Bill Clinton in retrospect

[karynnj]

37. Any close election can be said to have been caused by a large number of things that impacted it

I do think that Clinton's actions that came out in detail in 1998, have likely hurt the Democrats - at least in 2000 and 2016. In 2000, you saw it in one of GWB's themes - bringing "honor and decency" back to the White House - even though Gore was pretty clean and Bush had been the drunk son of GHWB until he was 40. That was a closer election than 2016 - in fact, had there been a complete recount in Florida, Gore would have won.

Ignoring Nader and cheating in Florida, had Bill Clinton behaved himself in the White House, Bush could not have run on Clinton fatigue which that theme represented. Bill Clinton would have been a bigger part and a stronger part of Gore's reelection campaign. That could have shifted the small number of votes needed in NH -- and Gore would have won without NH. (Yes, I have heard people blame Gore for not sending Clinton more places, but that is hindsight and we can not know if it would have been a net positive.)

In 2016, i agree that Comey, and other things were big factors, but I do think that Trump manipulated things to make Clinton's "women" a part of the discussion just to allow some Republicans - otherwise leaning to him - to have the excuse.