2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: If you don't think Bernie and his campaign and his supporters basically calling Hillary [View all]Chakab
(1,727 posts)did not rig the vote for her. More people voted for Clinton in the primary. End of story.
However, it's important to note that Sanders gained 40+ percent in the polls nationally in just a few months despite the fact that he wasn't even running a real campaign to win until the beginning of this year. That's because Hillary was a WEAK candidate.
Being experienced isn't the same as being as strong candidate. Otherwise, Elliot Spitzer would have been successful in his political comeback and easily won that race for state comptroller in NY.
Hillary Clinton is deeply unpopular. Most of the country has a negative predisposition towards her. I don't fucking understand why people here refuse to accept that fact. It wasn't Sanders that raised her negatives, it was two and a half decades of GOP attacks in addition to the fact that she seems insincere and hence drives up her negatives when campaigning.
Is it fair? No. Most of the smears against her are made up. However, politics has never been fair, and it was absolute idiocy to run one of the least popular candidates in history for President.
Until Democrats face up to the reality about Clinton's flaws and the mistakes that the party leadership has been making for years, the Republicans will continue to dominate in elections. The only electoral success that the party has had in the past 25 years in down to Bill Clinton Andy Barack Obama's charisma and the backlash towards the incompetence of George W. Bush.