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[Tripon]

Just days before the election, after weeks believing that Michigan was safely blue, the pro-Hillary Clinton super PAC Priorities USA polled voters there - only to discover that it was a one-point race.

One error was to stick with a long-standing, one-dimensional campaign strategy: attacking Donald Trump. That strategy had been devised despite overwhelming evidence, not only in Trump's rise but also in Clinton's struggles during the Democratic primary against Bernie Sanders, that the electorate was looking for political and economic change.

"Why go to Arizona? Who the hell needs Arizona?" said Lou D'Allesandro, a state senator and Clinton supporter from New Hampshire, where Clinton appears to have narrowly prevailed Tuesday. "You go to Michigan. You go to Pennsylvania. You play to your strengths in this business."

"What you can't do is you can't manufacture enthusiasm," Axelrod said. "There was an assumption that antipathy toward Trump would be enough to mobilize the base . . . a certain lethargy that sets in when you've had the White House for eight years. Your troops are just not as hungry."

Axelrod added that "too much was assumed in the industrial Midwest."

In the end, even as the campaign shifted resources and sent surrogates back into the Rust Belt, the message remained the same: Trump lacked the temperament to be president and was unfit for office.

To the bafflement of Democrats in Wisconsin, for instance, the late Clinton push there did not mirror the economic messaging of the local labor unions. One played back Trump's worst remarks about women; another, his mocking of a reporter with a physical disability; the last, a warning from a nuclear technician who worried that a reckless President Trump would start a war.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...-hillary-clinton-mistakes-20161111-story.html

More in the link.

 

[soundscream]

Dramatic reenactment

 

[captive]

im guilty of antipathy. I thought for sure that at least *some*(more than just democrats) people would vote against trump just because of all of the things he's said and done, and the fact that he was a con man as a business man. Turns out a nice slogan will make people ignore just about anything.

 

[GoldenEye 007]

She should have known better and had plenty of powerful leaders telling her the issue. But she ignored it.

 

[Korigama]

After they lost Michigan once back in the primaries, there was no excuse for paying so little attention as to let it happen again in the general (and for the first time in 28 years at that).

 

[Escape Goat]

 

[wesleyshark]

Dramatic reenactment

Perfect

 

[Neoweee]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...-hillary-clinton-mistakes-20161111-story.html

More in the link.

Lots of hindsight bias, though. If it looks like you're up by a ton, you should seek to expand the electoral map, especially in favorable states that have Senate races going on. The "Blue Wall" theory was/is crap, and retreating down to just ~280 EV worth of states is a fragile, fragile strategy. An FBI intervention over emails not sent to or from the candidate, and mostly emails that were duplicates of those that were already obtained and investigated, is unprecedented and unforeseeable. We'd be having a completely different conversation if the Comey letter either hadn't happened, or hadn't been as impactful as it was.

"What you can't do is you can't manufacture enthusiasm," Axelrod said. "There was an assumption that antipathy toward Trump would be enough to mobilize the base . . . a certain lethargy that sets in when you've had the White House for eight years. Your troops are just not as hungry."

Axelrod added that "too much was assumed in the industrial Midwest."

I agree with Axe, though. It's always an uphill battle to motivate liberals and democrats to vote, especially after eight years in office.

 

[Fracas]

I refuse to pile all the blame on Clinton. Anyone with a grain of empathy for minorities voted against Trump.

I live in coal country and understand the anger rural white voters harbor. This was not worth it.

 

[Digital-Hero]

I refuse to pile all the blame on Clinton. Anyone with a grain of empathy for minorities voted against Trump.

I live in coal country and understand the anger rural white voters harbor. This was not worth it.

But there were many minorities who voted for Trump.

The evangelical minority is discounted a bunch, but I can tell many of Creflo Dollar's followers voted Trump.

 

[Vermillion]

im guilty of antipathy. I thought for sure that at least *some*(more than just democrats) people would vote against trump just because of all of the things he's said and done, and the fact that he was a con man as a business man. Turns out a nice slogan will make people ignore just about anything.

His stuff was catchy enough that even people that didn't believe in it (us) still knew pretty much everything he said.

 

[michaelius]

One error was to stick with a long-standing, one-dimensional campaign strategy: attacking Donald Trump. That strategy had been devised despite overwhelming evidence, not only in Trump's rise but also in Clinton's struggles during the Democratic primary against Bernie Sanders, that the electorate was looking for political and economic change.

That's pretty funny - it's the same thing that costed European Left many elections - right sides talks about issues and presents some kind of program and promise of change - left wing goes attacking wording and scaremongering about fascists/nazi/white supremacy...

