In 2016, I was so confident that Hillary was going to win, that I

[MineralMan]

wrote a long post the day before the election, telling everyone not to worry. Of course, I regretted that late on election night. I was just flat wrong. I was letting my emotions get the better of my good sense.

You won't see me doing that again in 2024. I hope Kamala wins. I think she probably will. But, I'm not going to make a statement like I made in 2016 ever again.

I'll be sweating bullets along with the rest of you all tomorrow night, into the next day, and maybe a day or two after that.

That sucks. But Donald Trump is the King of Suckery.

Just be sure to vote. And, if you can, bring others to the polling place with you to vote as well. It can't hurt.

Good luck to Kamala and Tim and Good Luck to us all!

[TwilightZone]

1. I had a really bad feeling the last few days of the 2016 campaign.

I wouldn't have predicted Trump winning if I'd been asked to commit, but the trends were beginning to show and my campaign-long confidence went out the window. I told a couple of close friends that it was very possible the worst was about to happen.

I don't feel like that at all this cycle. I'm not going to make any grandiose proclamations, but the trends are positive, I trust the reasonably objective people who say it's close but looking good, and I'll get excited when the final bell is rung and Harris is declared the winner.

[LeftInTX]

24. I had a bad feeling in 2020

I feel optimistic, but the math with the EC is real tough! Remember red states picked up more votes from 2020 due to the census. We can't rely on FL.

I don't think we will pull it off in AZ and GA. I hope we do. I think AZ has a better chances than GA.

[nolabear]

2. I know, baby. I know.

Reverting to my Southern roots. Everybody’s “baby.” Especially when giving comfort and sharing fear.

We’ll get through this one way or the other. I’m planning a celebration but I’m also considering having a bunch of FUCK TRUMP AND EVERYBODY WHO VOTED FOR HIM shirts made up and wearing them every day for a long time.

But I’m still kind of optimistic.

[JohnSJ]

3. I wasn't. When Comey came out 11 days before the 2016 election, followed

by the 24/7 media falsely saying that the e-mail investigation was reopened, and parading ever right wing pundit across there outlets, I said it’s over. I was call banking at the time for Hillary, and they had a TV playing in the hall, and I knew it was over then, though I still continued my call banking.

[Elessar Zappa]

4. No worries.

I think most of us were confident (wrongly) that Hillary would defeat the Menace. But I am cautiously optimistic going into tomorrow. But I’m prepared for the worst this time.

[CrispyQ]

5. My confidence in HRC winning was always low, & practically nonexistent after Comey blindsided her.

I was on pins & needles with Biden. I'm not gonna say anything definitive but the enthusiasm this year is similar to 2008, more IMO. Repubs for Harris. Farmers turning against Trump. Pissed off women on both sides of the aisle. It's lining up to be a perfect storm for flushing the turd a second time.

~crosses fingers but with a lot of this

[LeftInTX]

25. It's the Electoral College

Places like TX aren't gonna flip.

[CrispyQ]

37. Who's counting on TX?

The blue wall is totally doable this year!

[Permanut]

6. I had that confidence as well..

The beginning of a long ordeal; we hope to end it tomorrow.

[FrankBooth]

7. The 2016 hangover and high stakes of this election make your position understandable.

But this isn't 2016. And Trump still needed EVERYTHING to go right in what was in hindsight a fluke 2016 election. He got lucky but his electoral luck ran out starting in the 2018 midterms. But I get your hesitancy, so will just say this - I think you're going to enjoy tomorrow.

[SweetieD]

8. Don't Feel bad I thought the Same

2016 I was was shell shocked as the returns came in. I just knew it couldn't be. Even after the result, I still thought there was no way the Republican party would actually let Trump take that seat of power. That someone would come in and say he had to step down because he was unfit. Of course that never happened.

That is why I am not trying to put too much emotion into this right now. I believe Harris will win. But I am prepared for anything TBH.

[kskiska]

9. I believe she did win.

She shouldn't have conceded so quickly. He wouldn't have.

[NNadir]

10. I woke up the next morning after the election and my wife...

...broke it to me. I couldn't believe it.

For the next week my insomnia kicked into overdrive for a long time.

That this tragic thing happened has left fear in our hearts. I'm optimistic, but extremely nervous. I couldn't believe then that so many citizens of our country could be so awful as to be so bamboozled in 2016, which means I did not understand our country well.

Of course now many of us and I'm sure many of his former supporters know who and what he is.

