# The Clinton campaign was brutally awful **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [April 21, 2017, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-clinton-campaign-was-brutally-awful/784902 "2017-04-21T08:51:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2017, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-clinton-campaign-was-brutally-awful/784902/1 "2017-04-21T08:51:35Z")
Another thread has referenced the new book Shattered, but Matt Taibbi does a great job of explaining the good parts: > **[Taibbi on the New Book That Brutalizes the Clinton Campaign](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/yikes-new-behind-the-scenes-book-brutalizes-the-clinton-campaign-123303/)** > > 'Shattered,' a campaign tell-all fueled by anonymous sources, outlines a generational political disaster. > [@](#): > > Beyond that, Hillary after 2008 conducted a unique autopsy of her failed campaign. This reportedly included personally going back and reading through the email messages of her staffers: > > “She instructed a trusted aide to access the campaign’s server and download the messages sent and received by top staffers. … She believed her campaign had failed her – not the other way around – and she wanted ‘to see who was talking to who, who was leaking to who,’ said a source familiar with the operation.” I think this lack of self awareness was the reason her campaign was essentially a repeat of the 2008 campaign, with a dysfunctional, messageless campaign. And I suspect that her vaunted experience and competence will be called into question by the fact she failed almost the exact same way twice and perhaps STILL doesn’t understand what she did wrong. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2017, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-clinton-campaign-was-brutally-awful/784902/2 "2017-04-21T09:55:56Z")
I think HRC ran a bad campaign. But Matt Taibbi has been on the warpath against her for so long, it’s hard to take any of his comments seriously. I can’t tell you how many anti-Clinton articles I started reading, then thought: Matt Taibbi? and sure enough a quick glance at the author confirmed it. As a political commentator, I just can’t trust him to be remotely objective when it comes to Hillary. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2017, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-clinton-campaign-was-brutally-awful/784902/3 "2017-04-21T10:14:22Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > I think HRC ran a bad campaign. But Matt Taibbi has been on the warpath against her for so long, it’s hard to take any of his comments seriously. I can’t tell you how many anti-Clinton articles I started reading, then thought: Matt Taibbi? and sure enough a quick glance at the author confirmed it. As a political commentator, I just can’t trust him to be remotely objective when it comes to Hillary. Fair point in general, but in this case he appears to be echoing the book, written by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes. Not yet read it, but I suspect he is not mis-characterizing it. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2017, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-clinton-campaign-was-brutally-awful/784902/4 "2017-04-21T10:26:27Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Fair point in general, but in this case he appears to be echoing the book, written by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes. Not yet read it, but I suspect he is not mis-characterizing it. You’re probably right. I just got in the habit of not reading his stuff about Hillary, but in this case that’s probably not entirely justified. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2017, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-clinton-campaign-was-brutally-awful/784902/5 "2017-04-21T11:58:18Z")
Pretty much all the reviews of Shattered say the same thing. The media didn’t cover just how dysfunctional the campaign was as much as they did in 2008, but it looks like the problems were still there, despite a lot of Obama personnel in there and Clinton at least trying not to repeat her mistakes. The problem is that she just misdiagnosed what went wrong in 2008. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2017, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-clinton-campaign-was-brutally-awful/784902/6 "2017-04-21T12:10:01Z")
Have seen the news blurbs about books that might include those mentioned here. So I don’t know the details in the books but the general conclusions sound correct and are verified by Hillary campaigns response which attacks the books authors instead of considering the obvious mistakes they made. Trump didn’t win the election, Hillary lost it. It was hers to lose and that’s just what she did. Let’s not forget the majority of the Democratic party that backed her, including Obama. ---
**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:** [April 21, 2017, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-clinton-campaign-was-brutally-awful/784902/7 "2017-04-21T12:32:32Z")
It’s a considerable achievement in itself to lose to Trump. When he started knocking down those GOP goons like bowling pins, I knew he would win if HRC was the Democratic nominee; but had they chosen any other he would have been trounced. Five years ago I would have scoffed if told he would be a nominee, let alone president. So I can be very wrong too. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2017, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-clinton-campaign-was-brutally-awful/784902/8 "2017-04-21T12:33:24Z")
Another insider memoir from the World of Politics. Sigh. The \*next \*one in which the author is \*not \*the Incorruptible Hero while everyone else around him is evil or incompetent and should have listened to him will be the _first_. Sometimes cynicism is useful. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2017, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-clinton-campaign-was-brutally-awful/784902/9 "2017-04-21T16:10:52Z")
