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You are. Clinton was a profoundly weak, unpopular candidate. She had 35 years in the public spotlight and there just was not anything to like there for the majority of Americans. No one running in 2016 could have beaten her in the landslide she deserved, but the 2016 election was Generic, Boring Republican Candidate's to lose.
2016 was a very Republican year and Clinton was a terrible candidate. As it was, Republicans across the country ran ahead of Trump, from House races to Senate, Gubernatorial, and even further downballot. A more boring election where you don't get all the negative partisanship Trump creates that has lower turnout than 2012 instead of higher turnout benefits those other Republicans even more.
This is already quite a while back, but I don't remember anyone saying it at the time, and it seems like a conclusion reached retroactively after she lost to Trump.
You and I remember 2016 very differently. The historic unpopularity of both candidates was one of the major narratives of the election. The Libertarians were polling at 13-14% at one point that summer for crying out loud. The tired joke on everyone's lips was that both parties chose the only candidate that could possibly lose to the other.
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No, it was absolutely said at the time.
Here's an example from early on in the 2016 election process.
Here's another one from later on
You can find a lot of them. She was not well liked.
Just as a quick sanity check - would you say any establishment Republican could beat Harris relatively easily, because she's not well liked?
I'm not sure. I think Trump could beat Harris pretty easily if he were ten years younger, but we won't really know the contours of the election until it's over.
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