How was Hillary Clinton's campaign the worst ever, even worse than the hapless George McGovern's who was the victim of circumstances (a running mate who didn't disclose electric shock therapy)? Let me count the ways which will, surely, never be seen again.
A 19th century "front porch" campaign
A reminiscence of an old fashioned, front porch campaign where the candidate stayed at home and had visitors assemble in small groups awaiting bland vagaries.
Celebrity Knockout
Amassing a horde of Hollywood/sporting/television/theatrical media personalities whose very presence at events and in social media was somehow supposed to make the rust belt unemployed vote for her. The public have ceased to be influenced in any way by what rich and famous celebrities, some clearly neurotic as is often the case with such denizens.
Unashamedly Courting the mega-rich
Getting hundreds of thousands of dollars from Wall Street banks for speeches while the country has a loathing for such types while refusing to advise what was said to them was beyond stupid.
Spending Millions on television adverts
The lesson of Jeb Bush's multi-million dollar television spend for zero return was clearly lost on Clinton. Actually, who really listens to such gross swamping of the airwaves? Certainly there is a place for media work but at some point the law of diminishing returns kicks in and saturation has the reverse effect of what was intended.
Holding small crowd meetings while your opponent has mass stadium events
The thinking behind Clinton's tiny gatherings are one of the biggest mysteries of the campaign. Although the media chose to never comment on the difference the optics were visible to everyone.
Trump held meeting after meeting to mass adulation and attendees left impressed and energized.
It hardly seems credible that any future candidate will repeat what looked like a casual, elitist, "strategy."
Choosing a vice-presidential running mate utterly devoid of charisma
"Kaine who"? The role of a VP running mate shoudl be attack dog. Nobody really votes for the presidential candidate because of who the running mate is. Elizabeth Warren was trotted out, gave some firebrand stir the troops speeches and then was discarded for the utterly bland Kaine who was pulled from the field after having a "crowd" of dozens, at most, attend rallies. Mike Pence in contrast, whilst no Trump presented himself with a combination of dignity and energy which complemented Trump whilst being able to draw good sized crowds.
Neglecting core Electoral College battleground states
Only utter hubris or gross incompetence or worse believing your own and a supportive media's hype could begin to explain how the Clinton campaign neglected the rust belt states. That Clinton only visited Wisconsin once, at the start of the campaign, and made any effort in Pennsylvania and Michigan at the very end of it when it was too late beggars belief.
Treating the campaign as if one had all the time in the world
Whatever can be said about Trump it can't be denied he made a superhuman effort holding up to four campaign meetings a day. Clinton on the other hand woudl hold a small meeting, toss out platitudes and then take the week off. It's a run for the highest office in the land not a casual re-election run in a safe seat, you're either all in or your out and for Hillary the latter was the result.
"Clinton’s leisurely pace fed the perception that she thought she was marching to an inevitable coronation. Inevitability didn’t work out too well for Clinton in 2008, and it didn’t work this year, either."
Running on attacking your opponent without presenting why you should be elected in a simple straightforward manner
Self-explanatory
Running on"The Woman Card"
I would imagine that the next female candidate will ask the media not to ever mention her gender.
Voters are perfectly happy to elect a woman to any office as long as they are seen to be honest, competent and have presented workable, serious solutions which address voters concern. To say anything else is idiotic and demeaning to women.
There are of course other reason for Clinton's disastrous campaign. These include not reining in the grossly partisan media which would have turned off potential supporters by its crude and obvious bias. But the above ten reasons would have been enough to sink any campaign and will be assigned, surely, to the dustbin of history.
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