Any other candidate would have lost. Why: trump found a new set of voters. The republicans have sold their soul for those voters (and still lost the popular vote despite Hillary being a weak candidate). now the party is an incongruent mess of ideas and objectives. The republicans have effectively hog tied themselves but they will win a lot of elections in the next few years.
Against Hillary I think that many of the Republican candidates would have won by wider margins than Trump.
I don't know. Woulda coulda stuff. If Biden had entered and hillary had been indicted then he could have won. You have to trade the market as it is rather than how you think it should be. Anyway, one of the great, great, great ironies- especially in light of Hillary's crying victim about everything- is that SHE GOT THE REPUBLICAN OPPONENT THAT SHE AND THE DEMS PRAYED THEY WOULD GET. Refer to the common saying about being careful about what you wish for because you may get it. They feared bigly that the republicans would nominate a dem in rhino clothing such as Kasich or Jeb. How the hell do you compete with the republicans if they nominate a dem. So they prayed that wingnut, attila the hun, who could not go three days without a new scandal would be nominated. The rest is history. Life served up the nomination to her on a silver platter - she even owned the dnc and all the superdelegates in advance- but, no, campaigning and doing interviews and having to breath the same air in the room as deplorables was beneath her. The Joe Biden and Bernie are already gearing up. Remember what Obama said: "the next president will need to have that new car smell to get elected" so Joe and Bernie have that covered.
If they are still executive orders when trump leaves office. Obama used executive orders/actions to compensate for his inability to get something enacted into law due to the low number of dems in the house and senate and their inability to get it together in the first couple years when they did have the numbers. In the case of DACA/DAPA for example, that issue will most likely be clarified in statute before Trump leaves. Doesnt mean it will end out being what Trump wants but he will get a better deal than Obama's look-the-other-way free pass executive order/action. And whatever is in statue cannot be reversed by executive order. Obama already found that out once when the courts voided his decision to not deport anyone who had not committed a crime. That was not for him to decide. Congress had already decided. Obama's only option was to get a new bill through if he could and he couldn't. And Trump learned the same lesson in regard to the travel ban. He got to do a couple things where Congress had not enacted but he basically lost- subject to appeal- in instances such as green card holders, student visas, etc where there was already law on the books.
I used to think so as well. But then I realized that trump had done two things: he created a new class of voters and he split the republican base. If he didn't get the nomination, the republicans would have been decimated. That's why they sold their soul to him.