Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

'It was arrogance' — Clinton staffers explain how she lost key battleground states
Business Insider ^ | 11-17-16 | Mark Abadi

Posted on 11/17/2016 7:27:17 AM PST by afraidfortherepublic

Hillary Clinton's campaign ignored pleas from staff members for the candidate to boost her efforts in Michigan and Wisconsin, two unexpected battleground states, The Huffington Post reported Wednesday.

The two states, considered safely Democratic by virtually all pollsters ahead of the election, swung for Donald Trump on Election Day, securing the Republican his shocking victory.

One senior operative told The Huffington Post that in Michigan, which Clinton is on track to lose by about 12,000 votes, her campaign's canvassing operation was one-tenth the size of Democratic candidate John Kerry's in 2004.

In Wisconsin, local campaign officials were forced to raise $1 million in last-minute get-out-the-vote funds after Clinton's national campaign declined to provide it, operatives told The Huffington Post.

Clinton's Wisconsin office also reportedly lobbied for the campaign to send African-American surrogates to boost Democratic turnout in Milwaukee. Clinton received 39,000 fewer votes in Milwaukee County than Barack Obama did in 2012, and she lost the state by about 27,000 votes, thanks to lower turnout in three key counties.

(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; Politics/Elections; US: Wisconsin
KEYWORDS: 2016issues; 2016swingstates; arrogance; blackturnout; election; hillary2016; hillarycampaign; hillaryclinton; hillarylost; hillarypostmortem; michigan; money; wisconsin
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-77 next last
To: afraidfortherepublic

Thank the Lord above Hillary and her staff are both lazy and stupid, but arrogance is a polite way to describe them.


41 posted on 11/17/2016 8:06:58 AM PST by Mat_Helm
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RoosterRedux

That’s the trouble when you surround yourself with sycophants and yes men. It is a trap many of the powerful fall into. Let us hope Trump doesn’t do so. His campaign I think shows he knows good advice when he hears it.


42 posted on 11/17/2016 8:11:24 AM PST by xp38
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: afraidfortherepublic
 photo Hillary had fireworks_zps9jgxcsrd.jpg
43 posted on 11/17/2016 8:12:06 AM PST by Mase (Save me from the people who would save me from myself!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: afraidfortherepublic

It was more than just arrogance... though she was...

She lost PA... Which was obvious from day one she would lose... So even if she had managed to save WI and MI... she still lost.

I do agree the dems were arrogant and unwilling to even contemplate the reality they were facing, and lived in an echo chamber of their own delusions... But even if she pulled out WI and MI... She loses PA... and loses the election...

PA was on NONE of their radars, even though it was THE state she lost by the biggest margin.


44 posted on 11/17/2016 8:12:27 AM PST by HamiltonJay
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: afraidfortherepublic

“Clinton’s campaign has pinned the loss on the FBI director, James Comey, who announced 11 days before the election that the bureau was renewing its investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server. A campaign director wrote in an email last week that the announcement most likely helped depress voter turnout.

Comey’s subsequent letter clearing Clinton of any wrongdoing, issued two days before the election, may have energized Trump’s supporters in turn, the director said.”

They still don’t get it... NO doubt that Comey’s actions helped bring Trump supporters out of the propaganda induced duldrums they were in from all the bogus gas lit polling and reports the election was over.... but Trump had PA from DAY ONE! Trump was already regaining his momentum before the Comey letter came out...

Its a nice scapegoat... Trump really didn’t win, we lost... and while a reasonable argument for WI can be made especailly... Trump did not outperform Romney at all there.... that was a state Trump won purely because Hillary underperformed Obama... MI and PA, Trump put 500k more votes in the box that Romney in those 2 states... Yes Clinton underperformed Obama in both places.. but she was going to underperform him everywhere, no matter what she did.

She may have been able to save WI... And Maybe pulled out MI in the end.. but she had NO shot at getting PA. To hold PA she had to perform at Obama 12 levels, and that was never a viable possibility for her.


45 posted on 11/17/2016 8:18:34 AM PST by HamiltonJay
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: afraidfortherepublic

Here in rural NE Pennsylvania, the place has been blanketed with Trump signs for a long, long time. I hardly saw any Hillary ones (except the Prison ones) till late in the game.

The weekend before the election, all of sudden there were bunches of “Rural PA for Hillary” signs. They weren’t in people’s yards like the Trump signs...they were along roadways in the direction of the PA Turnpike.

It sure seemed to me the Mrs. that Hillary’s campaign was worried about the PA numbers late in the game, cooked up these signs, and then frantically distributed them at strategic points close to major highways. I think they knew they were in trouble going in.


46 posted on 11/17/2016 8:18:40 AM PST by Claud
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: afraidfortherepublic

Here in rural NE Pennsylvania, the place has been blanketed with Trump signs for a long, long time. I hardly saw any Hillary ones (except the Prison ones) till late in the game.

