# Hillary: If the election had been held 12 days earlier, I'd be POTUS **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [May 2, 2017, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-if-the-election-had-been-held-12-days-earlier-id-be-potus/785737 "2017-05-02T19:07:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-if-the-election-had-been-held-12-days-earlier-id-be-potus/785737/81 "2017-05-03T16:11:21Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > Blaming Hillary is a popular method for assuaging personal guilt about the election results. “It’s not my fault I didn’t vote, Hillary didn’t energize me.” Or, “don’t blame me for not voting for her, Hillary ran a bad campaign.” People don’t want to accept their own role in Trump’s victory, so they rationalize their actions by blaming Hillary. What “personal guilt”? I showed up 15 minutes before the polls opened to vote for Clinton even though I had to hold my nose to do so, and I fully blame her for running an entitled, self-serving, obtuse campaign that not only ignored the concerns of people in economically disadvantaged areas but often actually inflated their concerns, allowing Trump to feed upon their fears. It may be true tha the playing field was unlevel and that she has been the target of unjustified attacks by the neoconservative far right for decades, but she was aware of that going in and instead of assuaging the concerns about her actions she actively fed the fire by delaying deliverying e-mails from her server and speaking dismissively about real concerns about the transparency of her communications in an official capacity in addition to ethically dubious relationship with investment banking interests. Comey’s public reveal of reopening the investigation (which I believe was more about covering his own ass and the reputation of the FBI than a deliberate attack on Clinton) may have slightly hurt the public perception of Clinton, but only because that perception was already shaky to begin with. Clinton was a flawed candidate to start with, promoted by the DNC because of party loyalty over good judgment, and she lost to the worst Republican contender since Alf Landon. A better politician would accept the errors as their own and provide a better model to others, but Clinton is too absorbed in her belief that she is entitled to the presidency to make an unqualified admission of fault. This doesn’t reflect well on her or on the Democratic party which needs to move on from “What if…?” to “What next?” Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-if-the-election-had-been-held-12-days-earlier-id-be-potus/785737/82 "2017-05-03T16:20:50Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > > [@Pleonast](#): > > > > Blaming Hillary is a popular method for assuaging personal guilt about the election results. “It’s not my fault I didn’t vote, Hillary didn’t energize me.” Or, “don’t blame me for not voting for her, Hillary ran a bad campaign.” People don’t want to accept their own role in Trump’s victory, so they rationalize their actions by blaming Hillary. > > Well, that’s a little complicated. It’s understood that there are certain demographics that don’t vote. If you are primarily targeting non-voting demographics as a campaign strategy, then you’d better be confident you can motivate them. Obama could, and yet Obama also made his appeal as broad as possible. Clinton went hard for college students, Latino voters, and black voters. Trump went hard for the white working class. Trump’s strategy didn’t require tons of outreach centers and GOTV efforts. Clinton’s did, and her organization sucked despite lavish funding. Absolutely. I’m not absolving Hillary of any fault. I’m pointing out that many people are blaming her in order to deflect fault from themselves. It doesn’t matter how lousy her campaign might’ve been or what her personal failures might be, each person who did not vote for Hillary when they had the opportunity must bear responsibility for Trump’s election. And many people are trying to deflect that fault in their own actions. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-if-the-election-had-been-held-12-days-earlier-id-be-potus/785737/83 "2017-05-03T16:27:31Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > It should never have come down to Comey. Hillary had 57 newspaper endorsements to Trump’s 2 Quibbling but I think it was more like 200 to 6 > [@](#): > > Democrats outnumbered Republicans by 20 million+ registered voters (IIRC When you include left leaning independents and right leaning independents, you end up with a slight Republican leaning majority. > [@](#): > > Hillary had perhaps 20x the political experience of Trump, Anything divided by zero is infinity. She had infinity times more experience than Trump. > [@](#): > > did better in all the debates, etc. Not if you grade it on a curve. The expectations for Trump were exceedingly low. > [@](#): > > Hillary should have been leading far ahead in the polls. Tiger Woods doesn’t blame some outside factor for losing to a never-golfed-before newbie. The thing is, she’s not Tiger Woods. She’s Tiger’s Wood’s wife who happens to know a shitload about the history and physics of golf but has never actually won a competitive golf game in her life. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-if-the-election-had-been-held-12-days-earlier-id-be-potus/785737/84 "2017-05-03T16:33:32Z")
> [@astro](#): > > Her “baggage” for me was > > 1: That yet another Clinton was running for President. The sheer balls out “It’s my turn” presumption and entitlement of this beggared the imagination. Bush I and II were bad enough but now we have Clinton redux? Enough … just fucking enough with this! So a qualified and experienced candidate should have recused herself from the race purely because her husband had previously been president, even though her political experience had begun long before he even became governor? How does saying she _shouldn’t_ run purely because she’s a Clinton make any more sense than say she _should_ run purely because she’s a Clinton? How is the fact that two Bushes had previously been president her fault? It sounds like the tags on that baggage have your name on them, not hers. > [@](#): > > 2: She knowingly tolerated her husband running around like a dog in heat brazenly chasing tail for decades as long as he wasn’t caught and damaged their political brand and when he was caught (or nearly caught in some cases) she tried to destroy the credibility of his accusers. I found this viscerally disturbing. Uh-huh. And if she’d divorced him she’d have been accused by Republicans of failing to try to make the marriage work and hating family values. Hell, she got criticized for daring to suggest she didn’t stay home and bake cookies all the time. Bill certainly deserves scorn for his philandering but blasting her for “tolerating” his behaviour (bearing in mind we have no idea what was said behind closed doors) is ludicrous. I am aware of the accusations that she “tried to destroy the credibility” of Bill’s accusers. I’m also aware that many of them were brought forward to destroy the credibility of Bill with the help of a lot of GOP money behind them. Were some of them genuine? Quite possibly but who knows? And we can’t know, not because Hillary destroyed their credibility but because the Republicans did. Meanwhile we’ve ended up with a president - not a spouse but the actual president - who spent a great deal of effort to discredit a number of sexual assault accusers that puts Bill’s list to shame. So, y’know, good going there. > [@](#): > > 3: She was involved in all kinds of sketchy stock deals in Arkansas that yielded absurd returns for almost no risk. This is not the kind of self dealing behavior I want in a prospective POTUS. . Yeah…how’s that working out for you? ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-if-the-election-had-been-held-12-days-earlier-id-be-potus/785737/85 "2017-05-03T16:35:25Z")
> [@astro](#): > > 3: She was involved in all kinds of sketchy stock deals in Arkansas that yielded absurd returns for almost no risk. This is not the kind of self dealing behavior I want in a prospective POTUS. On that point it isn’t as if you had a choice in this election. On the topic of Hillary being held accountable for Bill Clinton’s bad actions and history as president, it is certainly unfair in the sense that Hillary is her own person who would run her administration (and I have to believe she’d be giving Bill the “Shshh! You had your shot!” every time he offered unsolicitied advice), but the political reality is that reputation and perception weigh as heavily in public opinion as objective merit, and Hillary knowingly came into the race carrying that baggage. That she had a substantial history of being a credible if not outstanding career as a US senator and a somewhat checkered tenure as the Secretary of State does not offset the fact that she acted as an apologist (and perhaps even facilitator) of Bill Clinton’s infidelities, and frankly if a male candidate had done the same for his wife he’d be viewed as weak, likely even moreso than a female candidate. She made the political decision at the time to publically stand by Bill, which was a sound decision as a kingmaker but she had to know that would come out against her in her own candiditorial efforts, and she did little enough to assuage public concern that the Clinton’s were not some kind of cut-rate, inept versions of _House of Cards_’ Frank and Claire Underwood. That Donald Trump can get away with all of this and worse and remain essentially untarnished to his bevy of supporters speaks to his crass appeal and political acumen of his handlers (who have had their own challenges in protecting the public image of Trump) but to give the devil his due, he knew who he needed to pander to and how to do it, which makes him a better politician than Hillary Clinton, even if he is an objectively terrible President in every essential way including the most superficial capacities of being graceful and well-spoken. The lesson to be learned here is that you should run the candidate who has good appeal and understands the voting public rather than the micromanaging policy wonk who gives the appearance of disdaining the electorate. The lesson of Trump, on the other hand, is when you win the election with a vacuous figurehead you need to make sure he understands that he needs to populate his advisors with smart and experienced people and listen to their counsel. Oh, and hire someone other than the world’s angriest Toastmasters washout to be the press secretary for your administration. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Drum\_God](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drum_god/32/44_2.png) [@Drum\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drum_God)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-if-the-election-had-been-held-12-days-earlier-id-be-potus/785737/86 "2017-05-03T16:42:33Z")
She fails to mention that, were in not for the untimely passing of Beau Biden, she would not have even been the nominee. Joe would have run and won. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-if-the-election-had-been-held-12-days-earlier-id-be-potus/785737/87 "2017-05-03T16:43:54Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > 66 million of us voted for her, she won the popular vote by 3 million. > > Had she done slightly better in the midwest, she would be president. I still don’t understand how you can console yourself with a 3 million popular vote advantage when 110 million eligible voters didn’t bother voting at all and her entire popular vote advantage can be accounted for in California where she won by a larger margin than any other candidate in history. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-if-the-election-had-been-held-12-days-earlier-id-be-potus/785737/88 "2017-05-03T16:47:42Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > I voted for Hillary, but I felt the same way. Obama was our first black president and he was self made. He wasn’t born into wealth or power, he had to build those things for himself. > > Having our first female president get the title because she came from a powerful family (or worse, married a man who obtained power first) was kind of a bummer. Had she not married Bill Clinton I’m sure she still would’ve had a meaningful role in the public sphere, but I personally don’t think it’d be on the national level. If she hadn’t married bill, I suspect she would have eventually become a well respected partner at a law firm pulling in millions of dollars a year to help corporations do what corporations do. Bill was lucky to have her and she was lucky to have Bill. but between the two, Bill was the one with political talent. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-if-the-election-had-been-held-12-days-earlier-id-be-potus/785737/89 "2017-05-03T16:49:49Z")
