Current Events > Were you surprised that Donald Trump won the U.S. presidency?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I was. He didn't look very "presidential" in his campaign.
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Yeah.

I thought it would be close but Clinton would barely win.

Did not anticipate that Clinton would be so bad that literally millions of democrats and liberals simply wouldn't bother voting
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Not that surprised he had a huge base and basically no one liked Clinton. Turn out is everything.
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Yes. Probably shouldn't have been. All the signs were there.

Nope. I was one of the few people who kept saying he had a decent shot and had momentum. Even during the primaries.

They were laughing at me at the time, but now I'm laughing at them.
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UnfairRepresent posted...

Yeah.

I thought it would be close but Clinton would barely win.

This. I underestimated the number of conservatives out there who would put their own anger directed at liberals, above all else.
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On election day, I voted for Trump, but knew Hillary was going to win.
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Yep. When he took Florida I think I peed a little
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yes. it's when I realized I didn't really know the country I lived in
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Rather.
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No. I always felt he was going to be a good match-up against Hillary. Her identity politics was hurting her more than it was helping.

Trump would have probably lost against Sanders though. Only because they are so polarizing and the 99% was so ready to tax rich man like Trump.
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That_Happened posted...

UnfairRepresent posted...

Yeah.

I thought it would be close but Clinton would barely win.

This. I underestimated the number of conservatives out there who would put their own anger directed at liberals, above all else.

Or, you know, people are generally more well informed these days and knew well beforehand HRC is
pretty horrible, herself. Not everyone makes emotional decisions, some distance themselves from the
juvenile partisan bullshit and let the issues govern their decision. Also, to be fair, there was (and is) an
unbelievable amount of irrational hatred from both ends of the spectrum, I doubt that was why she lost.

To answer TC, not really. Expected? No. Surprised? Also no. Personally, I loathed both major options.
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Not at all

I expected the better candidate to win and that's exactly what happened
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That_Happened posted...

UnfairRepresent posted...

Yeah.

I thought it would be close but Clinton would barely win.

This. I underestimated the number of conservatives out there who would put their own anger directed at liberals, above all else.

Doesn't really work when the voter turnout for Conservatives wasn't that different meanwhile for liberals it dropped by millions.
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Yes. I had more faith in America back then.
I've since learned from my mistakes.
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midgar posted...

Or, you know, people are generally more well informed these days and knew well beforehand HRC is
pretty horrible, herself. Not everyone makes emotional decisions, some distance themselves from the
juvenile partisan bullshit and let the issues govern their decision.

Eh, impossible for Trump supporters. They have never been interested in any issues other than "make liberals upset." Hillary haters, however, make sense. Maybe those people don't like the policies HRC would have put in place. But people who legitimately think Trump was a good choice are 100% emotion and 150% juvenile.
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The shocking thing wasn't that he happened to win. The shocking thing is that enough people voted for him that it was even a contest.

More than 62 million people voted for that biffoon. Should have been less than 50,000

That_Happened posted...

But people who legitimately think Trump was a good choice are 100% emotion and 150% juvenile.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2R2btO4MEo

Still better than 200% emotion and 300% immaturity.
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I wasn't as surprised as most people. I always believed in the 538 model which gave him a roughly 1-in-3 shot over the final weekend. I thought that it was the less likely outcome, but I knew that it was still very possible.

It was surreal, watching it play out though. I didn't really feel the weight of it all until the results started coming in. The whole thing still felt shocking, in a weird sense. Like, "wow, America actually just did this." My optimism for the future had a near-instantaneous drop that night, despite all the time I had had to prepare for the very real possibility of a Trump victory.
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Yeah, almost everybody I knew thought Clinton was going to take it. Those e-mails really hurted clinton.
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I had a feeling he would win. I didn't want him to, but I had a strong feeling he would win. I knew Obama would win and Bush would win
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...kinda surprised.

I knew Hilary would be more stable. Donald Trump can change things.

Its been a fight tooth and nail for Trump. All eyes are on the white house. I hope politics is like this from now on. We the people need more transparency with how our govt and country are run.
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That_Happened posted...

midgar posted...

Or, you know, people are generally more well informed these days and knew well beforehand HRC is
pretty horrible, herself. Not everyone makes emotional decisions, some distance themselves from the
juvenile partisan bullshit and let the issues govern their decision.

Eh, impossible for Trump supporters. They have never been interested in any issues other than "make liberals upset." Hillary haters, however, make sense. Maybe those people don't like the policies HRC would have put in place. But people who legitimately think Trump was a good choice are 100% emotion and 150% juvenile.

