Beltway Insider Special: Hillary Clinton’s Post Election Self-Examination

Hillary Clinton is out; no longer hiking in the woods securing a fresh perspective, the former Presidential Candidate has opened herself to the media to discuss with logical reasoning the electoral loss that cost the people her Presidency.


Her eight reasons are fresh with hindsight and an analytical viewpoint and review. She is articulate; knowing she might have to speak on each of the topics, they are all within her emotional grasp; to speak without allowing herself to be overwhelmed with the damn hurt, the expletive, expletive, expletive hurt, that goes along with the assessment.

And possibly, as a famous mega-producer once told me after a scathing OSCAR loss, not hurting for themselves as he and his stratospherically famous director will be at that place again, but "for the others who won't."

Even as she may not be in this place again, she is able to get past the hurt, or at least speak on the issues. And she speaks to the media conveying to the people, the world, for the days, times, seasons, and events, that won't be at this same place again.

Analytically reasoning out the algorithms of political elections and possibilities, the climate of the nation, the people, the damages of the current administration, all the numbers, the data, the demo-graphics that, in actuality, are part of the reason she is working outside the Oval Office.

The Luxury of Hindsight

Hillary is sharing with the public her reasons and taking full credit for them. She doesn't explain or attempt to reason her choices for a Vice-President, of which many think is one of the second most important choices in a presidential campaign, she talks about the major revelations some of which were pumped full of hot air by the media, others had actual merit, a couple were taking the bullet as part of political loyalty and of course the mysticism of the golden age.

The American people suffered intensely during the great recession, skyrocketing unemployment, fluctuations, and deep loss in the stock market equated to major shifts and losses in 401K's and retirement plans; the widespread obliteration of manufacturing and other industries, what were once deemed as the middle-class backbone, the spine that kept of our nation healthy, upright, walking without its full use we would be limited in our abilities as a full thriving nation.

The Obama Administration, worked tirelessly to fight the effects and stop the hemorrhage, the bleed that was killing the American people, and the world's population as well. 2009 ushered in a global reckoning and as much as the tide swept through the population the people united and sent many politicians packing which unified the congress and senate who began to shift from pork bills to people focused bills and those who could did and many slowly began to build their own boast to recovery with the subsidy of the government.

The 2016 Primary Season

Hillary begins her campaign as does the current president. The people are faced with a billionaire, the golden age, a mythical figure of self-made, trophy wife, the art of the deal, a reality show star, who weekly put himself in the homes of the television audience. The ranking for his top-rated prime time reality show were never publicly discussed.

The people believing their best chance to recover financially in the shortest amount of time lie in the man who has bounced back, not from the brink but from bankruptcy, more than one time.

At the time, no one cared about his politics, the Russian Connection is becoming too Red to ignore and a scathing disappointment as middle American mom and pop, the backbone of his campaign, can tolerate even heavy burdens but they won't tolerate Red ones.

Hillary never spoke on the pixie dust Golden Age nostalgia propagated by her opponent that clouded the vision or "building of the campaign" and her choice of a running mate.

Building The Perfect Campaign

Political Campaigns are probably the most aggressive, intense, and biggest propaganda producing machines that any strategist or Public Relations team can develop. Potential candidates examine historically winning campaigns and develop accordingly. Hillary didn't have to look too far into the history books or outside her circle.

The 1992 Clinton-Gore Presidential Campaign, although unadmitted and not discussed, appears to be the strategic model behind Hillary's historic 2016 Campaign. And why not? It was proven, effective, and delivered. It was the perfect and secondary element to gather the heartstrings, the minds and memories of the American people who remember the Clinton-Gore era fondly.

So, what went wrong? Perfect candidate; strong, proven, effective.

The Clinton-Gore 1992 Campaign suffered its share of scandals and survived. More than simply survived the effectiveness of the presidency survived the attempted impeachment.

So why did Mrs. Clinton's 2016 Campaign which appears to have its foundation in the successful campaign of 1992 have different results. For the record Mrs. Clinton did receive the popular vote.

Political campaigns have few visible choices, with many more backroom and inner circle choices, and a seemingly never ending, daily logistical and minor choices. The choice for a Vice-President was never more crucial than in this campaign.

The Clinton Gore 1992 Campaign chose Al Gore, a Senator's from Tennessee, the son of a Southern Political dynasty, well known and well liked in his state.  Al Gore Sr., was an elected Senator from 1953, for four decades before the 1992 election the Gore Family represented Tennessee and if that wasn't the closer, from 1939 until 1953 Gore Sr., was an elected member of the House of representatives.  

The South, not the deep South, Alabama and Mississippi remained fiercely Republican and the Senator delivered an upset as Georgia, Louisiana the bookends of the deep South went blue. A split that surprised most politico watchers.  

William Jefferson Clinton who became simply known as Bill, hailed from Arkansas and served the state for a decade as Governor, worked with what he had as his home state going into the 1992 Presidential Primary season, was notoriously absent from most Ten Best lists and usually present on the Ten Worst lists.

As the primary season wore on and Bill continued to secure the confidence and popularity of the people the presidency seemed inevitable. Then, of course, bombshell, which kicked off a series of allegations meant to derail the political machine, did some damage not enough to end the campaign or career. He went on to win the 1992 and 1996 Presidential races.

Hillary's Vice-Presidential choice, Tim Kaine, a career politician, solid, safe a Senator from Virginia, almost seem to knock the momentum out of Mrs. Clinton's campaign not for lack. Senator Kaine, is a solid democrat with a proven representation and voting record. He, in a different climate, would have been a model candidate the mirror to Al Gore and William Clinton's 1992 choice.  

