This book is a detailed analysis of the abject failure of the Clinton run for the presidency in 2016. The focus is not on what Sanders and Trump accomplished, but on what Hillary didn't. Before the inevitable campaign was announced, a NY Times report unveiled what would be its ongoing Achilles heel -the investigation of the personal email server from her State Dept. tenure. Her staff was an agglomeration of people and interests, and the email question threw them for a loop. "No one was in charge, and no one had figured out how to make the campaign something bigger than Hillary. Hillary didn't have a vision to articulate. And no one else could give one to her. She had been running for president for almost a decade and still didn't really have a rationale."
In the summer of 2015, the populism on the left of Bernie Sanders and on the right of Donald Trump pounded on Washington's insiders, and the ultimate insider was buried in inconsistencies, the blaming of others and her inability to admit she had made a mistake about her email server. Her attempt to explain the problem in a one-on-one CNN interview flopped. Finally, after five months of plummeting numbers and a consensus that she was a liar, HRC apologized for her initial server decision. She rallied in October after a superb performance on SNL and followed up by crushing Sanders in the first debate and embarrassing the Republican Benghazi Committee. When the caucuses and primaries started, Sanders was surprisingly strong. The African-American votes in March put her way ahead of Sanders but there was a surprising loss elaborated on in a chapter called 'The Canary In The Auto Plant'. She lost Michigan's white blue- collar voters. The March 15 mini-Tuesday primaries put her ahead with an insurmountable lead.
The campaign was haunted by its structure. John Podesta, who had been Bill's last Chief of Staff and was the Clinton's age was the Chairman. Robby Mook was thirty years younger, the analytic guru and the Campaign Manager. Robby was in charge, but there were consultants, media teams, strategic planners, policy analysts, Bill and his people and all of the outside influences of what the author calls 'Clintonworld'. Infighting, crossed lines of authority and influence damaged the campaign from beginning to end.
Planning for the 'general', the Dems had absolute confidence in their electoral wall, the 242 votes they had captured in the last six elections. For the Republicans, they knew they had a golden opportunity because of Hillary's unpopularity throughout the country. Their plan was to hammer away on her negatives. In July, FBI Director Comey announced that there would be no charges because of the email server but that Hillary and her staff had been "reckless" in its use, thus adding his name to the year's controversies. His condemnation was unusual, as tradition says you only announce the conclusion, not your opinion. The Dems had a successful convention, but so did the opponents, and both sides moved into September with Trump much closer to HRC than expected. September also saw Hillary's pneumonia diagnosis kept from the press and her characterization of half of Trump's supporters as "deplorables". After HRC won the first debate, the nation learned that Russia was behind email hacks of the DNC, the Access Hollywood tape about Trump was released and the text of Hillary's Goldman Sachs speech was made public. Prominent Republicans called for Trump to step aside. One of the WikLeaks email exposures was of John Podesta's gmail account. Since he had been at the center of the campaign since the beginning, there were endless internal, critical emails to and from many, many people. Their exposure further divided the Democratic team. Staying on focus, HRC won the 2nd debate. On Oct. 27, Comey re-opened the email controversy because it came up in the latest Huma Abedin/Anthony Weiner juvenile imbroglio. Matters were slipping in the heartland and "while Hillary was measuring drapes for the oval Office, her team was mismeasuring the electorate".
In the end, the electoral count was 306-232. This soon after the election, the authors chose not to pin her loss on any one thing. The Clintons felt it was the FBI, KGB and KKK. Throughout the book, the data driven campaign of Robby Mook, who ignored the advice and instinct of Bill Clinton, comes under heavy fire. In the end, HRC could not overcome her unpopularity.
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