re: #135 Targetpractice

That’s the thing that sticks with me to this day, the idea that electing a president is about likability. Especially when one of the most common complaints among the “serious” class is that the election has lower turnout than American Idol and campaigns spend too much effort trying to make candidates out to be “regular people.”

There’s that, but I feel like Clinton is unique among modern Presidential candidates in the sheer number of people who think it’s a matter of concern whether or not they ‘liked’ Hillary Clinton. In a low-turnout year, with the margin down to 77,784 votes out of 13,000,000 in 3 states, EVERYTHING MATTERED, so the constant barrage of “I’ll hold my nose and vote for her, but I don’t like her” from so many people likely had some effect on both depressing turnout and on driving people to vote for Stein or McMullin or Johnson, to avoid having to vote for Clinton.

I don’t see these same people complaining about any of Clinton’s policies, or her work ethic, or her qualifications, but they all feel that we need to know they didn’t ‘like’ her.