The Wild Card

In 2016 however, the wow factor showed up on the Campaign trail in the form of Senator Bernie Sanders form Vermont. He represented the democrats safe middle of the road, bridge between the extremes of either party. A nation of diversity the people wanted a diver candidate, not a candidate of color, necessarily, a candidate who saw the upheavals in society and responded.

Clinton and Sanders sparred throughout the primary season, with his supporters swelling and gaining momentum, it seemed inevitable that as conscientious and prepared as Mrs. Clinton was, detail oriented to the point of micro-management, that she would allow his numbers, his record, his potential to her ticket to slip away.  

Sanders was impressive; the people responded to his message. Mrs. Clinton seemed to ignore his faithful supporters and the fact that he earned 17million votes across the primary season. To unify the party, Hillary, well aware that when push came to shove, at the Democratic National Convention, Bernie Sanders would pledge his electoral votes to her so she counted his votes and forgot the people who cast them.

Loyalty became a pivotal factor as Mr. Sanders, was never short listed as potential vice-presidential candidates, if he had been asked and turned it down, it would have played differently in the eyes of his supporters. As it was she took the candy, the fat of his win and effort and left him. In turn, his 17 million loyal constituents left her either not voting or worse voting in retaliation for President Trump.

Learning from The Past or Twelve Days in History

Without examining the yet to be proven although strongly suggested Russian influence which is poised to be the next greatest presidential scandal in history, to hear the former candidate tell it the most pivotal point in the campaign came between October 27 and November 8, a twelve-day time-frame that negated nine months of politicking and an entire lifetime of service.

Is that possible? A good campaign strategist is the opponent's worst nightmare. They take every piece of information, truth or lie and as only political campaign allows, create the worst-case scenario and present it as truth, in stereo sound across every media, penetrating the American psyche, the undecided, playing on the underlying fears, with the same strength as the fictional character Gaston, in The Beauty and the Beast, when he flashes the magic mirror to the trembling townsfolks, igniting their loyalty with his booming Beast fear mongering statements penetrating the psyche, igniting fears, exacting justice for unknown offenses.

Sound familiar? That was the last ten days of the 2016 Presidential campaign season. From the final debate, when we, the people discovered the pussy grabbing predilections of the man who would be president, to his comments igniting fear of the unknown, as we all knew explicitly of the elements of the cover up, and with a record of service as exhaustive as Mrs. Clinton clearly there must be some skirting, some grey areas, and maybe even, well, she just didn't get caught and understandably so, that's politics.

Taking the Bullet

It was also at this time, that her Chief of Staff, Huma Abedin's husband, the former U.S. Representative Anthony Weiner was exposed in a sex-texting scandal, which caused his computer to be seized, which lead to the discovery of sensitive emails, and due to the nature, substance and sender, appeared to belong to Mrs. Clinton.

Oddly the discovery of these emails created a nearly exact scenario that Mrs. Clinton faced four years previous when with eight weeks before the general election on September 11, 2012 the American Embassy in Benghazi, Libya came under attack and resulted in the death of Libyan Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three others.

Mrs. Clinton took the bullet for her predecessor and took full responsibility and Ms. Abedin, who flatly refused to acknowledge the emails could have come from her, the direct link to Mrs. Clinton and to her husband. Refusing responsibility diverted responsibility to Mrs. Clinton, a violation by Ms. Abedin of the taking the bullet for the cause rule and directly contributing to the loss in the general campaign.

As hindsight is the basis of this article a theory that has been circulating is the plan was to use the emails to leverage as insurance for her husband's equally ambitious political career which had enough scandal to fill keep the tabloids extremely busy and an unearthed closets of sex texts from Carlos Dangerous that created public disgust and backroom hysterics.

These emails were also to secure a pardon when and if Mr. Weiner-Dangerous ever got caught which he did. He'll be sentenced in September on a federal obscenity charge.

With emails, of which the public only knew were of a sensitive nature, exposed Mrs. Clinton was on the defense, which isn't her strong suit and has remained unapologetic for common and probably across the board accepted internal policy.

Post-Election Truth, Fraud, and a Done Deal

A Federal investigation ensued and on May 3, 2017, former F.B.I. Director James Comey revealed in the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Hearings, the "Huma Abedin regularly emailed classified documents to her husband to have him print them out for her to present to Mrs. Clinton."

Comey, has since been terminated for failing to follow protocol and many insiders believe furthering the Russian Probe which would have implicated the President's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, Senior White House advisor to, possibly his daughter and Assistant to the President, Ivanka Trump-Kushner, as well as Kushner's parents and other Sr. White House officials.

In the ten days following the revelation of the emails, which Comey felt compelled to announce the findings in a letter to Congress on Oct. 28, just 11 days before the presidential election. The public lost confidence in his impartially as many believe played a part in the played a part in swinging the election in favor of President Donald Trump, who trailed Clinton, in nearly every poll throughout the presidential campaign.

The arrogance of Debate Three after the sexual revelations have post-election has become a red flag, almost as if the deal was made by that time, and no matter the truth, lies, mudslinging, obviously ill-equipped and unprepared package, the deal was done and the presidency secured.

The Future

Mrs. Clinton had mastered the art of patriot and power player due to her life of service. Her personal power trip had nothing to do with building bridges, inroads, and commercially viable business deals with, known or unknown, enemies.

She is unapologetic for common and probably across the board accepted internal policy. She is completing a book project, already anticipated as a best seller. Her new title, one that seems glib, unfair, and sedately soothing, the People's President guarantees her iconic status.

And she remains a woman on the edge.

Sources: Various - Image courtesy of Wikipedia

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