Hillary Clinton has at no time in her history in federal politics acted like she truly understands how to be a politician. I’ve always found it weird that so many in the Democratic hierarchy thought that she should be the anointed standard bearer for being the first woman president. She may be very good at being a behind-the-scenes organizer, stage-managing her husband’s various victories. But her 2008 campaign was not well run, and her stint in the State Department certainly didn’t give anyone the strong belief she had learned anything about herself and her political capabilities. I’m still surprised she lost in the fall, but I did say all along last year that the Democrats were nominating the one person who had a chance to lose to Donald Trump. ---
**Author:** ![nate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nate/32/13085_2.png) [@nate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nate)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2017, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-clinton-campaign-was-brutally-awful/784902/10 "2017-04-21T16:26:20Z")
To be fair, it’s not like she had a lot of negative feedback. Every media outlet made it clear that Trump had an impossible path to victory, that all swing states would have to turn red, including some leaning D states. She was just running out the clock, playing ball control, while Trump continuously made a fool of himself. I would agree her campaign was a brutally awful IF anyone had said anything about it before election night, now it just seems like monday morning quarterbacking. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2017, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-clinton-campaign-was-brutally-awful/784902/11 "2017-04-21T16:28:42Z")
> [@nate](#): > > I would agree her campaign was a brutally awful IF anyone had said anything about it before election night, now it just seems like monday morning quarterbacking. Plenty of people said something about before election night, and we were accused of being insane Trump or Sanders supporters because Hillary was perfect and how dare we! ---
**Author:** ![Bone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bone/32/407_2.png) [@Bone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bone)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2017, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-clinton-campaign-was-brutally-awful/784902/12 "2017-04-21T16:57:40Z")
Don’t forget Clinton was one of the most qualified candidates to run for president! ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2017, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-clinton-campaign-was-brutally-awful/784902/13 "2017-04-21T17:04:37Z")
There were basically two types of people in the campaign: 1. Hillary’s people 2. Hired professionals Were the hired professionals ignored? Or were they incompetent? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2017, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-clinton-campaign-was-brutally-awful/784902/14 "2017-04-21T17:34:28Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > There were basically two types of people in the campaign: > > 1. Hillary’s people > 2. Hired professionals > > Were the hired professionals ignored? Or were they incompetent? Could be both. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2017, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-clinton-campaign-was-brutally-awful/784902/15 "2017-04-21T18:04:02Z")
> [@nate](#): > > I would agree her campaign was a brutally awful IF anyone had said anything about it before election night, now it just seems like monday morning quarterbacking. A lot of Dems in swing states said so a couple of months before the election - swing states she lost. And I’m talking politicians and party officials talking directly with the campaign. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2017, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-clinton-campaign-was-brutally-awful/784902/16 "2017-04-21T18:20:59Z")
> [@Bone](#): > > Don’t forget Clinton was one of the most qualified candidates to run for president! Do you know that she won the popular vote in the last election? ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2017, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-clinton-campaign-was-brutally-awful/784902/17 "2017-04-21T18:34:31Z")
> [@nate](#): > > To be fair, it’s not like she had a lot of negative feedback. Every media outlet made it clear that Trump had an impossible path to victory, that all swing states would have to turn red, including some leaning D states. She was just running out the clock, playing ball control, while Trump continuously made a fool of himself. I would agree her campaign was a brutally awful IF anyone had said anything about it before election night, now it just seems like monday morning quarterbacking. The book mentioned in the OP makes the claim that inside the campaign, people said things about it well before Election Day. ---
**Author:** ![doorhinge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@doorhinge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doorhinge)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2017, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-clinton-campaign-was-brutally-awful/784902/18 "2017-04-21T19:39:46Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Do you know that she won the popular vote in the last election? Unfortunately, Ol’ Hillary didn’t win the popular vote in enough states to give her the Electoral College votes needed to actually win the election for POTUS in 2016. She’s still eligible to run again in 2020. So she’s got that going for her. ---
**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:** [April 21, 2017, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-clinton-campaign-was-brutally-awful/784902/19 "2017-04-21T21:09:10Z")
Or 2024… She’s honing her game. On to 2028 ! ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2017, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-clinton-campaign-was-brutally-awful/784902/20 "2017-04-21T21:49:06Z")
As noted, more people voted for Hillary Clinton than for Donald Trump. But we love hatin’ on her–_she was a disaster! She ran an awful campaign! Any other Dem candidate would have beaten Trump soundly!_ Etc. etc. Doesn’t matter if there’s any truth to any of that; any book so stating will sell like the proverbial hotcakes. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-clinton-campaign-was-brutally-awful/784902.md?page=2)