Summary: The Democrats continue to agonize over why they lost in 2016 to Trump. Now books come out with answers. But also tell dark truths about our political system. Their insights can help us do better in 2020. But only if we put them to work – soon.
From across the sea, retired Brit diplomat Craig Murray gives a perfect summary of why Hillary lost. She had some good breaks and bad breaks, but her own flaws led to defeat by one of the weakest presidential candidates run by a major US party, ever.
“Hillary Clinton lost because she was an appalling candidate. A multi-millionaire, neo-con warmonger with the warmth and empathy of a three week dead haddock and an eye for the interests of Wall Street, who regarded ordinary voters as “deplorables” (a term she used not just once, but frequently at fund-raisers with the mega-wealthy). Hillary Clinton conspired with the machine that was supposed to be neutrally running the primaries, to fix the primaries against Bernie Sanders. The opinion polls regularly showed that Sanders would beat Trump, and that the only Democratic candidate who Trump could beat was Clinton.
“Egomania and a massive sense of entitlement nevertheless led her not just to persist to get the candidacy, but persist to rig the candidacy. She then proceeded to ignore major urban working class battleground states in her campaign against Trump and focus on more glamorous places. In short, Hillary was corrupt rubbish.”
For an insider’s look at the campaign, turn to Chasing Hillary
“Amy Chozick …confesses in her new book Chasing Hillary that she cried when she wrote about Clinton’s defeat, that she had been ‘an admirer …chasing this luminous figure’ since meeting Clinton as an awed child at a signing event for It Takes a Village
“Chozick sounds like Peter Daou or any other Clinton crony when she excoriates voters who say, ‘They’d vote for a woman, just not THAT woman. …I wanted to scream at every critic that thirty years of sexist attacks had turned her into that woman. That sooner or later, the higher we climb, the harder we work, we all become that woman.’
“With reporters like these, who needs flacks? …keep in mind that all of the above is just what Chozick is choosing to share with us while trying to preserve her credibility as a nonpartisan reporter. Chasing Hillary might as well be called Worshipping Hillary. …
“Chozick says that perhaps 18 out of 20 reporters on the Hillary beat on a typical day were women …{they} were excited about the prospect of what they dubbed the ‘FWP,’ for First Woman President.
“After Clinton’s defeat, these ‘Girls on the Bus’ were ‘in some stage of a breakdown . . . we comforted each other with pats on the shoulder’ because ‘hugs would have been too conspicuous.’”
She confessed those things with no apparent fear that it would tarnish her reputation as a journalist, or that the editors of the New York Times would fire her for malfeasance. She is probably correct on both counts. Americans are ignorant because we read the news.
Excerpt from Chasing Hillary, published in Vanity Fair.
“As early as that January, we knew something was amiss with the Clinton campaign. Bernie packed an auditorium in Decorah, Iowa, telling the 2,300 people, “Today, the inevitable candidate doesn’t look quite so inevitable.” Hillary, meanwhile, spoke to 450 in the city’s Hotel Winneshiek ballroom, where the mostly over-65 set wore red T-shirts with the fighting words, Does Your Candidate Have a Plan for Social Security?”
Of course, readers of the “All the news that’s fit to print” New York Times didn’t learn this. Chozick’s stories make no mention of this telling event in Decorah. Instead she write glowing accounts of Hillary, such as “Hillary Clinton, Battling in Iowa, Turns Warm Under Pressure.” (25 January 2016).
“Hillary’s town halls became so frequent and intimate that they started to take on the familiar, if laborious, feel of catching up with an old girlfriend who cites G.D.P. statistics over brunch.”
Chozick then tells a story of stunning incompetence, with Hillary boring an audience in Clinton County with a long speech about DeWitt Clinton – history they probably learned in 6th grade.
“After the first couple of days, Hillary had relayed the story so many times that she started to mix up the details. …But even (or especially?) with the muddled details, the giant 3-D printer became emblematic of Hillary’s campaign style: she could be so pedantic in expressing her sincere optimism for the American worker that she either bored audiences or went over their heads entirely. On the bus, meanwhile, we were simultaneously tired of hearing about the 3-D printer and at a complete loss for anything better to talk about. …’Hillary won’t stop talking about that fucking 3-D printer.’ …
“About a week before the caucuses, at the end of an epically newsless bus swing, Demi Lovato performed ‘Confident’ on campus at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, the epicenter of the ‘Feel the Bern’ movement. She introduced Hillary, saying there wasn’t ‘a woman more confident than Hillary Clinton.’ (Telling the crowd the truth – that one of Hillary’s more endearing qualities is that, despite her successes, she is a heaping pile of insecurities – wouldn’t have played well.)”
Chozick did not write a word about Hillary’s “insecurities” during the campaign.
“I waded into the crowd afterward. I didn’t meet a single student who said they were supporting Hillary.”
Her article about this event neglected to mention that important fact: “Hillary Clinton, With Help From Demi Lovato, Treads on Bernie Sanders Turf in Iowa.”
The Vanity Fair excerpt – and the book – are well worth reading in full. Material like this gives a better understanding of how our political system works – but does not work for us.
Trivia note about the author
Amy Chozick delayed having a child until after the campaign. Now, at age 38, she has a new born. See her story at Glamour. Now the one-time teary-eyed Hillary supporter cashes in with an 80 thousand word book trashing Clinton. Chelsea Clinton responds by attacking Chozick on Twitter (just as our President does). Details of this chick-fight here.
For More Information
See this article by Kyle Smith for more excerpts from Chozick’s book showing Hillary Clinton’s astonishing lack of political skills. If you liked this post, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. See all posts about ways to reform America, about Campaign 2016, and especially these about the results of Campaign 2016…
- Breaking the myths about Campaign 2016, so we can prepare for 2020.
- Clinton lost because fear failed, and her SJW’s terrified voters.
- Clinton’s ads show her weak strategy: purely tribal, no content.
- Who won the election? Were the polls accurate? What lessons learned?
Another important book about Campaign 2016
Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns That Put Donald Trump in the White House
From Donna Brazile, former DNC chair and legendary political operative, an explosive and revealing new look at the 2016 election: the first insider account of the Russian hacking of the DNC and the missteps by the Clinton campaign and Obama administration that enabled a Trump victory.
“In the fallout of the Russian hacking of the Democratic National Committee – and as chaos threatened to consume the party’s convention – Democrats turned to a familiar figure to right the ship: Donna Brazile. Known to millions from her frequent TV appearances, she was no stranger to high stakes and dirty opponents, and the longtime Democratic strategist had a reputation in Washington as a one-stop shop for fixing sticky problems. …
“Packed with never-before-reported revelations about what went down in 2016, Hacks is equal parts campaign thriller, memoir, and roadmap for the future. With Democrats now in the wilderness after this historic defeat, Hacks argues that staying silent about what went wrong helps no one. Only by laying bare the missteps, miscalculations, and crimes of 2016, Brazile contends, will Americans be able to salvage their democracy.
