Personally, the major variable for me is that the only candidate that the Democrats would run with was Hillary with all of her and Bill's 30 years of baggage.  From the DNC on down to the precinct level and the extra Democratic delegates, they insisted that she was the one who had  to be anointed.  

Your position is clearly supported by the fact that the 16 others on the Republican ticket could not appeal to the elite or to their rank and file, however.  

We have gone from Obama's "Hope and Change" to "Almost Any Kind of Change!"