“NC was NEVER in play, just like OH and IA were NEVER in play.”
Really great point you made! Trump had never been behind in any reputable poll in all 3 states for 7-8 months. The reason the Clinton camp was so upset about NC is because they already knew 4 hours before that they had lost Florida(even though the networks refused to call it) and that the Blue Wall was crumbling. They knew the only chance they had was to win NC and New Hampshire to give her a path to 270.
The real backbreaker was Wisconsin...that took away any path she had without stealing Arizona and the 1 CD in Maine. It all turned out to be nothing because she ended up losing PA.
If you remember Chris Matthews said after NC went Trump...”Well that’s a bitch”...he knew FL, MI, IA were gone.
Isn’t it crazy ... all afternoon and night we were told that Trump needed to fill an inside straight flush to win, when in reality Clinton needed NC to even have a chance. Here is something else...not one network, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC checked the NY Times election meter all night. The only one who did was Brit Hume of Fox who said the election was over hours before any network did.
They all knew it was over but kept us up all night for the ratings!
Going into election night, anyone with a brain, and who was honest would have told you this simple truth:
Hillary’s only chance to win was to hold Florida.... it was the ONLY state she had any shot of holding, but equally true by election night, the early voting numbers showed the odds of her holding FL were less than 50%.
That was the only state that really needed to be watched on election night... If Hillary was able to squeak out with it, she might be able to hold on for a squeaker win... Even if PA fell to Trump, which it almost certainly would.... she holds MI and WI and she eeks out a win.
Had she held FL, then watching the upper mid west would have been far more exciting, especially because it was obvious, LONG LONG LONG before the networks were even paying attention she was losing PA... And that MI and WI were not looking good for her either.
FL was the only state that mattered on election night... it was the only real path Hillary had to hold... if it fell, the honest odds PA was not going Trump were minimal. In the end Trump did indeed take the entire Upper Midwest (sans MN and IL) just like I had predicted, so Florida wasn’t even needed for him to win.. but it was always an ABSOLUTE MUST win for Hillary.. and the honest odds were going into election night based on early voting breakdown, far under 50-50 she would hold it.
The election as presented by the press, was a complete and TOTAL lie, at all levels....
Hillary was ALWAYS the least likely win based on fundamentals... Piss poor economy and an unpopular sitting president.. and those are the facts jack..... Trump assured himself that he had the tactical win as well when he tossed globalist policies overboard and went against open borders and free trade... once he did that, the long overdue realighnment of the upper midwest/rust belt was almost guaranteed... may not have wound up every state like it did, but certainly would have taken enough that Hillary had no path.
Trump had this won before it even started...