 

[platakul]

Her entire push in AZ was playing that ad of trumps remarks on women, minorities, etc. Over and over, like every commercial break at prime time. Its the one that says "is this what we want our kids hearing?" And I'm like... they're only hearing it because YOU keep replaying it!

This was classic Kerry campaigning. Don't vote for Bush. Why vote for me? Don't ask.

That alt right speech is going down in the books as one the biggest campaign blunders off all time. No one gives a fuck. Tell us how you're gonna stop Obamacare from making me lose my house next year when I cant5afford the mortgage. Trump at least bloviated about doing something.

 

[Deleted member 80556]

It's quite incredible how Trump was the perfect storm. It's going to be very interesting to read about this in the future.

 

[guek]

so close to reality it hurts

 

[Zoe]

I refuse to pile all the blame on Clinton. Anyone with a grain of empathy for minorities voted against Trump.

I live in coal country and understand the anger rural white voters harbor. This was not worth it.

No. You can never count on altruism. You have to give people something that shows you care about them.

 

[Mammoth Jones]

I refuse to pile all the blame on Clinton. Anyone with a grain of empathy for minorities voted against Trump.

I live in coal country and understand the anger rural white voters harbor. This was not worth it.

This is some pie in the sky nonsense. You can't expect someone to vote against what they *perceive* to be their best interests. You can condescend to them how you know what's best but that's an aside. People are not gonna vote to help someone else's family when their family needs help.

If I need a job and it's vital to my family that I have one then I'm going to vote for the candidate I believe will be more likely to bring about that result. This is why all the finger wagging at Trump didn't work. It's also why Democrat voter turnout was down.

 

[SolarPowered]

im guilty of antipathy. I thought for sure that at least *some*(more than just democrats) people would vote against trump just because of all of the things he's said and done, and the fact that he was a con man as a business man. Turns out a nice slogan will make people ignore just about anything.

No

You missed the point of the OP. Turns out not playing to your strengths in democratic strongholds and actually engaging your base spells doom. It'll be a long four years if people still aren't getting this after the most catastrophic political loss this country has ever seen.

 

[water_wendi]

No

You missed the point of the OP. Turns out not playing to your strengths in democratic strongholds and actually engaging your base spells doom. It'll be a long four years if people still aren't getting this after the most catastrophic political loss this country has ever seen.

There is some good news here. While there are some on the left that still dont understand why Hillary lost almost all of the Republicans ive heard from have no idea why they won. The conservatives seem to have completely misread the outcome and theres no reason to figure it out because, well, they won. This will come back to haunt them in 2018 and 2020.

 

[ItIsOkBro]

Maybe positive campaigning is the way to go.

 

[Bam Bam Baklava]

The lack of blame being laid at the feet of Comey and Russian hackers is kind of ridiculous.

Maybe positive campaigning is the way to go.

The guy who won seems to prove otherwise.

 

[Enter the Dragon Punch]

How does your election loss make you feel?
Tell us in 3 emojis or less.

 

[entremet]

The lack of blame being laid at the feet of Comey and Russian hackers is kind of ridiculous.



The guy who won seems to prove otherwise.

MAGA was pretty positive.

 

[teruterubozu]

Her entire push in AZ was playing that ad of trumps remarks on women, minorities, etc. Over and over, like every commercial break at prime time. Its the one that says "is this what we want our kids hearing?" And I'm like... they're only hearing it because YOU keep replaying it!

This was classic Kerry campaigning. Don't vote for Bush. Why vote for me? Don't ask.

That alt right speech is going down in the books as one the biggest campaign blunders off all time. No one gives a fuck. Tell us how you're gonna stop Obamacare from making me lose my house next year when I cant5afford the mortgage. Trump at least bloviated about doing something.

Yup, exactly. "Bush is bad! Vote for us!" worked real well. Democrats need to get over this "we're the enlightened" choice attitude and find some substance that speaks to the nation.

 

[Window]

Ken Bone who got so much subsequent attention had a question exactly about the plan each candidate has for displaced workers. Did those answers register with the voters at all?

 

[orthodoxy1095]

Dramatic reenactment

Screaming.

Her entire push in AZ was playing that ad of trumps remarks on women, minorities, etc. Over and over, like every commercial break at prime time. Its the one that says "is this what we want our kids hearing?" And I'm like... they're only hearing it because YOU keep replaying it!

This was classic Kerry campaigning. Don't vote for Bush. Why vote for me? Don't ask.

