Why Hillary Will Likely Win the White House

National Review ^ | 10/21/2015 | Ramesh Ponnuru

[spetznaz]

This is why Trump, whether one likes him or not, is honestly the only real choice for Republicans. Why? Because he's simply too 'different' for the Democrats to sufficiently game. He's an unknown entity. All the other candidates would have a difficult time against Hillary. Yes, I know of polls showing Carson et Al beating Hillary, but the truth is that the only way the GOP has a chance of winning (and it will be a chance) is if Trump is the nominee. Hillary already has many of the young locked in, she already has the black vote, the Asian vote and the Hispanic vote, she already had the single female vote and in terms of the Electoral College she has between 200-250 votes already in the bag. Then there's the whole gender card.

She's not unbeatable, but it would not be an easy slog. Additionally, issues like Benghazi and the email issues have saturated the airwaves to the point that anyone who was going to vote for her has already priced them in and doesn't care about them, and those that do care were not going to vote for her anyway. Her only remaining issue is Bernie, and that will be resolved sooner or later. Biden was obviously resolved.

Trump is the only candidate who can stand to Hillary and have a chance. Carson, Rubio, Cruz, Jeb, Fiorina ...none of them can. I'm not talking about hitting her hard in debates ...I am talking about winning the General. Doing well in debates without an eventual win is simply entertainment.

Trump is different enough from the norm that he has a real chance, even though in my opinion (and with all her flaws) the election is still Hillary's to lose.

I'll say something I said in 2008 when some were claiming Obama could not possibly win, and I was saying they were deluding themselves via a closed circuit loop feedback and that they needed to take Obama seriously. People thinking that Hillary cannot win because of X,Y,Z are deluding themselves. She is a very formidable candidate, and she needs to be taken seriously