In her third memoir, set to be released next week, Hillary Clinton reportedly owns many of her mistakes that lead to her defeat last November, but she also places some of the fault on her former Democratic opponent and former FBI Director James Comey.
She said her biggest fault was running a “traditional” campaign instead of a “reality TV show” campaign like Donald Trump did. Trump’s camp “relentlessly stoked Americans’ anger and resentment,” she wrote, according to CNN. The network purchased the new book, titled “What Happened,” a week before its widespread release.
“I think it’s fair to say that I didn’t realize how quickly the ground was shifting under all our feet,” she said. “I was running a traditional presidential campaign with carefully thought-out policies and painstakingly built coalitions, while Trump was running a reality TV show that expertly and relentlessly stoked Americans’ anger and resentment.”
Her critique of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) ties into her disdain for Trump, saying Sanders’ attempts to damage her image during the primaries made way for Trump to latch onto the “crooked Hillary” rhetoric that was so emboldening for his base.
The Comey letter that announced the FBI was continuing its investigation into Clinton’s emails just days before the election was also a major death blow, she said, according to CNN.
But her comments during a CNN town hall about putting coal miners out of business is the mistake she said she “regrets the most.”
She wrote that she thinks sexism was also clearly at play and a crucial part of her defeat. She questions why after years of holding so many public offices, the public still doesn’t like her.
“What makes me such a lightning rod for fury? I’m really asking. I’m at a loss,” she wrote. “I think it’s partly because I’m a woman.”
In the new memoir, she also reportedly dives into her relationship with her husband, former President Bill Clinton; her frustration with the media; and her regret over not being able to face Russian President Vladimir Putin as a U.S. president, according to CNN.
“There’s nothing I was looking forward to more than showing Putin that his efforts to influence our election and install a friendly puppet had failed,” she writes. “I know he must be enjoying everything that’s happened instead. But he hasn’t had the last laugh yet.”
20+ years of relentless attack by rightwing media and it’s perverse fanboy base coupled with a less than dignified creation of great personal wealth that played into this pre-wired, craze-like opposition.
“Methinks the lady doth protest too much…”
This was an election, not a coronation. It was Bernie Sanders’ job to point out her flaws during the primaries, so that her campaign would be prepared to rebut Republican criticisms in the general election. If there had been more candidates for the Democratic nomination, and if Hillary had not locked up so much of the major donors, she might not have even become the nominee.
I wish she would look at how she had clear vulnerabilities going into this campaign. I’m someone who is disposed to like her, but I was concerned that her financial success and comfort rendered her out of touch with the concerns of non-wealthy people. There was 25+ years of anti-Clinton propaganda out there that has persuaded a lot of people to never vote for her even if their lives depended on it. It was always going to be a narrower margin of victory with her than with someone like Joe Biden.
If that was really the problem, how do explain that poor white slobs elected trump?
Bernie Sanders certainly did damage last year. Now I read this, and it hardly makes me like him any better. Blame can also be directed at some democrats, but he’s certainly no knight in shining armor.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2017/09/06/daily-202-daca-reaction-shows-how-immigration-has-become-a-litmus-test-for-democrats/59af142730fb04264c2a1ced/?utm_term=.3de4dcbea5e9&wpisrc=nl_daily202&wpmm=1