Clinton Interview

[vorlon13]

There's been some focus on Bernie Sanders in this go round.  In Shattered, Bernie's (and his campaign) actions were presented, but no evaluation of them were made by the authors (Hillary's/staff reactions were noted)

Hillary has a point of sorts in criticizing Bernie in the regards he would not concede to the inevitable Convention win of Hillary, with the stated goal of building support for moving the platform in his direction further than if he conceded as soon as the math was no longer there for the nomination.  Bernie's supporters were also noted as solidly behind Bernie whether he was nominated or not, and Bernie seemed to have little control/influence with them in cultivating support for Hillary when she was nominated.

I'd note amelioration in criticism, however, since the party hierarchy itself was (wisely) chartered to provide a fair primary environment and yet failed publicly and notoriously to do so.  And that is regardless of how 'inevitable' any particular outcome might have been seen beforehand.  It's one thing to 'inevitably' lose in a FAIR fight, and as many people who should have known beforehand, (but obviously didn't) it's quite another thing entirely to garner the same outcome in a fight that was demonstrably NOT fair. Even more foolishly, such chicanery and perfidy reinforced widely known perceptions of 'special rules' applying to Hillary only.

As for 'collusion' between the Sanders and Trump campaigns, while it is easy to see how it really looked that way, an active program in both campaigns fostering/managing 'collusion' was not necessary. The Trump campaign just had to 'echo' complaints and concerns Bernie was voicing about Hillary, no back channel coordinating of such things was necessary, just savvy staffers in Trumpworld reading the newspapers and watching TV coverage of the campaign. Hell, it would have been stupid to not repeat Bernie's points concerning Hillary that were compatible with the Trump platform. I probably don't need to go into too much detail in Hillary herself providing so much grist for Bernie in this regard, either.