[lame54]

11. We bought lots of party food...

For the inevitable win

We didn't eat all day

[Aristus]

12. If 2000 failed to teach me not to take anything for granted, 2016 succeeded.

I’m not going to relax or celebrate until every major media outlet has called it for Kamala Harris.

I want the festering, stinking, corrosive Trump era to be over. I want him gone. And I want joy and positivity back in our national discourse.

May we have victory…

[Marthe48]

13. Madame Clinton got more popular votes

She had a win from we the people, but the electoral college snatched her victory from her and handed it to a criminal traitor. I stopped watching the news in Oct. thus year. I do not want to put myself through the hope I felt and the disaster we lived. I am doing all I can to help VP Harris and every Dem down ballot to win, but not going to hope until the results are final.


GOTV!

[MineralMan]

14. Yes. The Electoral College system has flaws.

Worse, some bogus third party candidate got enough votes in three states to give Trump the win. She got the "I just don't like Hillary" vote, and that was all it took.

[missaj]

15. I understand.

I am cautiously optimistic about this election, but I still remember the great sadness I felt when DT won in 2016.

I think I will just vote on Tuesday and not follow the results. Too much anxiety!

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

16. I don't see the division among the left leaning that I did in 2016

Last edited Tue Nov 5, 2024, 06:45 AM - Edit history (1)

We don't have anything like the "Bernie or Bust" crowd like we did in 2016. A lot were still angry at Hillary for her vote on the Iraq War resolution.

I'm cautiously optimistic.

Since Roe v Wade was overturned Democrats have exceeded expectations that the polls predicted.

More women than men are voting early in Georgia and Pennsylvania. There are more women overall than men.

[Ocelot II]

17. Me, too. I voted that morning, left the community center feeling good

and thinking to myself, "Thank God that's over!" and assuming the election was in the bag for Hillary. Well, you know the old saw about the word ASSUME - it makes an ASS of U and ME. That evening I was at a choir rehearsal which would be over at 9:30 and had made plans to meet some friends to watch the final victory. But as I surreptitiously checked my phone it became apparent that it had all gone sideways. Obviously there was no get-together that evening, and all I could feel was shock. Like an awful lot of people - probably including the Clinton campaign - I'd dismissed Trump as an obnoxious, unqualified buffoon who couldn't possibly win. He was and is an obnoxious, unqualified buffoon, but he won anyhow, and maybe that was in part because he wasn't taken seriously. We couldn't imagine that someone like him could somehow persuade so many people - not a majority but enough to capture the Electoral College - to vote for him. Looking back, I think there was a lot of complacency. Here in Minnesota, Clinton's campaign was almost invisible. I couldn't even get a lawn sign because there weren't any and nobody knew where to get one - and that wasn't because they were sold out. Hardly anybody had them. Minnesota wasn't and still isn't a swing state so we're left out of the live campaign rally circuit, but it was like they assumed that since we've been a blue state since 1976 they wouldn't have to do anything. She did win here, but only by a disturbingly small margin.

So, this time I'm kind of snakebit because I vividly remember the shock and horror of the 2016 election. I know that this time things are very different. My neighborhood in the People's Republic of Minneapolis has more lawn signs even than in 2020, and there were quite a few then - not that lawn signs are an indicator of anything but enthusiasm. Still, enthusiasm is important, and there's far more now than in 2016. I've given up on polls, though they seem to be swinging our way. The pundits say it will be close, and it probably will be. Trump will do his best to throw sand in the gears and his minions might try something extreme. I hope it won't be like in 2020 when the election wasn't finally called for Biden until Saturday - I don't want to endure another four days on tenterhooks like that. But that's a definite possibility. I don't know what will happen. I'm cautiously optimistic but I'm not popping that champagne cork yet.

So - Take a deep breath. Keep calm and vote if you haven't already.

[Abstractartist]

18. I was a huge supporter

I was and still is a huge Hillary supporter. I will always be a supporter, but I had a problem with her campaign. She skipped several swing states, toward the end of her campaign. She did not hit Wisconsin, Michigan and PA very much and to that, in my opinion, she lost 306-232……This campaign is a lot different. More stops in battleground states, more outreach. More outreach…..bigger rally support.

We got this…. Go vote.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

19. I was also confident that Hillary was going to win

[PeaceWave]

20. I felt like shit from the moment Comey opened his fat yapper 11 days before the election.

[beaglelover]

22. We watched the Martha Stewart doc on Netflix tonight.

I didn’t know that he was the one who pushed the charges against her. She was the first woman billionaire. He just hates strong women!

