No, Obama Probably Wouldn't Have Beaten Trump

Post by **Hwen Hoshino** » Thu Aug 31, 2017 8:08 am

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/ ... ump-214557

As a liberal, it pains me to say the following: President Barack Obama believes he would have beaten Donald Trump, but he’s probably wrong.

Many Democrats have reason to resist accepting such a horrifying hypothetical. Obama’s favorable rating trumps Trump’s. Obama has a proven track record of winning Rust Belt white working-class votes, while also sparking record rates of African-American turnout.

But to lean on those arguments risks overlooking the boiling political, economic and cultural forces that bubbled up in reaction to eight years of Obama, and splattered red all over the electoral map.