Question
Did Hillary Clinton actually lose because supporters thought she would win in a landslide?
Answer
No, Hillary Clinton lost because her campaign divided the Democratic party and thus suppressed Democratic turn out. Beyond that she never resonated with voters, never grew her support beyond what she started her campaign with. In other words Clinton lost because she was a Bad candidate, with a bad message, and ran a bad campaign.
President Trump was not a strong candidate in 2016. He had tremendous vulnerabilities. Many political pundits believed he was unelectable. Clinton was just worse.
Bad Candidate She had high negatives, she was unappealing on the stump, she was hard to watch doing interviews or during the debates. Even having the town hall and debate questions ahead of time didn't help.
She had a great resume and had tremendous name recognition; but lacked any real accomplishments. Even her supporters couldn't name her accomplishments in office, beyond obtaining office, because she didn't have many. She had been first lady who offended half the country and blew an early chance as universal healthcare. She was a secretary of state best known for having traveled more than any other Sec State previously. Her one accomplishment being sanctions on Iran which drove them to the peace treaty, but otherwise nothing. As a senator she was unexceptional, writing no bills other than renaming highways or federal buildings in her district. She lent her name to many bills as a co-sponsor. But being 1 of 10,20,30 co-sponsors isn't leadership, nor is it an accomplishment.
Bad Message, She really had no message, she basically adopted watered down ideas from her rivals during the primaries and then adopted her rivals platforms after winning the primary. It was hard for anybody but her most diehard supporters to believe she would support her own platform given she had just spent a year trashing the ideas she was now claiming as her desired objectives.
Historically Bad Campaign, Her campaign was really a horror story which offended half the party causing an internal civil war among Democrats.
- Campagne begins with DNC (Clinton supporters) being successfully sued for sabotaging Clinton's rivals.
- Floor Protests at the National Convention
- Nevada Convention,
- Clinton relied on a massive lead in super delegates to win the nomination, not popular support. Is it any wonder she lacked votes in the General given how she won the nomination?
How Hillary Clinton took the Democratic nomination
Clinton's campaign controlled the Democratic party before the first Democratic Party Primary. This resulted in the DNC's partisan support for the Clinton Campaign
at the expense of other popular candidates. Which alienated and suppressed democratic turnout in the general election.
a. Control of the Democratic party
According to Donna Brazil Chairman of the DNC in 2016. The Clinton Campaign was in control of the DNC a year before she declared her nomination. That the Clinton Campaign not only used the DNC to crush Clinton's Democratic rivals, control the debates, suppress her competitors fundraising, but they also illegally (against FCC campaign rules) used the DNC as a clearing house to funnel money donated to congressional and senatorial races into the Clinton Campaign.
Inside Hillary Clinton’s Secret Takeover of the DNC
When I was asked to run the Democratic Party after the Russians hacked our emails, I stumbled onto a shocking truth about the Clinton campaign.
Gary (Gensler, the chief financial officer of Clinton’s campaign) said. He described the party as fully under the control of Clinton’s campaign, which seemed to confirm the suspicions of the Bernie camp. The campaign had the DNC on life support, giving it money every month to meet its basic expenses, while the campaign was using the party as a fund-raising clearinghouse. Under FEC law, an individual can contribute a maximum of $2,700 directly to a presidential campaign. But the limits are much higher for contributions to state parties and a party’s national committee.
Individuals who had maxed out their $2,700 contribution limit to the campaign could write an additional check for $353,400 to the Clinton Victory Fund—that figure represented $10,000 to each of the 32 states’ parties who were part of the Victory Fund agreement—$320,000—and $33,400 to the DNC. The money would be deposited in the states first, and transferred to the DNC shortly after that. Money in the battleground states usually stayed in that state, but all the other states funneled that money directly to the DNC, which quickly transferred the money to Brooklyn (Clinton’s headquarters was in Brooklyn).
b. DNC's partisan support for the Clinton Campaign
- The Campaign Starts with Bernie Sanders suing the DNC for cutting him off from DNC data which was supposed to be open to all candidates. The Courts reversed the DNC position, Sander's campaign manager termed this a death sentence for any campaign if it were to stand.
- chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, resigns after being partisan favoring the Clinton Campaign.
Was the Democratic primary rigged?
Democrats made a big mistake in the 2016 primary.
Even for the Democratic Party, the past few weeks have been bizarre. First, Donna Brazile, the former chair of the Democratic National Committee, published excerpts of a forthcoming book in which she says that after she took over the Democratic National Committee, she investigated “whether Hillary Clinton’s team had rigged the nomination process” through the DNC, and discovered evidence that they did. “I had found my proof and it broke my heart,” she wrote.
Clinton Campaign Had Additional Signed Agreement With DNC In 2015
Clinton's strong armed tactics in suppressing other campaigns, and advantage her campaign through her clandestined control of the DNC; alienated the left. Alienated the millions of democratic voters with most of the energy, ideas and passion in the party. That ultimately cost her in the primary.
Some likely democratic voters reacted to Clinton's campaign by voting for Trump.
Sanders voters helped Trump win the White House. Could they do it again?
Still more just didn't turn out.
- The Democratic Debates - While the Republicans were having wide open debates generating record viewership, the Democratic Party (which Clinton's campaign controlled) was running a coordination. They scheduled debates opposite sweet 16 basketball games, opposite with NFL Monday night football games or days of the week guaranteed to suppress viewership, so the campaigns would not detract from Clinton's "inevitability". They also employed debate formats which stifled Clinton's opponents and minimized candidate's ability to directly challenge Clinton. The Democratic Debates in 2015 turned out to be clinton stump speeches, with a few words from her challengers.
Democratic primary debate schedule criticized as Clinton 'coronation'