SO WHAT HAPPENED ?
It has been
a fortnight since my last posting. The King was as disappointed as every sane
person in the Western and Eastern Hemispheres. He took a trip to London to
commiserate with family and friends.
He also attended the 150th anniversary
of his boys’ grammar school where he found not a single Trump sympathiser in a
group ranging in age from 40 to 92.
His Highness
also distracted himself by supervising the electrical refurbishment of Prince Daniel’s
pied a terre.The electrical crew comprised a Turkish owner, a Colombian lead
electrician and [most unusually] a local cockney electrician’s mate. There was
no Pole in sight. All three professed great interest in the King’s wisdom on Trumf,
Brexit,Erdogan and the Colombian government deal with FARC. Well ,the King was
footing the bill.
As regular
readers of this blog will realize I am stalling. Apparently readers want to
hear from King Cyclops an explanation of how “Hillary Lost the Presidency”.
Given that
King Cyclops,along with every other pundit and prognosticator, managed to get it
totally wrong, I’m not quite sure why anybody might believe I have any
worthwhile insight now.
On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.
H. L. Mencken
MANY EXPLANATIONS AND NONE
The PUNDITRY has no shortage of reasons :
- FBI director
Comey’s interference was the last straw----certainly. It stopped Clinton’s momentum and deflected the whole tenor of the campaign’s final week.
- The African-American turnout in the Rust Belt states was way below 2008/2012-- cause or effect?
- Too many millennial’s stayed at home wasted their vote on the greens--- cause or effect?
- Insufficient educated Republican women abandoned their party – – effect not cause.
- Her primary campaign against Sanders was poor and failed to excite any part of the Democratic base except for a small segment of dedicated “feminists”.
- Every woman the King spoke to thought it would be “nice”to finally have a woman president but not that it was definitive for a campaign in 2016.
- Sanders and his supporters were lukewarm in her support -- so was the rest of the Democratic Party.
- Bill Clinton blames the campaign team and leadership for poor strategy and operation – – Bill always blames the help.
- The
announcement of the substantial increases in Obama Care premiums ten days
before voting did not help.
- And it was no surprise that the media could not explain that this affected about 3% of the population. Even Trumpf thought that it affected his workers.He is the Emperor of the Know Nothings.
- While Latino turnout was up 25% some exit polls indicated that 28-30 % voted for Trump. Well the polls got so much wrong maybe they got this wrong too. There can’t be that many old Cubans in Florida. But Clinton did lose Florida!
- The Clinton campaign failed to connect as effectively as it should with the working class. Not just the white working class but also the black and Latino – – This is undoubtedly true.Her fault.
- Clinton lost Wisconsin Michigan and Pennsylvania;by less than 1%.No Democrat should lose those states to a Republican let alone to Donald Trumpf.
- The
electoral college – – Trumpf won the electoral college but Clinton seems to be
heading for a 3 million votes lead in the popular vote. Well those are the
rules.Although the 3 million vote lead will allow some pollsters to claim they got it right—watch.
- She really won,tell that in four years to the deported, conned,coal miners, long term unemployed and know nothings.
- Those bloody emails – – what can one say.
- The Goldman Sachs speaking fees – – inexcusably stupid for somebody planning to run for the Presidency as a Democrat.
- Wiener and
Uma were a major late distraction – – yeah, so.
- The white working class were conned by Trumpf – – “false consciousness” is always good for a trot around the track. A proportion of the white working class is racist and xenophobic;and always has been. Democratic presidents from Roosevelt to Obama won despite that.
- The ”know nothing” tradition of American politics triumphed this time.Well actually,in aggregate, it didn’t ;but it has always been with us. Nothing unique about this election?
- Wiki Leaks and the Russians planted fake stories about crooked Hillary’s financial conflicts. These probably hurt because some of the stories rang true, and the electorate didn’t seem to care about the real scandals surrounding Dodgy Donald.
- False equivalence.The media
did a lousy job. It always does.
- Too many voters were racist or sexist or homophobic or xenophobic – – can’t argue with that. But Obama won twice – – It seems too many were Clintonphobic.
- This was a "change election" and Hillary represented the status quo. This is very popular with “serious” pundits and political scientists. Hands up those who think Joe Biden would’ve slaughtered Trumpf. Me too.So much for being against a continuation of the Obama regime.
- This was just like Brexit,a howl of anger against the established order and the way “Washington” ignores ordinary folk. If you watch cable news [any network] you will hear this kind of linkage all the time.
- Even the King will lapse into such commentary ;and there is something to it – – but for goodness sake the electorate sent back nearly all the same Republicans to the House and to the Senate. Most governors were reelected. A funny way to get change.
Any and all of these reasons is enough to explain how Hillary lost this election.
King Cyclops believes that there was a confluence of factors which may be summarised as
HILLARY CLINTON
IDIOT ELECTORATE
THIS TOO SHALL PASS
THIS TOO SHALL PASS
King Cyclops, those are all very worthy points. But your last comment was most interesting ... 'Hilary Clinton .. idiot electorate'.
ReplyDeleteAs with Brexit, it's more like 'idiot politicians'. Idiot politicians who aren't 'in touch' with their electorate and whose campaigns are lacklustre & weak.
How do we make sure he doesn't get a second term? KC for President!
ReplyDelete