I heard a 30 second grab of it on the wireless this morning, and she blamed about 10 different things on why she lost the election.

Wow. Just wow.

Gordon wrote on Oct 16^th, 2017 at 11:10am:


Indeed. The biggest cause was polling and electoral strategy. Trump appealed to one demographic and targeted them at the county level, using the analytic data pioneered by the Obama campaigns.

Hillary went for more diffuse groups and used more traditional methods. Her polling was more expensive, and state-wide. She employed different pollsters in every state, all of them using different methods.

Hillary appealed to women and ethnic minorities - the vote George W Bush successfully appealed to in his campaigns, particularly the huge Hispanic population in the South.

Trump went for less-educated, older men - the sort of audience politicians once appealed to in Australia by schmoozing Alan Jones.

Trump could have very easily gone for the ethnic vote, who originally, were Trump's biggest supporters. This was his main audience for the Apprentice: aspirational immigrants and Christian followers of "prosperity doctrine", a huge group in America that transcends poor whites, black Pentecostals and Hispanic Catholics.

Whether he couldn't help himself or not, Trump went for White older males, declaring his anti-immigration/Mexican stance in his announcement that he intended to run. Trump ran on a negative platform - anti immigration, anti health-care, anti-trade, anti Hillary. He had few policies and no discernible positive pitch. Trump took negative campaigning to unprecedented levels. Just when you thought he couldn't go lower, he did, and this was the message taken up by his followers: Trump just says what he wants. They saw the run for the White House in terms of reality TV, not unlike the Jerry Springer Show.

The Trump strategy was driven by Steve Bannon and Cambridge Analytica, who predicted the possibility of winning Florida and the mid-western Democrat states. Bannon gave Trump his revolutionary zeal, but admitted that he couldn't rein Trump in or get him to stay on message. All gave up on Trump after Pussygate.

Hillary's side over-ambitiously went for red states like Colorado and New Mexico, thinking Republican conservatives would have to vote against a guy like Trump. Those who may have felt this way, of course, just didn't vote. Trump also won some of  his old Apprentice audience.. A number of Hispanics actually voted for him.

In the end, Hillary got the popular vote, but it was too diffused. She had not campaigned hard enough in the rust belt, thinking her policies would speak for themselves. Instead, Trump spoke for Hillary's policies: dumb cliches that, with the help of his attacks on Hillary herself, worked.

Elections are always a gamble, but this one showed that electorates can vote against their own interests, which is exactly what they did. The biggest beneficiaries of Obamacare, for example, are Trump's own base. The Bible Belt too went against generations of values championing moral leadership: they chose the dirty-talking divorcee and serial cheater.

The media and pollsters were right: Trump could never win the presidency.

Instead, he did.

Mattyfisk wrote on Oct 16^th, 2017 at 1:15pm:


America got the president they deserved.

Hopefully the next two candidates will be much closer to the centre, more inclusive with a lot more policy overlap.

cods wrote on Oct 16^th, 2017 at 1:45pm:


Hillary is certainly right to blame Comey. Why he announced a new investigation into her emails, only to drop it two days before the election, is anyone's business. Comey gave Trump a gift that was probably more valuable than what Trump bought off Putin.

When Trump met with Comey to test out his loyalty, he thanked Comey for that little investigation. Without a doubt, it was foremost in voters' minds when they voted in states with very narrow margins.

Hillary has every right to cast blame. Comey and the Russians' actions are unprecedented in US politics.

Gordon wrote on Oct 16^th, 2017 at 2:56pm:


And look how much good it did them...

Putin was wiser, he went to the top.  I doubt he actually did anything substantial, he just appeared to do something and that something was sufficient to give Trump a helping hand.   

Brian Ross wrote on Oct 16^th, 2017 at 4:36pm:


Serves the Democrats right for dishing up that dried up old witch. There is so much talent in America but being the president is that last thing they'd want.

Anyway, all the shame is on Hillary for not being able to beat Trump to is a buffoon, not just a buffoon but a caricature of a buffoon!

Gordon wrote on Oct 16^th, 2017 at 2:56pm:


Good point. The USSR had the Comintern, you're right.

Gordon wrote on Oct 16^th, 2017 at 6:01pm:


This is not about Democrats or Republicans. You can't blame the Republicans for serving up Trump either. The US has a system of primaries. Voters vote for candidates to stand.

Trump - and Hillary if you will - shoved their way in.