Hillary Clinton lost the presidency because voters didn't like her, voters didn't trust her, voters sniffed a strong whiff of corruption about her, and voters wanted change. She also declined to campaign in two key midwestern states, allocating her time and advertising dollars poorly, while foolishly seeking to run up the popular vote score in Democratic areas of non-competitive states. The Russians didn't force her to make any of those epic mistakes; she made them all on her own. She managed to lose to a man whose disapproval among the electorate on election day was 60 percent. And yet, just as she couldn't stop lying about Benghazi and her email scandal during the campaign, she now can't stop whinging and making excuses for her historic defeat. Roll the tape and cue the string music:
Hillary Clinton: "I'd have been president" if it wasn't for Wikileaks and Comey letter. pic.twitter.com/xuNcVvO1l2
— Brandon Pope TV (@BpopeTV) May 2, 2017
I wasn't a perfect candidate and we didn't run a perfect campaign, she concedes (this is Hillary's version of "taking responsibility"), but I totally would have won if not for these nefarious outside factors. The Wikileaks emails certainly darkened the cloud of untrustworthiness that hung over her head, but she'd earned that cloud over decades of inauthenticity and dishonesty on the national stage. Democrats may still mutter under their breath about that Comey letter -- which was entirely defensible in light of new information -- but let's recall that the FBI Director also worked overtime to resolve the issue as expeditiously as possible, and declared the matter closed prior to election day. The last headlines voters saw before heading to the polls were something to the effect of 'FBI Clears Clinton Again. If anything, Clinton should be grateful to Comey for doing her a solid by not recommending criminal charges to the Justice Department.
She very clearly broke the law through her consistently and grossly negligent handling of highly classified material. The statute is cut-and-dried, with Comey all but admitting that the "gross negligence" standard applies to her conduct, calling it "extremely careless." He later added that her behavior was the "definition of negligence." The relevant law does not require proof of criminal intent, but Congressman Trey Gowdy skillfully exposed how Clinton's endless lies ("false exculpatory statements," in legal parlance) cleared that higher bar, too. In short, Hillary Clinton caught a major break by not having an indictment recommendation lodged against her. Democrats knowingly nominated a corrupt, unlikable habitual liar who was under active FBI investigation, and whose charmless candidacy represented the continuation of policies the American people had soundly rejected in consecutive midterm elections. They had the great fortune of opposing a Republican whose personal characteristics polled even worse than hers, yet they couldn't seal the deal. That's not on Vladimir or Jim. It's on them, and it's on her. Meanwhile, here's Hillary spreading more fake news (a phenomenon that disproportionately benefitted her more than Trump on one key measure, according to a Stanford study):
Recommended
Hillary Clinton says none of the debate moderators asked, "How are you going to create jobs?"
— Dylan Byers (@DylanByers) May 2, 2017
Come on -- that was Lester Holt's first question in the very first debate https://t.co/xUEmrMoFcb https://t.co/fwxP09xoLM
— Mark Murray (@mmurraypolitics) May 2, 2017
In her forum answer this week, Clinton says that she "overcame a lot" during the campaign, which advances a hollow underdog narrative from a heavy favorite who outspent her opponent two-to-one in the process of losing. And let's not forget that after months of re-litigating the Russia issue, and after ample time has passed for Comey-related perspective to settle in, a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll found that the American people would still vote for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton.
WaPo/ABC poll: If a do-over election were held today, Trump would win again & by a larger margin.https://t.co/DOsblVxMYu
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) April 24, 2017
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