The Democrats continue to blame everything but themselves for Hillary Clinton losing the presidential election in November, with the latest excuse being that the Russians hacked the election, even though there is no evidence to support that assertion.
While there is no doubt that Russia was actively trying to influence the election, they are not to blame for Clinton’s loss. The main person to blame is Clinton herself.
Here are five reasons why Clinton lost the election.
1. Clinton was a terrible candidate. It would have been hard for the Democrats to pick a worse candidate than Clinton. She is incredibly awkward, robotic, inarticulate and unlikable. Scandals and corruption plague Clinton at every corner and her tenure as secretary of state is stained by Benghazi and the emboldening of Iran, Russia, China and radical Islam. Clinton is perhaps the only candidate that could have lost to Trump, and she did.
2. FBI director James Comey re-opening the FBI investigation into Clinton’s emails. The evidence is clear that when Comey re-opened the case, the later deciders in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania broke for Donald Trump. Before Comey’s announcement, “Clinton would almost certainly be President-elect,” per Nate Silver.
This does not mean that Comey is the scapegoat for Clinton’s loss. He had to make the announcement or else he would have faced perjury charges, having previously told Congress he hadn’t “seen anything” to revisit the case. Anthony Weiner and Huma Abedin can certainly be blamed since they shared the laptop that came under scrutiny and forced the FBI to re-open the investigation, but ultimately the blame falls on Clinton. She is the one who defied federal law in using a private email server to handle classified information.
3. The Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee had a terrible strategy to win. Politico reported the Clinton campaign barely spent time and resources in key states like Wisconsin and Michigan–as they assumed they would win those states–and instead spent time in states like Arizona. At the DNC’s behest, money was poured into urban areas like Chicago and New Orleans to give Clinton a popular vote victory. The Clinton campaign also put resources into Iowa to simply trick Trump into spending time there instead of Michigan. Even as there were warning signs about a pending upset in Michigan, such as a lack of urban turnout, the Clinton team insisted that their model showed them winning Michigan by five points.
4. Clinton wrote off the white-working class vote. In March, Clinton declared, “We’re gonna put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.” By making that statement, Clinton showed just how out of touch she was with the white working class, especially those in the Rust Belt who had their livelihoods decimated by the Environmental Protection Agency’s anti-coal regulations.
Additionally, Clinton’s campaign themes never addressed the economic hardship the working class was facing. Instead, she focused on expanding the size of government and attacking Trump’s “temperament.” In doing so, she allowed Trump’s economic populism to make the working class think he cared about them and she was out of touch.
5. Clinton thought she was guaranteed victory. She even took the month of August off and didn’t campaign with much urgency, as her schedule wasn’t as busy as Trump’s.
“Clinton’s leisurely pace fed the perception that she thought she was marching to an inevitable coronation,” writes The Atlantic‘s Molly Ball. “Inevitability didn’t work out too well for Clinton in 2008, and it didn’t work this year, either.”