Quote:   Until about 3 weeks ago,  I thought Hillary Clinton would easily defeat Donald Trump in the general election.   Now,  I'm not as sure.   Regardless of what's pointed out regarding Trump's past,  most of his supporters are willing to overlook it in large part because they have lost confidence in both political parties and politicians in general.   With all of the baggage that Hillary Clinton has,  I can now envision Trump getting enough support to beat her if he runs an aggressive campaign against her. 

 

   Having expressed all of this,  though Trump probably would be the lesser of the evils from my point of view,   I'm more likely than not going to write in Ted Cruz in November if Trump is the Republican Nominee.    Under no circumstance would I ever vote for Hillary Clinton  ( or Bernie Sanders ). 

I still think Clinton would win. Trump essentially has all the supporters he's going to get. He has very little appeal to moderates. That's not to say that Clinton is particularly attractive to us middle-of-the-road folks, but Trump is going to face a real battle that Clinton won't: Disillusioned Republicans staying home, voting for Clinton because they find her slightly less offensive, possibly even uniting behind a third-party candidate if the GOP chooses to quietly help Rubio field an independent bid.

 

It's easy to find a Republican that dislikes Trump strongly enough that they'd sooner stay home or vote third party than help him get into office. It's not hard to find Rubio, Bush, Christie or Kasich supporters that would probably vote for Clinton over Trump. It's difficult to find Democrats, even the hardcore Sanders crowd, that dislike Clinton enough to show up and vote for Trump.

 

When all is said and done, and this could prove to be a huge help to Trump if he does win, I suspect this will be one of the lowest voter turnouts in American history. Both parties are running a candidate that appeals primarily to the extremes, even though Clinton really is one of the more centrist candidates in the entire race.

 

Quote:I hear you.  I'm watching carefully to see how the next two weeks play out contemplating who I'm going to vote for in the primary coming up.  I'm seriously beginning to lean towards Ted Cruz.  Although Rubio didn't win a whole lot on Super Tuesday, he did make a couple of the races close.

 

Regarding your last statement.  That is precisely why I think that if Trump is the Republican nominee, Clinton will be the next President.  Many conservatives that do not like Trump will either write in a different candidate such as what you propose, or they won't even bother showing up.  I too would never ever vote for either Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders and I don't know if I could honestly vote for Donald Trump.

Rubio's campaign is dead and gone, but he'll stay in it because the GOP will encourage him to in hopes that they can arrange a brokered convention.

 

I hadn't read the rest of your post before writing the above, but it seems like we're actually seeing things the same way, more or less. I honestly don't know what I'd do in a Clinton/Trump scenario. Clinton's a snake, but Trump is (imo) legitimately dangerous. Do I dislike Trump enough to very, very unhappily cast a vote for Hillary, or do I dislike both of them so much that I write in Rand Paul and roll with the punches that our next one-term President brings to the table?

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