[beaglelover]

21. Exactly why I am not confident tonight. The PTSD I have from 2016 is very strong!

[onetexan]

23. There are many differences between 2016 and this election, and i will be the first to admit

much as i LOVE Hillary, Bill Clinton's baggage and Hillary's inability to come across as sincere and genuine, combined by the fact the Clintons have been in politics for so long that it was either hate them or love them. The Con's rise to power was to me the culmination of that, combined with 8 years of Obama, when RW nationalists numbers were on the rise due to their resentment of having a Black man elected to the nation's highest office.
It was fertile ground for the extremists to elect a leader, regardless of how deeply flawed he was, who endeared them to him given he channelled their rage and grievance. Foreign interference made it much worse, and the hacking of the DNC's servers, combined with Comey's audacious overstepping his boundaries, gave them ammo to sink Hillary.

Come 2024 we have an amazingly relatable candidate without baggage, with tremendous appeal &personal charm, who appeals to working class voters, and whose proposed policies can make our lives better. She gave us hope & joy.
This is why I am remaining optimistic and am confident Kamala will not only win, but decisively.

[Emile]

26. I had a bad feeling in 2016. Not this year.

Kamala is not Hillary.

[GreenWave]

27. Naysayers, did the following occur back then?

1. Hundreds of thousands more Red voters than Blue died from Covid?
2. Were Red voters leaving the GOP as a result of Jam. 6th?
3. Were the military called suckers and losers back then?
4. Did the SCROTUS outrage women back then by destroying abortion rights?
5. Did the GOP candidate promise dictatorship?
6. Did hundreds of key Red figures encourage others to vote Blue?

[samnsara]

28. i was to meet up with the local dems for a watch party at the local pizza place

..i bought a dozen yellow roses to hand out. It was called for trump before the watch party even started!!!!! I left, my roses are still hanging in the garage.

[Danmel]

29. In 2016, I felt good until Brexit

Today I have no idea at all. The fact that we are even in this place is terrifying.

[BootinUp]

30. K&R

[radius777]

31. Even after Comey I though Hillary had it easily,

as did most people. Even the betting markets had her at 80%. Even Trump himself thought he was going to lose. It truly was a shock when she lost.

In 2020 I had far more worry due to the disruptions to society brought about by the pandemic, and how that would affect voting, polling and campaigning. I didn't trust the polls that showed Biden way ahead, and sure enough on election night it felt like 2016 was repeating itself. But miraculously Biden started to pull off one swing state after the other. IIRC, Wisconsin was the first one. I had fallen asleep thinking he lost it, but woke up with headlines saying he was ahead. That week was draining, but ultimately exhilirating as by Saturday (when PA was called) we were victorious.

[bdamomma]

34. It was draining

we didn't find out the results until Nov 7th. But when we did we were dancing in the streets!!!! I think this is very different, women are angry about Roe, and basic women's healthcare.

[bdamomma]

32. MineralMan

we know there's going to be sort of lies coming our way, but those who want to start trouble it is considered a crime. That Philadelphia DA had some choice words F around and find out.

https://upload.democraticunderground.com/100219654392

[akbacchus_BC]

33. Even though comey brought up the emails at the last minute, I had the same optimism as you did in 2016,

took time off from work to get home early to follow the results. I could not believe that SOS Clinton lost. I will never forget the despondent look on the faces of the young people who were with her waiting for the results. I was shocked and so disappointed. This time, the results will be different, fingers crossed.

[helpisontheway]

35. I have to keep in mind that she might lose for my mental health

2016 loss broke me. I could not turn on a news station for many months. The Trump administration seemed to last 8 years instead of four. It was always what did Trump do or what did he say 24/7. Anyway, thankfully I will be very busy at work today. They will be releasing vote totals by the time I get home.

[geo1]

36. I was not at all confident for Hillary, but feeling optimistic for Kamala as dynamics are opposite 2016

Voter enthusiasm is really key on election day, and in 2016 Trump had that advantage. It's Kamala who has that now. In 2016 there were a lot of folks who had planned to vote for Hillary even though they didn't like her who changed their minds after the Comey thing hit. (I was phone banking for Hillary up to and including election day, so I experienced the change.) A lot of those folks didn't vote for either Trump or Hillary - they picked 3rd party (Jill Stein), left president blank though they voted for other races, or they didn't vote at all. This time there are lots of folks who hate Trump but planned to vote for him anyway. At least some of those folks have likely been further turned off by what he's been doing recently and may not vote at all. I personally know one couple who fall into this category. Found out yesterday that they are not voting at all, first time ever not voting.

So, get out there and vote and make sure the other Democratic voters you know get to the polls!