50/50

And he had large support from young voters. Clinton loses indies badly, and young voters either stay home or vote third party. But don't let the facts get in the way of a good Kool-aid fueled fiction-fest.

[LonePirate]

3. Today's race tells us NOTHING about November.

Almost no one thinks WV will return to blue in November. It is a small, mostly white and rural state that is dissimilar to every state it borders.

[Juicy_Bellows]

5. But then we must be honest about HRC early red state wins, no?

[JaneyVee]

7. We are in a primary, not GE.

[Juicy_Bellows]

10. True but that changes soon, and does not negate the question.

[JaneyVee]

14. Well you'll be happy to know that...

Hillary is leading Trump in some red states like Georgia, where independents break for Hillary +8 vs Trump.

[Juicy_Bellows]

17. As I said in an earlier thread - If HRC is the nom and GA goes blue

bookmark this, remind me, and I'll happily donate $100 to the charity of your choosing. No bullshit.

[LonePirate]

19. If she loses WV today, it will be for the same reason she loses WV (and ID, for example) in November

She will win other states for reasons that are completely different than any reason she loses WV. This state means nothing to the GE. It simply reduces the total number of pledged delegates available by about 30 within the Dem primary race - less than 1% of all PDs.

[Juicy_Bellows]

23. I agree WV is largely inconsequential but you must concede her early red state

wins as well in the general. Otherwise, I am not sure you are being genuine.

[LonePirate]

25. I agree those don't matter apart from maybe GA. They are just as irrelevant as WV in the GE.

However, those much larger states do matter in the primary as they each had at least twice as many delegates.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

13. Obama's loss in W.Va. said more about his battle with McCain than Clinton

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Virginia_Democratic_primary,2008


Oh, wait

[Demsrule86]

16. We never win WVA

We had it in the 90's but have lost it since 2000...Obama won without it and so will Hil. Despite the Bern's new found love of coal, coal is dead. We need new jobs there. I am proud that Hil told the Truth. Would you say Bernie told the truth?

[brooklynite]

20. WV hasn't been part of the Democratic formula since 1996.

[tabasco]

27. Yeah, that's the wizz-bang formula that has lost 69 House seats,

13 Senate seats, more than 900 state legislative seats, 30 state legislative chambers and 12 governorships, just since 2008.

Maybe we should try a different formula where all states can be part of the program.

[Tarc]

31. Going more left-wing, i.e. Sanders direction, wouldn't win those seats either

[Jitter65]

26. Hillary was the first to come out with a plan to revitalize coal communities. She made a bad gaffe

when explaining her plan and never recovered from it. Trump is lying through his teeth about bringing coal jobs back to Appalachia..ain't gonna happen. The relentless barrage of attacks coming from Sanders and the GOP have made it impossible to set the record straight. Bernie may beat Hillary in W.VA but she has the support and endorsement of the top legislatures and government officials in W.VA because they know the truth and the reality of their plight. Trump will soundly defeat Bernie if he is the choice because Trump has not even started to attack him. There was a lot of ground work done in W.VA on Hillary's behalf so I don't imagine that the loss will be too bad but these folks don't even know or seem to care that Bernie is more against coal than Hillary. Racism, sexism, bigotry, win the day once again.

[LenaBaby61]

29. Doesn't say much IMHO...

Because Bernie Sanders, if the Dem nominee more than likely couldn't win West Virginia either.

West Virginia has solidly been a red state the last few election cycles.