I don't think it's that simple and it's compounded by the issue of people (like myself, if I'm being frank)
who despise HRC being lumped in with people who supported Trumps presidency. I don't think every
Trump voter necessarily preferred him either, but (again) partisan loyalties often obscure rationality. I
think this applies to both sides. I found it equally difficult to find HRC anything less than an abhorrent choice.

Even then, if you didn't like either candidate and you were a pretty right leaning person, it's only natural
to gravitate his way in hopes his policies would favor your perspective. Lower left participation hurt, too.

But yeah, the herp derp 'murca nonsense was at an all time high. I'll judge him on his policies, though, not bias.

I sincerely don't think this could have been a win for anyone, either way it played out. I refrained from
voting, personally, because my views encompass values from both "sides" and I consider myself a centrist.
She's a disingenuous, hypocritical see-unt, he's a blowhard loudmouth douche who lacks a filter.

Neither provided anything meaningful, both pose their dangers. I kind think we're fucked.
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No. I kept trying to convince my dad he is likely to win. Its the attitude that he had no chance is what git him elected.

Now Im trying to convince him he has a shit at 2020 as well if people dont wake the **** up. Yes Trump is a joke but treat him like a threat. Trumps followers are like a religoun, they believe whatever nonsensical thing the man vommits out his mouth. When the enemy has people who follows them like a religoun you best treat them like a serious threat no matter how much of a dumbass your opponent is.

Lightsasori posted...

Yeah, almost everybody I knew thought Clinton was going to take it. Those e-mails really hurted clinton.

Meh.
Benghazi was just the jizzy icing on top of an ice cream cake already composed of frozen diarrhea and lice, IMO.
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Yeah. I thought he had no shot at the GOP nomination and then that he would be slaughtered in the election. Unfortunately, the DNC, Hillary, voters, and America in general were all embarrassments to humanity.
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"flabbergasted" would be a better term
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Lightsasori posted...

Yeah, almost everybody I knew thought Clinton was going to take it. Those e-mails really hurted clinton.

Was it really? There was a lack of campaigning in the battleground states by the Clinton camp. She played up the fact that she was a woman instead of a presidential candidate, turning to identity politics constantly. And she's one of the biggest flip floppers in history. She'll say anything to get votes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fN8nt4N3hvo
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Yeah, I was surprised. I believed all the CNN and Washpo polls.
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I kept talking myself out of it with "surely the polls wouldn't just be wrong, there's no way he could pull this off," but I was saying since the primaries that Clinton was Trump's dream opponent. He could only have thrived the way he did by feasting on someone with a ton of scandals and already low approval. It was a fairly significant portion of why I wanted Bernie; he wasn't flawless but I think Trump would've had a much harder time with his character assassination style against a dude where the worst thing they could get on him was a poorly articulated statement about white privilege.

I woke up on the morning of the election with a weird feeling he was gonna win.
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I wonder if Comey hadn't made those comments a few days before the election, would Clinton have won?

A little bit, but not as much as most people. I always knew he stood a chance against a terrible candidate like Clinton. His election basically re-enforced my notion that America is a nation of morons who will vote for the more characteristic candidate who can promise the most BS nearly all the time.
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NibeIungsnarf posted...

I wonder if Comey hadn't made those comments a few days before the election, would Clinton have won?

Easily, Donald won by a razor's edge so any little change could of flipped the election.

For example, if the person who had the "grab them by the pussy" tapes released them just days before the election it could changed everything since the shock would still be in everyone's minds before they could rationalize voting for a terrible human being*.

*relative to the other candidates, most high level politicians are horrible, manipulative people.
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I voted for Trump but afterwards resigned myself to the very real possibility Clinton was going to win.

Part of me thought/hoped that Trump might have a chance. So many polls I read about predicted a huge Clinton lead while only a handful predicted a Trump victory. But I still kept my hopes low in case they were crushed.

I didn't bother watching the election results when they rolled in. I did that with the Obama/Romney election. I was very happy when Romney seemed to pick up an early lead but sunk deeper and deeper into depression as Obama's numbers climbed the rest of the night. I wasn't in the mood to experience that again. Instead an internet friend of mine in the UK watched for me! He was scared of a Trump victory and kept reporting to me that Trump's numbers were climbing (he still doesn't know I voted for Trump). I didn't put much stock into it because I knew there was a chance it could still turn around.

Next morning I woke up at about 5am. I quickly turned on my phone so I could start checking the news and see the results. The first thing I saw was a message from my friend. It consisted of two words.

"well fuck"

That's when I realized Trump had won. I couldn't believe it but I was pleasantly surprised. I saw my Mom that morning before she had a chance to check the news herself. She also voted for Trump. Like me she did not expect him to actually win. I will NEVER forget the look of shock on her face when I told her the news...