Hello, and welcome back to another edition of Lace ‘Em Up’s Presidential Election series as will be going over the Election of 2016; The Democrats are looking to Hillary Clinton to continue President Obama’s legacy, but she’s gotta go through the most unlikeliest of presidential candidates in Donald Trump.

The Obama Era Comes to a Close

After eight years as America’s first African American President, Barack Obama’s time in office can best be described as a mixed bag as Obama began the process of freeing non-violent drug offenders from prison, signed an executive order that prevented immigrants convicted of serious crimes from crossing the border and banned offshore drilling in the Artic while also refusing to support the Keystone XL and the Dakota Access Pipelines.

By the same time, Obama also allowed trade deals such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (or TPP) which continued the outsourcing of jobs overseas; He expanded the NSA spying on Americans while using the Espionage Act of 1917 to publicly silence whistleblowers reporting on crimes occuring under the Obama Adminsration.

Perhaps Obama’s biggest achievement (domestically) involves the LGBTQ community with the president being the first sitting commander-in-chief to support same sex marriage and ensured laws were in place to protect their rights after some very important Supreme Court cases ruled in favor of same sex marriage.

On foreign policy, Obama created deals that reduced the amount of Uranium in Iran by 98% and restored America’s relationship with Cuba which in return opened the door to small businesses being able to exist on the island nation.

That said, Obama continued the usage of drone strikes in both the Middle East and Somalia which intentionally killed civillians, he was criticized for his efforts with Syria and Libya, he re-entered American troops into Iraq not to mention America’s previous incursions in the Middle East and the fact that many U.S. weapons were left in the area allowed for the rise of terrorists groups like the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria aka ‘ISIS’.

2016 Republican Presidential Candidates

Similar to the previous two presidential elections, a large number of Republicans ran for their party’s nomination which included familar names like Rick Perry, Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum, but also included guys like:

• Chris Christie- The Governor of New Jersey
• Ben Carson- A retired Neurosurgeon of John Hopkins Hospital
• Ted Cruz- Senator from Texas
• Macro Rubio- Senator from Florida
• Jeb Bush- Governor of Florida and member of the Bush Family
• Rand Paul- Senator from Kentucky

Finally, there was Donald Trump, the famed businessman and Reality TV star who considered running for president in 2000 and 2012, but decided to make a real run for it in 2016 after getting humiliated by President Obama and former SNL star, Seth Meyers during a White House Correspondent Dinner in 2011.

After Trump announced his candidacy to a rally of paid actors, many in the media and in Washington refused to take Trump serious as a major contender, but his decision to run as a conservative populist who wanted to “Making America Great Again” plus his status as a celebrity businessman attracted many voters.

During the GOP debates, Trump used his contraversial if not unique way of speaking to get cheers and jeers from the crowd while also tearing down his competition with nicknames such as: “Low Enegry Jeb”, “Sloppy Chris Christie”, “Little Marco” and of course “Lyin Ted”.

Despite coming in second place in the Iowa Caucus, Trump would dominate the rest of the competition until it became clear that he was not only the frontrunner but eventually the party’s official candidate for president in 2016 marking the first time since Wendell Wilkie in 1940 that a businessman with little too no political experience became the GOP’s presidential nominee.

Trump had a short list of names when it came to choosing a running mate including Jeff Sessions, Mary Fallins and even Chris Christie and Newt Gingrich, but in order to get the evangelical bloc of the Republican Party on his side, Trump choose the Governor of Indiana and former conservative radio host, Mike Pence as his running mate.

Clinton vs. Sanders

Although a couple of Democrats ran for the presidency, Hillary Clinton the then Secretary of State was expected to get the nomination after Joe Biden refused to run after the death of his son Beau in May of 2015; However Clinton’s road to the nomination was going to be far from easy as Bernie Sanders, the independent Senator from Vermont soon joined the Democrats and made his own bid for the oval office.

