Clinton Interview

[Thumpalumpacus]

An interesting interview with Hillary Clinton on the occasion of her book's release. NPR's Rachel Martin asks some hard questions as the two essentially perform a post mortem on Clinton's 2016 defeat:

http://www.npr.org/2017/09/12/549430064/...hel-martin

It seems like she's trying to do an honest failure analysis but still cannot get past herself.

[dyresand]

An interesting interview with Hillary Clinton on the occasion of her book's release. NPR's Rachel Martin asks some hard questions as the two essentially perform a post mortem on Clinton's 2016 defeat:

http://www.npr.org/2017/09/12/549430064/...hel-martin

It seems like she's trying to do an honest failure analysis but still cannot get past herself.

no need to read the book the answer is clearly on the  cover. the inside of the book is just a lot of fluff
and paper air planes.

[Minimalist]

She made the mistake of thinking that the 'murrican public wanted a responsible adult in the White House instead of a fucking assclown.

[Whateverist]

Poor dems just can't campaign their way out of a paper bag.  If only the electorate would just trust that they'd be safe and sane (if unimaginative) if only they'd ignore what they say and vote for them any way.

And you decided to include that anecdote for a reason. I mean, what did it signify to you? Is that when you started to understand you were missing something important about the country, in that moment? 

No, I understood that long before, Rachel, and in the book, what I tried to point out is, I understood there was anger and fear and people were really unhappy because of what had happened in the financial crash. I understood all of that, and I understood that my opponent had been, from the beginning of the primaries, fueling that anger, and providing scapegoats, and a kind of cynical nostalgia that was rooted in saying, basically, you know, all these other people — whether it's African-Americans or Muslims or immigrants or women or whomever — we're going to get it back to the way it was. And that's going to be my gift to you. I understood all of that. What I didn't — and I say this in the book — I didn't really do well is conveying how much I understood of that, conveying how I got the despair and the anger. I talked about it, I talked about it constantly. I talked about jobs. I talked about the despair of people in America, white Americans who were dying at an unbelievable rate because of suicide, opioid abuse, alcoholism, so much that really signifies that despair.  I talked about it, but I didn't really convey the emotional resonance that would have maybe made it possible for somebody to say, "Yeah, you know, maybe that one sentence she said was taken out of context because look at what she's done and look at what she says she will do."

[Minimalist]

I talked about jobs.

But do you really think the President can get you a job?

[Tiberius]

She made the mistake of thinking that the 'murrican public wanted a responsible adult in the White House instead of a fucking assclown.

The American public did want a responsible adult though, she won the popular vote.

Her main mistake seemed to be assuming that her support in several states was stronger than it actually was. For example, Wisconsin was considered a Democratic leaning state during the campaign, and Clinton visited it 0 times.

[Minimalist]

The American public did want a responsible adult though, she won the popular vote.

We all learned what that counted for in 2000, Divi Tiberio. 

Hillary is a boring policy wonk and 'Murrica does so want to be entertained!

[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.

[Iroscato]

She made the mistake of thinking that the 'murrican public wanted a responsible adult in the White House instead of a fucking assclown.

The American public did want a responsible adult though, she won the popular vote.

Nah fam, 5 million illegal immigrants voted for her innit

[Tiberius]

The American public did want a responsible adult though, she won the popular vote.

We all learned what that counted for in 2000, Divi Tiberio. 

Hillary is a boring policy wonk and 'Murrica does so want to be entertained!

I'm aware it doesn't count in terms of the result, but using it to paint a picture that "America" didn't want a responsible adult is disingenuous. The fact that Trump lost the popular vote by almost 3 million votes, and his subsequent approval rating since taking office quickly dropped to below 40%, is evidence to the contrary.