The weekend before the election, all of sudden there were bunches of “Rural PA for Hillary” signs. They weren’t in people’s yards like the Trump signs...they were along roadways in the direction of the PA Turnpike.

It sure seemed to me the Mrs. that Hillary’s campaign was worried about the PA numbers late in the game, cooked up these signs, and then frantically distributed them at strategic points close to major highways. I think they knew they were in trouble going in.


47 posted on 11/17/2016 8:19:04 AM PST by Claud
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: originalbuckeye

No! She is the smartest woman in the WORLD ! How dare you degrade Hillary.-/s/


48 posted on 11/17/2016 8:23:33 AM PST by AEMILIUS PAULUS
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: afraidfortherepublic

MORE campaign events?

She could barely manage the ones she had.


49 posted on 11/17/2016 8:25:31 AM PST by Fido969
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: inkfarmer

50 posted on 11/17/2016 8:27:18 AM PST by COBOL2Java (1 Tim 2:1-3)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: COBOL2Java

OMG The evil demons in her WILL NOT BE REPRESSED any longer!


51 posted on 11/17/2016 8:28:28 AM PST by uncitizen (NOT Suffering Fools Since 11/8/16)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 50 | View Replies]

To: afraidfortherepublic

Yeah, that, and that she’s just plain unlikeable.


52 posted on 11/17/2016 8:38:14 AM PST by uncitizen (NOT Suffering Fools Since 11/8/16)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RayChuang88
Despite his innumerable faults, one thing Bill Clinton had going for him was he knew how to run a successful Presidential campaign...

We should never let our policy disagreements and contempt for their character obscure honest judgements of our opponents.

Bill Clinton was a masterful politician had the "common touch" and was able to connect with blue collar voters. With Perot running interference, Bush and Dole couldn't compete.

Obama had an equal ability to connect with and motivate leftists and minority voters as their authority figure and protector. He was a skilled political infighter who could convey inevitability and demoralize opponents in Congress.

Mrs. Clinton could not do either. She was abrasive, arrogant, and could not see her weaknesses and compensate for them. Outside California, New York City, and Chicago, she was soundly beaten.

53 posted on 11/17/2016 8:38:52 AM PST by drop 50 and fire for effect ("Work relentlessly, accomplish much, remain in the background, and be more than you seem.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: afraidfortherepublic

Something about pride goeth before a fall


54 posted on 11/17/2016 8:40:08 AM PST by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Lurkinanloomin

Exactly


55 posted on 11/17/2016 8:40:40 AM PST by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: CodeToad

You nailed it


56 posted on 11/17/2016 8:41:59 AM PST by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: RoosterRedux

I am hearing that her inner circle literally had no idea they could possibly lose. When the results started rolling in the response was “volcanic.”


57 posted on 11/17/2016 8:50:40 AM PST by USNBandit (Sarcasm engaged at all times)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: RayChuang88

Bill Clinton is also a good politician who is capable of communicating well with people and relating to them on a personal level. He’s a likeable person, at least to those who don’t know or don’t care about his true nature.

Hillary is almost the exact opposite of this. Even among her hardcore supporters, you get the sense that they support her in the abstract but don’t particularly care for her on a personal level. She truly is an unlikeable person.

Likeability is a quality that plays a bigger role among many voters than the political class realizes or wants to admit. IMO the fact that she’s just not likeable may well have cost her the election.


58 posted on 11/17/2016 8:50:46 AM PST by stremba
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: stremba
Well, that speech against the Alt-Right in late August 2016 and her basket of deplorables speech in mid-September 2016 essentially criticized a huge bloc of voters--pollster Frank Luntz rightly called it political suicide.
59 posted on 11/17/2016 8:56:34 AM PST by RayChuang88 (FairTax: America's economic cure)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 58 | View Replies]

To: SamAdams76

Actually the polling averages were not really far off from the results, at least compared with the errors in past elections. The averages had Hillary up by about 3% in the popular vote. If the results stay about where they are, she’ll win the popular vote by slightly under 1%. That’s just a bit over a 2% polling error, which is not a particularly large error historically.

For example, the polls in 2012 did worse than this year’s polls. The difference is that the polls this year had the race as a relatively narrow Clinton win, narrow enough that a reasonably-sized error in favor of Trump would change the result. The 2012 polls gave Obama a smaller lead than the actual result (by ~4% IIRC). Obviously this did not make the actual winner different from the predicted winner, so nobody really cared about the error.

The real mistake was failing to understand that while the polls did show a Hillary win, it was withinthe margin of error. Based on poll data it was reasonable to state that Clinton was the favorite. It was NOT reasonable to do what her campaign did and act like she had it all wrapped up. This ignores the normal level of uncertainty in poll results.


60 posted on 11/17/2016 9:02:51 AM PST by stremba
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-77 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson