Hillary Clinton was the democratic nominee for the 2016 Presidential election. In 2016, the election was very tight and Clinton won the popular vote. Despite this, Trump was able to win the electoral college resulting in him winning the election. Clinton and Trump each had strong supporters and very strong haters, making the election controversial. Now, in 2020, Joe Biden is up against Trump. So far, there are similarities in the months leading up to election day, but also many differences. Biden is doing better in the polls than Hillary was at this time, but this election is still leaving the nation divided. Biden is also surrounded by less scandal than Hillary was and overall his reputation is in a better position than Hillary’s was during the 2016 election. The 2020 election is expected to be another close election, and will depend heavily on the color of the swing states.
Education and Early Career
Hillary Clinton attended Wellesley College where she was senior class president and involved in student politics. She went on to attend Yale Law School and graduated with honors. She has held a variety of political positions throughout her career, including First Lady, US Senator, Secretary of State and Presidential candidate.
Biden grew up in a working class family in Scranton Pennsylvania. For college, Biden attended the University of Delaware where he studied history and political science. He played football and was more interested in sports and parties for the first college years. During his junior year, he became more motivated and focused on his studies. He was accepted into Syracuse University Law School where he struggled academically. Later, he became a lawyer, started his own law firm and was elected Senator of Delaware. He first ran for president in 1987 in which he lied about his education, but dropped out of the race and continued his role as Senator until 2007 when he ran for President a second time. Again he dropped out of the election. He then became Barack Obama’s running mate, and later the Vice President of the United States.
Between the two, Hillary wins for academic success. She was a smart, devoted student who excelled in the classroom.
Scandals
Both Hillary and Biden have faced public scandals throughout their political careers. This section will be briefly summarizing some of these. For Hillary, she is known for lying to the public and getting caught. For example, the Benghazi scandal. She covered up documents regarding the deaths of 4 Americans, and is criticized for not realizing the danger of the situation before sending Americans in. Her most well known scandal was her private email server. Instead of using her State Department, FBI monitored email while serving as US Secretary of State, she used her own private email server to send emails containing classified information. During her campaign, these emails became a major topic of concern. It was deemed by the FBI that while her use of the private server had been incredibly careless, they recommended that no further action needed to be taken. Other scandals include Travelgate (when she fired the White House Travel staff to replace them with her own friends), Pardongate (when Bill Clinton pardoned 450 people upon leaving office, some of which directly benefited Hillary’s campaign in New York) and many others. She has a long list of controversies that have all been in the public eye, and her career in the political world has been largely surrounded by scandals.
Biden also has been at the center of scandals, many of which happened during his time as Vice President in the Obama administration. One of his major scandals was the Ukraine controversy. It is believed that Ukraine and China were giving money to his son, Hunter, while Joe Biden was convincing the Ukraine government to fire a prosecutor who was investigating Burisma, a Ukranian company that was allegedly asking for the prosector to be fired after paying Hunter over $3 million. Other than emails recently found, there is no proof that had any connections to the Ukraine Energy company and Hunter’s business deal, but it is believed that an introduction between the two led to a funneling of money to Hunter. Biden’s other major scandals come from military action and terrorist swaps during his time as Vice President that ended in the death of American citizens. For example, while in office, the U.S traded 5 terrorists for 1 American deserter. His desertion led to the deaths of 6 American soldiers. Biden’s 1987 presidential campaign was also accused of plagiarizing other politician speeches in which he admitted to.
While both of these candidates were nowhere near short on scandal, Hillary’s have been overall more detrimental to her election, at least to this point with one month before the 2020 election. But this may be due to the fact that she was at the forefront of the public eye for a much longer period of time than Joe Biden had been.
Differences in poll status
Heading into the first presidential debate of 2020, Biden had a very different lead than Hillary did at that time in 2016. Biden had a clear advantage over Trump. The New York Times/Siena College Poll put Biden at 49% and Trump at 41% and the ABC News/Washington Post Poll had Biden at 54% and Trump at 44%. This same poll in 2016 only had Hillary up by two percentage points over Trump. Essentially, while the election is still close and could result in a win for either side, there is a significantly higher lead for the democratic candidate in 2020 than there was in 2016. The 2020 election will be harder for Trump to win than the 2016 election based on poll status. Nationally, Biden was up by 7 or 8 points going into the first debate whereas Hillary was only up by 2. After the first debate, Biden is now up by 10 points nationally, putting him in an even stronger position. Coming into the election day in 2016, Clinton was up by 3-4 points on average nationally. As of now, Biden is in a better position than Hillary was at this time in 2016. Also more promising for Biden is that there are less undecided and 3rd party voters in 2020 than in 2016. Less than half the number of 2016, most voters have already decided on their vote, leaving less up to election day.
Appeal to Blue Collar workers
Another difference between Biden and Hillary is that Biden has a strong appeal to Blue Collar workers. He grew up as a working class boy from Scranton and this is a big part of his appeal. Additionally, he dealt with and suffered from extreme tragedy in the public light when his wife and daughter died in a car accident back in 1972 and again when his son Beau died of brain cancer in 2015. As Vice President to President Obama, he gained popularity nationally as their administration was greatly supported by a significant portion of the country. In addition to his support on the democratic side, Biden has many republican friends as well as endorsers. Throughout this election period, Biden has been endorsed by notable republican figures, including former Governor John Kasich, former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and others.
This same hope was not present when Hillary was running in 2016. She was caught criticizing Trump supporters and calling them “deplorables.” Additionally, Hillary was not as appealing to the working class as Biden is. Hillary is seen as more elite class, and is part of multiple controversial theories. For example, her political career has been under constant investigation from Bill Clinton’s impeachment to Benghazi to the emails. Her approval ratings were worse than Trump’s, making her the only presidential candidate in history with that statistic.