Much like Trump, Sanders wasn’t taken seriously by the media either but his grassroot support amongst young voters as well as his progressive policies meant that Sanders went from being just another name in the running to becoming a serious threat especially after he won a number of primaries including a big one in Michigan despite many believing Clinton would win the state with a 20-30% lead.

Much like in 2008, it was a back-and-forth race for the Democratic Party’s nomination however unlike that election, Hillary would win and become the first woman in American History to be nominated for president by a major political party.

This historical moment turned sour when it was revealed by Wikileaks that many insiders within the Democratic Party were favoring certain caucuses and primaries for Clinton, giving her debate answers ahead of time and perhaps the biggest shock came when former campaign manager and interim DNC chairwoman, Donna Brazile revealed that the Clinton campaign had full control over the Democratic National Convention in exchange for money that the party desperately needed.

Regardless of this stunning and underhanded move by Clinton to win the nomination, she went on to be the nominee and she chose Tim Kaine, the former Governor turn Senator of Virginia as her running mate.

The Third Parties

Numerous polls began to show unfavorablity between Trump and Clinton amongst the voters with numbers ranging from 50-60%; Naturally, this opened the door for third party candidates to swoop in and offer a real alternative to the two major parties and there were a couple in this election.

Gary Johnson, the former Governor of New Mexico left the Republican Party in 2012 and ran with the Libertarian Party as their nominee for president only to get less than 1% of the popular vote. Fast forward to 2016 and Johnson is running again with the Libertarians but his running mate this time is Bill Weld, the former GOP Governor of Massachusetts and the pair was polling around 8-13% nationwide, plus they got on the ballot in all 50 states.

Next up was Jill Stein, a Massachusett Doctor who ran with the Green Party in 2012 but didn’t do so well, but much like Johnson she was back to run for president again and she ran with Ajamu Baraka, an activist from Washington D.C. as her running mate.

Finally there was Evan McMullin, a former CIA officer who ran as part of a Republican movement who were against Trump being the party’s nominee, so McMullin planned to win his homestate of Utah and nearby states like Arizona and Idaho with the aim of deadlocking the election and allowing congress to decide the winner. He choose Mindy Finn, a former digital media strategist for the GOP as his running mate.

As to be expected, the media brought up “the spoiler myth” that surrounds third parties during the general election and combine this with Johnson’s inablity to keep his composure in interviews or answer questions about what foreign leader he liked and Stein was being painted as a far left liberal who shouldn’t be taken seriously…Which meant the only really opinions the American people had were Trump and Hillary.

Attack Strategies

Despite being a billionaire for most of his adult life, Trump ran on a populist message and campaign as he wanted to ‘Drain the Swamp’ aka reduce the power of special interest in Washington and he came off as a conservative on social issues like immigration while also being liberal on economic issues like social security and wanting to get rid of trade deals like NAFTA and TPP.

Clinton ran a moderate campaign and tried to look professional compared to her opponent in numerous interviews and debates. She also attempted to turnout the majority women voters as well as appeal to progressives and younger voters who were upset with her winning the nomination over Sanders.

Both sides used their celebrity status to garner attention but also were not afraid to use all types of mudslinging at each with Trump calling Clinton “Crooked Hillary” and a “Nasty Woman” while Clinton would call many of Trump supporters “A basket of deplorables” and she also attack him for his boisterous demeanor and for using bad language during the race…That said, things were about to get really intense when not one but two bombshell stories emerged about both candidates.

The Clinton email Scandal and Access Hollywood Tape

In May of 2016, reports from the State Department’s Inspector General uncovered that Hillary Clinton had built private servers in her home during her time as Secretary of State and she didn’t have permission to do this on top of the fact that many aides who raised concerns about this news were told to keep quiet.

Former New York Representative and Sex Offender, Anthony Weiner was also connected with this scandal and Clinton reportedly deleting around thousands of emails before being investigated only made things worse as the perception of Clinton as an untrustworthy person continued.

By July of 2016 then FBI Director, James Comey announced that Clinton’s handling of the matter was “extremely careless” but refused to indict her on the basis that she didn’t commited any criminal intent.

