concordtom said:
For 4 years I've heard how 2016 was a choice between two very unlikeable candidates. And sure, Hillary was no June Cleaver, but she was smart, passionate, and experienced. Works for me!
Knocks against were were mysterious and made up in my mind.
Benghazi, please!
Whitewater and options trading profits? Escaped me.
Email server in unsecured closet? Stupid but not disqualifying.
Email content? There was nothing there, right?
Stand by your cheating husband? Personal choice, no?
Meanwhile, compared to 2016 Trump, she WAS June Cleaver, and compared to 2020 Trump, that favorability rating only improves, big time. Hillary as Jesus, our woulda been, coulda been savior! If only, we'd have avoided these last 4 years of endless insults and crimes, hypocrisy and waywardness.
So tell me, why was she so unlikeable again???
Clinton and her supporters love to blame everyone else for her loss. The fact is that she ran against the most hated, weakest candidate ever to run for President and lost and that was her fault. I think she would have been a very competent President. She was a terrible candidate and part of that is because of arrogance.
Did being a woman hurt her? Yes. Cry me a river. That is a known quantity going in. I might feel some sympathy for her if her campaign didn't dogwhistle and flat out whistle whistle the hell out of the 2008 primary. They thought Obama was a joke because he was Black. They didn't see the danger there when he was the only candidate that could beat her. Then when they saw the danger, they played the "he can't win because he's Black" card hard. When that didn't work, they switched to he's too extreme. They played the Reverend Wright card. That was the Clinton campaign, not the Republicans. Only Obama came out and did something Clinton could never do. Effectively respond. If Hillary Clinton were a man running against a woman, the campaign would have played the anti-woman card just as hard as the Republicans.
Have the Republicans slammed her every chance they get? Yes. Ask McGovern about that. Ask Willie Horton. Ask Al Gore about inventing the internet, only he never said that or anything close to it. Ask Kerry about having his distinguished military record swiftboated. Ask Obama about being a Muslim and birtherism. Please. She didn't face anything any Democrat doesn't face. And the Clintons have always, more than any other Democrat, given as good as they got on the dirty politics game.
She lost because whatever you think about their governing, the Clintons have always acted like they could get away with anything. Attacks that hurt are the ones that dovetail right in to what the public already thinks. Did Republicans lie about the email situation? Yes. Did she open herself up to it by keeping her own server because why the eff should she have to do what everyone else does? Yes. But to be clear, if they didn't have emails, they would have had other things like the Clinton Foundation. I don't care if they never touched a dime, (and I don't think they did). You can't solicit donations from powerful people around the world, including leaders, when you know you are going to run for President. That was pure Clinton. Who cares about appearance of propriety. We'll win anyway.
This is why she lost. The Midwest hates her. This is why they hate her.
1. I don't stay at home baking cookies
2. I don't just stand by my man.
Start with that. She had years to do something, anything, to make up for that. It was a slap in the face to their way of life. She had so many opportunities to show she learned from that. She didn't. For instance, Bill cheating is a good way to say " you know I said I don't stand by my man, but push came to shove and I did. I did because I realize that love and family were important to me."
Never made one ounce of effort to fix that. It was a big "I think I'm better than you" message that she left hanging there. Then:
3. She doubles down on "I'm better than you" with "basket of deplorables".
4. The email crap which she could have prevented, is one more "I can get away with anything, and I do" story.
And if you are better than people, you think you know what is best for them without considering their opinion. People don't like that. She didn't respect them
Then to compound things, she ignored them, both on message and actually physically. She had three states she needed to win. She took them for granted. She did the equivalent of having a 7 point lead in basketball with 3 to play and chucking 3's because you want to beat the spread. They were so worried about having a mandate that they didn't do what they needed to do to win.
Her fault. Any realistic Democratic candidate would have won.
Is Trump guilty of pretty much all of the same shyte? Yes. Only some people didn't get that yet. And people in key states were sick of it from her. I think she might have become a popular President at least among Democrats and Independents. But as a candidate, she sucked.