BTW, in a normal election cycle, no candidate would have survived the Billy Bush videotape either, as Trump did.
The fact that Trump won, despite the massive array of all that was against him, illustrates just how weak a candidate Hillary was and while we can only speculate, I think that 9/11 video did a lot of damage to her, even though her supporters probably don't want to admit is. Just like many of us don't want to admit how devastating that Billy Bush videotape really was.
On September 11, I honestly believed that Hillary was finished. And while I supported Trump throughout, I honestly thought that Trump was finished the weekend that the Billy Bush tape came out. I remember that Saturday being at an Octoberfest festival somewhere in CT and getting deep into my cups because I didn't want to think about Hillary as our next president.
It was not your normal election, that is for sure.
There’s a real tendency to project in cases like this. We figure since we’ve seen the video multiple times, a few times even in slow motion, discussed it at length and read numerous, excellent articles on it, others have too. In fact, only our fellow political junkies took it that seriously. Most watched the MSM’s edited version, accepted that Hillary “stumbled,” and shrugged it off. I don’t even recall Hillary’s numbers taking any kind of significant dip in the aftermath.
All I felt about Trump’s locker room talk was fury that certain people were blowing it out of proportion. I think by that point the MSM had simply tried to take Trump down too many times. People were just getting tired of the nonstop hit jobs. Had the tape been utilized differently, it would likely have hurt Trump more.
I forgot one thing that mitigated the tape. Namely, that a lot of people already felt like they knew Trump. They’d watched him on The Apprentice. They hadn’t seen a flirtatious, hound dog type; they’d seen a consumate professional. So when the press tried to tell them Trump was just the opposite, it was a hard sell.
Fortunately.