That alt right speech is going down in the books as one the biggest campaign blunders off all time. No one gives a fuck. Tell us how you're gonna stop Obamacare from making me lose my house next year when I cant5afford the mortgage. Trump at least bloviated about doing something.

"I'm with her"

Yup. All over again. They learned nothing from that race apparently.

 

[justjohn]

It's really amazing how out of touch these people were that they thought people would vote for her because Trump said nasty things. Forget coming up with policies that will improve my life, no I'm gonna vote for you because your opponent is a nasty homophobe. #lovetrumpshate

 

[poppabk]

It's really amazing how out of touch these people were that they thought people would vote for her because Trump said nasty things. Forget coming up with policies that will improve my life, no I'm gonna vote for you because your opponent is a nasty homophobe. #lovetrumpshate

Well they did have policies, they just didn't make them a focus.

 

[Zaventem]

With that said, even if younger voters are more likely to vote democratic I think they should still adopt a strategy of campaigning in states the party is likely to lose, going forward.

 

[Diablos]

Whatever. She made mistakes.

But I genuinely think Comey cost her a lot of votes. Either by people not showing up that were planning to or by giving the Trump campaign a last minute shot in the arm when Clinton was riding high. 11 days before the election, that changed with a letter that turned out to be what everyone in the know initially thought: entirely useless and had nothing to do with Hillary/duplicates of things already examined.

She lost the rust belt by like 1-2% in key states. It's not impossible that the Comey effect turned off just enough Dems and/or riled up just enough extra rural voters to get off their asses.

 

[orthodoxy1095]

Whatever. She made mistakes.

But I genuinely think Comey cost her a lot of votes. Either by people not showing up that were planning to or by giving the Trump campaign a last minute shot in the arm when Clinton was riding high. 11 days before the election, that changed with a letter that turned out to be what everyone in the know initially thought: entirely useless and had nothing to do with Hillary/duplicates of things already examined.

She lost the rust belt by like 1-2% in key states. It's not impossible that the Comey effect turned off just enough Dems and/or riled up just enough extra rural voters to get off their asses.

Even if we say that Comey cost her 1-2%, it still seems like a failure of her campaigning that she was in such a poor position that 1-2% is what could cost her the election against a racist Nacho Cheese Dorito.

 

[teruterubozu]

Whatever. She made mistakes.

But I genuinely think Comey cost her a lot of votes. Either by people not showing up that were planning to or by giving the Trump campaign a last minute shot in the arm when Clinton was riding high. 11 days before the election, that changed with a letter that turned out to be what everyone in the know initially thought: entirely useless and had nothing to do with Hillary/duplicates of things already examined.

She lost the rust belt by like 1-2% in key states. It's not impossible that the Comey effect turned off just enough Dems and/or riled up just enough extra rural voters to get off their asses.

True, but it speaks more about the fragility of her campaign. Can't blame them, but they got so wrapped up in Comey when that happened that they completely took their focus off Trump for those last few weeks. They kind of lost their composure.

 

[Diablos]

True, but it speaks more about the fragility of her campaign. Can't blame them, but they got so wrapped up in Comey when that happened that they completely took their focus off Trump for those last few weeks. They kind of lost their composure.

It changed the entire dynamic. Trump went to rallies and the people went wild over it. The media was foaming at the mouth. Clinton couldn't say anything because no one cared for like a solid 3-4 days. And by then it was too late. When the final letter was written it was even worse. People were already voting. He released that letter right when people were making up their minds.

 

[t26]

Not sure that's the only reason when trump use crooked hillary every chance and they had the chat lock her up at the rallies

 

[teruterubozu]

It changed the entire dynamic. Trump went to rallies and the people went wild over it. The media was foaming at the mouth. Clinton couldn't say anything because no one cared for like a solid 3-4 days. And by then it was too late. When the final letter was written it was even worse. People were already voting. He released that letter right when people were making up their minds.

Yeah it sucked, no doubt. But again, how did they not have any contingencies for this? There was so much talk about sudden e-mail bombs in Oct-Nov all throughout the campaign. Oh well, it's all 20/20 hindsight...

 

[MIMIC]

"There was an assumption that antipathy toward Trump would be enough to mobilize the base . . .

I have the feeling that her supporters, and people around her, looked at Hillary and saw Michelle Obama (or Warren) or something.

 

[Man-is-Obsolete]

Is everyone just going to forget about Comey, Wikileaks, and championed by GOP voter suppression?

There are faults the Clinton campaign must own up to but remove any one of the above and she likely wins. Remove all three and it would have been a landslide.

 

[Vesmir]

It changed the entire dynamic. Trump went to rallies and the people went wild over it. The media was foaming at the mouth. Clinton couldn't say anything because no one cared for like a solid 3-4 days. And by then it was too late. When the final letter was written it was even worse. People were already voting. He released that letter right when people were making up their minds.

The almost radio silence by the campaign coupled with the democratic echo chamber of "she didn't do anything wrong so who cares" prevented anyone who did care from getting the answers they wanted. Sorry but if Clinton jumped on the issue hard to squelch it then Comey would not have mattered.

 

[DudeWithNoName]

Yup, exactly. "Bush is bad! Vote for us!" worked real well. Democrats need to get over this "we're the enlightened" choice attitude and find some substance that speaks to the nation.

Exactly. Bernie I think would be able to not only say he's not Trump, but also back it up with some ideas too.

 

[orthodoxy1095]

Is everyone just going to forget about Comey, Wikileaks, and championed by GOP voter suppression?

There are faults the Clinton campaign must own up to but remove any one of the above and she likely wins. Remove all three and it would have been a landslide.

Two of those probably should have been planned for.

 

[teruterubozu]

Is everyone just going to forget about Comey, Wikileaks, and championed by GOP voter suppression?

There are faults the Clinton campaign must own up to but remove any one of the above and she likely wins. Remove all three and it would have been a landslide.

But isn't dealing with adversity part of campaigning? I mean we're talking Clinton here, it was never ever going to be smooth sailing.

 

[Man-is-Obsolete]

Two of those probably should have been planned for.

Really only the voter suppression could be planned around and even that is really difficult because the other two suppress voters even more by creating apathy for voting. And it is not like they can drag people out of their homes to vote on Election Day and stand in line for hours.

Even with the Comey letter and Wikileaks if this country made it easier to vote early by having more polling places open before election and during and enable no excuse absentee across the nation she would have won. There were almost 800 less polling places this year vs 2016. In addition some states started ID requirements and less options before election to vote compared to then. Obama himself would have struggled to hit the same numbers as 2012. So that leaves Hillary with far less wiggle room and thus the makes the Comey letter so devastating.

Edit:

But isn't dealing with adversity part of campaigning? I mean we're talking Clinton here, it was never ever going to be smooth sailing.

Sure but the Comey letter was less than two weeks before election and people were literally voting in that time. What could she have done? She came out and said she wishes a speedy process as she is confident nothing would be found. Meanwhile the GOP are insinuating he worst. And timing is everything. Flip the Comey letter with the Access Hollywood tape and the results would have been drastically different but with all the same info in hindsight.

 

[ArkhamFantasy]

The fact that comey is going to get away with zero consequences and live a long and happy life makes my blood boil.

 

[teruterubozu]

Sure but the Comey letter was less than two weeks before election and people were literally voting in that time. What could she have done? She came out and said she wishes a speedy process as she is confident nothing would be found. Meanwhile the GOP are insinuating he worst. And timing is everything. Flip the Comey letter with the Access Hollywood tape and the results would have been drastically different but with all the same info in hindsight.

And Kerry got swift-boated. I mean, last minute bombs are not unusual in elections. It's all part of the game, unfortunately. It's easy to say if this and this didn't happen then she would have won, but such are elections.

 

[GulAtiCa]

Dramatic reenactment

hahaha. Sadly very accurate.

 

[old manatee]

If you look through her campaign schedule there are points where she was literally on vacation.

 

[Log4Girlz]

What did Clinton like to eat? I have no idea. I know Trump loves KFC and Taco bowls. He was a relatable, aspirational character. Clinton was a robot.

 

[elrechazado]

I live in Ohio, I literally only saw the Trump is bad for my daughter ad. 50 times or so. Trump ads were about america and how he'll fight for your job. Great job hildawg. No reason ever given to vote for her. For. Not against him.

 

[old manatee]

I live in Ohio, I literally only saw the Trump is bad for my daughter ad. 50 times or so. Trump ads were about america and how he'll fight for your job. Great job hildawg. No reason ever given to vote for her. For. Not against him.

yeah, on GAF it's called signal boosting. Where I live they ran the attack ad about Trump mocking the reporter about 10,000 times. It seemed like it was her whole platform.

 

[Vagabundo]

Her lazy ass campaigning probably cost her those swing states. Moore had laid it out for her. Trump was putting in the hours. She wasn't paying attention. She was fucking around when she should have been living and visiting in all those states.

Not sleeping every night at home in New York. Especially after Bill had encouraged the fuck to run in the first place. Clinton's can burn at this point. Anything Trump does now is on them as far as I'm concerned.