Healthcare
Biden and Hillary also differ on their opinions on Healthcare. They both have the same goal of expanding healthcare and making it more accessible for all Americans, but Hillary’s plan involved less change to the current system Hillary supports universal healthcare and made several pushes throughout her political career for it. She was met with great opposition and took a step by step approach when mapping out her healthcare plan for her presidential campaign. Her main goal was to expand healthcare coverage for every American. Despite opposition from private insurance companies in the 90’s, her campaign website explains “She will never give up on the fight for Universal Coverage.” She would have done this by expanding the Affordable Care Act, bringing down the costs of out of pocket expenses, reducing the cost of prescription drugs and incentivizing states to expand Medicaid.
Biden on the other hand does not want universal healthcare, at least officially yet. He supports an expansion of the Affordable Care Act with an enhanced public option. Additions to the Affordable Care Act would include reduction of healthcare costs, giving Americans more choices for healthcare as well as simplifying the healthcare system overall. His plan will allow Americans to have private insurance, but they will also have the choice of the public option. His plan will also expand healthcare for low-income families by guaranteeing them access to this new premium-free healthcare plan. All Americans will have access to a more affordable healthcare option under his plan, while still allowing families the ability to choose their own plan, public or private, if they wish.
Taxes
Biden has laid out a detailed tax plan that would raise taxes, mostly on wealthy Americans. Specifically, the plan would raise personal taxes (for those earning over $400K), investment taxes and corporate taxes. By 2030, the Biden Tax Plan would decrease after-tax income by about 1.7% for all taxpayers on average and a 6.5% decrease for the top 1% of taxpayers. The plan would also result in a 1.47% reduction of GDP long term. This plan would have the largest impact on upper class Americans, as they would also see changes on itemized deductions and qualified business deductions. It would limit their ability to claim itemized deductions to 28% of value. Biden also plans on expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit for childless workers above the age of 65 as well as provide renewable energy tax credits.
Hillary also laid out a plan for her 2016 campaign that would raise tax rates on many individuals. Her plan reduced the income of the top 1% of Americans by 6.6%, only .1% more than Biden’s plan. The difference between the two is that under Hillary’s plan, all other groups would see an increase of after tax income by at least .1%. She includes a plan to cut taxes for small businesses so that they can grow while also providing tax relief to working class families. Hillary’s plan would have led to a larger decrease in GDP than Biden’s, with a 2.6% decrease long term. Hillary also would have limited itemized deductions to a 28% tax value. Most of her tax plan consisted of proposals to raise taxes on high income earners, similar to Biden’s plan. Some of these proposals include: a minimum of 30% tax on incomes over $5 Million, an increased estate tax and financial risk fees on large banks. Her plan also included tax cuts for middle and lower class families and an expansion of the Child Tax Credit.
Immigration
Biden sees the current immigration situation to be unjust and an unacceptable way of treating people. He also notes that over half of undocumented immigrants crossed the border legally, but that their status is the result of an overstayed visa. Additionally, he explains that most contraband enters the United States through legal ports of entry. Biden’s immigration plan involves modernizing the American immigration system. To do this, he would welcome immigrants into communities, recommit America to asylum-seekers and refugees and has committed to a fair and humane immigration system. As Vice President of the United States, Biden led and encouraged the expansion of DACA, DAPA, and other programs to help support immigrants. He also finds it important to identify the root cause of migration, rather than close off the US southern border. He promises to secure the border as president, but doing so he will uphold the legal right immigrants have to asylum. He will also ensure not to separate families or violate due process.
Hillary also proposed immigration reform during her presidential campaign. She believes in treating immigrants with respect and upholding due process. Like Biden, she also supports DACA and DAPA. She is committed to protecting families rather than tearing them apart at the border. Other goals she laid out during her campaign were to promote naturalization, end family detention, close private immigration detention centers and support immigrant integration. Hillary proposed creating an Office of Immigrant Affairs which would work to support her goal of integration by offering resources for English and citizenship education.
While both candidates made strong promises and provided information on how they would go about immigration reform, it is difficult to compare the two plans as the status of immigration widely differed leading up to the two elections. Under Trump, immigration control has been a top priority. Biden believes his entire system needs to be abolished and it is imperative to rebuild/modernize a new one. Hillary on the other hand was able to make claims to support the work that Obama had laid out regarding immigration. She promised to defend Obama’s executive actions and see both DAPA and DACA through. Both Biden and Hillary have strong stances on immigration reform, and they both believe that immigrants deserve to be treated humanely.
Gun Control
Biden is a strong advocate for gun control. He put the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act through congress which established a background check system to keep firearms out of the wrong hands. He also pushed for banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Biden plans to hold gun manufacturers accountable and voted against the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act. He explains that he will also require background checks for all gun sales as well as close loopholes in the federal background check system. He explains that he will reinstate the Obama-Biden policy that kept guns out of the hands of those unable to manage their affairs for mental reasons. He recognizes the importance of handling gun violence in the United States and has laid out a clear plan of how he will work to solve the issue as president.
Hillary also committed to gun violence prevention during her campaign for president. She promised that as president she would expand background checks, keep guns out of the hands of criminals, mentally ill and abusers as well as take on the gun lobby by taking away licenses from dealers who break the law. Hillary has a history of voting for gun control. She co-sponsored and voted for legislation to close the gun show loophole as well as extend/reinstate the assault weapons ban. She was also endorsed by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, the Newton Action Alliance as well as other gun violence prevention groups.