> [@E-DUB](#): > > I’ve said before that by the time the GOP propaganda machine got done with Bernie people would have thought he was Joe Stalin. People wouldn’t have cared any more than they cared about Trump’s foibles. I know a lot of Trump voters who would have picked Bernie over Trump. I know zero Hillary voters that would have switched to Trump if Bernie was the candidate. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-if-the-election-had-been-held-12-days-earlier-id-be-potus/785737/90 "2017-05-03T16:53:04Z")
> [@snowthx](#): > > Elections are dirty. Both parties are especially dirty during elections. I confess I thought Hillary’s campaign was, evidently, weaker than I was willing to admit at the time - I mean - considering she lost due to all the BS - if she was a stronger candidate, all the lies in the world would not have made the difference - but in her case - they did. The GOP played their hand smarter and managed to convince more people NOT to vote for her than the Democrats convinced people NOT to vote for Trump. She also spent twice the money of the Trump campaign. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-if-the-election-had-been-held-12-days-earlier-id-be-potus/785737/91 "2017-05-03T16:57:21Z")
> [@Drum\_God](#): > > She fails to mention that, were in not for the untimely passing of Beau Biden, she would not have even been the nominee. Joe would have run and won. I like Uncle Joe but he wasn’t a strong campaigner in 2008 and had a mild case of foot-in-mouth disease. He was certainly personally more likable than Clinton but I’m not convinced he would have won either. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-if-the-election-had-been-held-12-days-earlier-id-be-potus/785737/92 "2017-05-03T16:59:23Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > People wouldn’t have cared any more than they cared about Trump’s foibles. I know a lot of Trump voters who would have picked Bernie over Trump. I know zero Hillary voters that would have switched to Trump if Bernie was the candidate. I wouldn’t have voted for either Trump or Sanders, who in my opinion are equally unqualified. (Clinton, for all her foibles, at least has some credibility and experience, and wasn’t campaigning to just burn everything down for the sake of doing “something”.) If it had been the choice between those two, I would have voted for [Joe Exotic](https://youtu.be/sc-_7RCFArM); even if he is “broke as shit” and won’t cut his hair, he still presents a better image than the two of those Batman villains combined. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-if-the-election-had-been-held-12-days-earlier-id-be-potus/785737/93 "2017-05-03T17:01:22Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > If only she hadn’t set up her own private server, lied about it, and wiped a whole bunch of emails and assured us that we didn’t need to see any of them and didn’t have a reputation for contemptuous dishonesty. But of course, that’s not possible, so it’s all Comey’s fault. > > Regards, > Shodan It’s also the misogynists who didn’t vote for her fault. Especially the female misogynists. ---
**Author:** ![Evan\_Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b487fb/32.png) [@Evan\_Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evan_Drake)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-if-the-election-had-been-held-12-days-earlier-id-be-potus/785737/94 "2017-05-03T17:01:36Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > On the topic of Hillary being held accountable for Bill Clinton’s bad actions and history as president, it is certainly unfair in the sense that Hillary is her own person who would run her administration (and I have to believe she’d be giving Bill the “Shshh! You had your shot!” every time he offered unsolicitied advice) I’m gonna think that Bill’s political advice would be 20x worth whatever advice she gave herself. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-if-the-election-had-been-held-12-days-earlier-id-be-potus/785737/95 "2017-05-03T17:35:06Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > It’s also the misogynists who didn’t vote for her fault. Especially the female misogynists. Go home Smurf. You’re not funny. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-if-the-election-had-been-held-12-days-earlier-id-be-potus/785737/96 "2017-05-03T17:44:45Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > If she hadn’t married bill, I suspect she would have eventually become a well respected partner at a law firm pulling in millions of dollars a year to help corporations do what corporations do. Bill was lucky to have her and she was lucky to have Bill. but between the two, Bill was the one with political talent. Yup. Guy who was AG at 30, Governor at 32 and President at 46 would have gone far regardless who he married. [QUOTE=Stranger On A Train] On the topic of Hillary being held accountable for Bill Clinton’s bad actions and history as president, it is certainly unfair in the sense that Hillary is her own person who would run her administration (and I have to believe she’d be giving Bill the “Shshh! You had your shot!” every time he offered unsolicitied advice), but the political reality is that reputation and perception weigh as heavily in public opinion as objective merit, and Hillary knowingly came into the race carrying that baggage [/QUOTE] :dubious: Is it also unfair that she was married to one of the greatest politicians of all time, whose influence gifted her a Senate seat and jumped her up the line of Presidential hopefuls? And she would be very stupid not to listen to the advice of Bill Clinton, hell she wrote in her first memoirs, that Bill valued the advice of former Presidents when he was in office, Nixon [gave him a lot of information on Russia before he died](http://www.nytimes.com/1994/04/25/us/for-clinton-and-nixon-a-rarefied-bond.html?pagewanted=all), which Clinton found to be first rate. As it is, you are right, she did shshh Bill, his advice to concentrate on working class [voters was brushed aside](http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/bill-clintons-lonely-one-man-effort-to-win-white-working-class-voters/article/2607228). ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-if-the-election-had-been-held-12-days-earlier-id-be-potus/785737/97 "2017-05-03T17:57:16Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > Meanwhile we’ve ended up with a president - not a spouse but the actual president - who spent a great deal of effort to discredit a number of sexual assault accusers that puts Bill’s list to shame. So, y’know, good going there. > > Yeah…how’s that working out for you? Well… since I have indicated more than once at this point that I’m progressive leaning and voted for HRC not Trump … it didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-if-the-election-had-been-held-12-days-earlier-id-be-potus/785737/98 "2017-05-03T18:20:13Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > So a qualified and experienced candidate Like I keep pointing out in these threads, if you’re going to talk about her ‘qualifications’ and ‘experience’, you inevitably bring up the fact that she strongly supported a lot of things she opposes now, like the Iraq War and the SuperPredators crime bill. And she was openly opposed to gay marriage until the courts decided the issue, another big flip-flop. She was in favor of the TPP, then opposed it for the election, but her supporters assure me that she would have favored it after being elects. A lot of her campaign promises seem to be “I’ll oppose the stuff that I supported, and support the stuff I opposed” when you start looking at her record. That’s a lot of bad stuff to dredge up, especially in an election where discontent with party insiders was such a strong force. And what’s all that impressive about her experience? She won a senate election when the prime candidate for the spot had to drop out of the race for unrelated reasons, and didn’t do all that much as a senator. She made some blatantly false claims about her experience, like the claim that most of the bills she introduced had a Republican co-sponsor, which further detracts from it’s value. Other than that, she was Bill Clinton’s wife during his presidency, and then got appointed to some positions for being a party insider, and did nothing especially interesting with them. I really don’t see how harping on her ‘qualifications’ and ‘experience’ was supposed to help her election chances, and I see a lot of ways that it hurt. She just didn’t have a good record to fall back on, ‘competent insider’ is the best read from her history (there’s not even ‘competent campaigner’ in there). Sure she was better than Trump, but you’re not going to win an election by pointing out that the sky is blue. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-if-the-election-had-been-held-12-days-earlier-id-be-potus/785737/99 "2017-05-03T18:24:26Z")
> [@TimeWinder](#): > > And that’s the takeaway that should matter. Look, we have conservatives–here on this board and elsewhere–that just scream bloody murder if you call them racists for supporting votor ID laws: “We’re not racists, even those these laws are blatantly racist–we just think that the integrity of the vote is the absolute most important thing in the whole world!” > > Then we have an election where–contrary to any supposed instances of “voter fraud” ever–there’s substantial, at this point nearly overwhelming, evidence that various illegal and unethical actions _changed the outcome of an actual national election_, and…crickets. The “integrity of the vote is the _most_ important thing” racists lost their shit when it was even suggested that there should be recounts in contested areas, much less that we should be investigating blatant tampering and a President who’s actively undermining the system." > > And such ended the last time I paid any heed to conservatives’ false claims. I don’t remember people on this board thinking Comey was all hat bad a few months earlier when he said that no reasonable prosecutor would bring charges against Hillary. Is it possible that Comey, a bureaucrat with about the highest reputations for integrity in Washington DC, was doing his job the way he was supposed to do his job? ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-if-the-election-had-been-held-12-days-earlier-id-be-potus/785737/100 "2017-05-03T18:25:48Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > Blaming Hillary is a popular method for assuaging personal guilt about the election results. “It’s not my fault I didn’t vote, Hillary didn’t energize me.” Or, “don’t blame me for not voting for her, Hillary ran a bad campaign.” People don’t want to accept their own role in Trump’s victory, so they rationalize their actions by blaming Hillary. Many people who voted for Hillary (like me ) blame her for the loss. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-if-the-election-had-been-held-12-days-earlier-id-be-potus/785737.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-if-the-election-had-been-held-12-days-earlier-id-be-potus/785737.md?page=6)