In the wake of this scandal, Trump had tied with Clinton in the national polls by 40% and even surpassing her in few swing states like Florida and Pennsylvania.

On October 7th things changed when a video from the Washington Post showed Donald Trump and Access Hollywood host, Billy Bush having a conversation on a bus in September of 2005 where Trump makes comments about trying to get with a married woman, kissing women without evening waiting before uttering the line “Grab them by the P#ssy”.

Needless to say there was outrage from the general public, the media, and even some Republicans called for Trump to drop out of the race all while Clinton attempted to galvanized female voters and her numerous went up as a result.

The Debates

With viewership ranging from 84 million to 71.6 million, the presidential debates saw both candidates hold nothing back when it came to digging up each others past.

Trump brought up years of political corruption on Clinton’s part as well as her support of trade deals and even mentioned how the women who accused Bill Clinton of sexual assault were in the audience.

Clinton went after Trump’s history stiffing workers and contractors when it came to money and criticized Trump over his comments on the Hollywood Access Tape which he describes as ‘Locker Room Talk.’

Many news networks were split on who won the debates, but according to scientific polls many felt that Clinton beat Trump in all three debates althought the victories weren’t enough to move Clinton back in the lead nor was the VP debate with many believing Mike Pence outperformed Tim Kaine.

Last Minute Revelations

With only several weeks left in the race, everything that could be used to shake up the election was thrown into the mix from Trump insinuating he wouldn’t accept the electoral results if he lost to his association with high stakes gambler and mob fraternizer, Robert LiButti back at Wrestlemania 4 inside Broadwalk Hall.

The biggest surprise came on October 28 when Director James Comey came out and announced that more of Clinton’s emails were being investigated thus reopening the case and leading to Clinton going down by three points in the national polls.

Fortunately for her on November 6th (two days before the election), the FBI found that the new emails didn’t have any information that put their previous findings into question and this gave Clinton and last minute boost right before election day.

Election of 2016: The Results

On the day of the election everyone in the Washington, the media and entertainment business were expecting Hillary Clinton to emerge as the first female President in American History…So what happened? Well in perhaps the biggest general election upset since 1948, Donald Trump won and became the 45th President of the United States.

Trump carried 30 states (plus the second district of Maine) and received 304 electoral votes compare to Clinton who carried 20 states (plus D.C.) and received 227 electoral votes.

Clinton however beat Trump in the popular vote with 48% to Trump’s 46% making this the fifth time since George W. Bush in which the winner of the election didn’t win the popular vote. Speaking of the popular vote, Gary Johnson came in third with 3.3% and Jill Stein came in fourth with 1.1.% while Evan McMullin got 0.5% but he did win 21.4% in his homestate of Utah with all off these being the best performances for a third party candidate since Ross Perot in 1996.

to make things even more complicated this election saw biggest amount of faithless electors since 1872 with five other people getting electoral votes:

• Three from Washington state voted for former Secretary of State, Colin Powell
• One in Washington state voted for Faith Spotted Eagle, an activist and the first Native American to win an electoral vote
• One in Texas voted for Ron Paul, the former presidential candidate in the two prior elections
• One in Texas voted for John Kasich although he almost got another one in Colorado
• One in Hawaii voted for Bernie Sanders although two others in Minnesota and Maine voted for him but they were replaced by other electors and who voted for Clinton

Due to claims of Russia interfering in the election, many called for recounts as states that had previously voted for the Democrats flipped for Trump like Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin (the latter was a state Clinton didn’t even campaign in and assumed she would get…Turns out that didn’t happen).

Trump became the oldest president since Ronald Reagan to ever be elected at just 70 years old, plus he also became the first president to have never served in the military or held a position of power in politics.

If you like this kind of content, be sure to leave your thoughts down below in the comment section and be sure to follow Lace ‘Em Up on X @laceemupoffice you can follow me also on X @hakeemfullerton and I’ll see you in the next article.