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portlander23

(2,078 posts)
Tue Dec 27, 2016, 01:40 PM Dec 2016

Did James Comey Cost Hillary Clinton The Election?

Did James Comey Cost Hillary Clinton The Election? We Asked The Late-Deciding Voters.
Sam Stein
Huffington Post

In the past, the choice would have been simple. Rainey, 33, leans Republican. He voted for Mitt Romney in 2012. But like others this cycle, he found the idea of backing GOP nominee Donald Trump repugnant, matched only by the nausea that accompanied the thought of pulling the lever for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

There is little disagreement that voters like Rainey ― the “late deciders” ― were ultimately responsible for Trump’s election. But a month and a half after his victory, an argument persists over why they voted the way they did. Clinton’s defenders blame FBI Director James Comey, who opened up a new investigation into Clinton-related emails 10 days before the election, only to close it a week later. Clinton’s critics say a campaign that was outworked and outsmarted in the Rust Belt states is merely in denial.

In interviews with a number of late deciding voters ― found through various social media networks ― a less elegant explanation emerges. Comey was a factor for some but not others, and even then, it’s not clear how decisive his letters were. For many voters, random, often arbitrary moments from the campaign proved motivating in often unexpected ways. That Clinton left herself vulnerable to their whims is the story of the election as much as the eleventh-hour pronouncement from the FBI director.

“I thought, ‘Do I dance with the devil I know or don’t?’” Michelle Hart recalled. “And I realized I’m calling them both ‘devil.’”

The Comey letter didn’t bother Hart. And, indeed, the night before the election, she found herself considering a vote for Clinton after being inspired by first lady Michelle Obama’s introductory remarks at a rally in Philadelphia. But then Clinton came onstage and delivered a milquetoast speech that seemed, to Hart, to lack any passion. The next day, she wrote in Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) as her choice for president.
But for some of the other late deciders who went to Trump or avoided Clinton, there seems to be a creeping sense of guilt. Shutt, of Iowa, said he wished Trump would abandon the campaign-like rhetoric he’s carried over to the transition. “He hasn’t blown anything up yet,” he said of the president-elect. “But that’s a pretty low bar, I know.”


"He hasn’t blown anything up yet"
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TheCowsCameHome

(40,161 posts)
12. Silver blew everything else,
Tue Dec 27, 2016, 04:19 PM
Dec 2016

just like all the pollsters. lol.

She was up by about 9, according the their worthless polling.

shraby

(21,946 posts)
2. What Shutt of Iowa and others like him don't realize First trump needs
Tue Dec 27, 2016, 01:46 PM
Dec 2016

to be in charge of the bombs in order to blow things up.
He's building the network of people he needs to be able to do just that after he's sworn in.

 

Hoyt

(54,770 posts)
4. At time Comey came out 11 days before election, Trump was dropping from vile comments on women.
Tue Dec 27, 2016, 01:55 PM
Dec 2016

The Comey's new investigation changed the focus.

But, I agree that it shouldn't have been that close anyway. The election proved Americans -- particularly those susceptible to white wing dogma -- are much more racist/bigoted and ignorant than we thought.

Tatiana

(14,167 posts)
5. "So many of us... decided to vote Trump just to stop Hillary."
Tue Dec 27, 2016, 01:55 PM
Dec 2016

Yep. Because stopping Hillary became their #1 goal and if we were going to nominate a candidate like Clinton, we should have had a strong, credible and effective response to this sentiment.

And we didn't. The campaign's response was pretty much "that guy's a monster" instead of addressing the very real concerns voters had with trusting her.

Amishman

(5,540 posts)
6. Yes, but so did sexism, WikiLeaks, poor campaigning, and the alt right
Tue Dec 27, 2016, 01:57 PM
Dec 2016

Trump was such an awful candidate that remove even one of these factors and she wins.

The focus going forward shouldn't be on Hillary, but on our overall weakness and what can be done to fix things. If Comey/WikiLeaks/sexism/campaign goofs were the only problems; then we'd control Congress, state legislatures, and governorships.

brush

(53,469 posts)
7. No question, and don't forget to add in repug vote suppression and tampering issuing . . .
Tue Dec 27, 2016, 02:17 PM
Dec 2016

Last edited Tue Dec 27, 2016, 03:02 PM - Edit history (1)

provisional ballots to POCs that were then not counted for example.

pressbox69

(2,252 posts)
8. At least we now know
Tue Dec 27, 2016, 02:24 PM
Dec 2016

that having a black man become one of our greatest Presidents in our countries history will not cool off white racism, it will only heat it to a boil.

SaschaHM

(2,897 posts)
9. Stopped at the guy who started feeling sypathetic for Trump because his victims spoke up.
Tue Dec 27, 2016, 02:39 PM
Dec 2016

Hillary's been attacked for 30 years by the Right and the Left, and he can only managed some sympathy for her opponent because the victims of a sexual predator came forth saying that he did exactly what he said he did to them. He should be ashamed of himself.

jalan48

(13,797 posts)
16. Given the huge differences between the two candidates it's hard to imagine someone being undecided
Tue Dec 27, 2016, 05:23 PM
Dec 2016

this late in the election.

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