2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumWell duh. Tight Democratic Race in Iowa Unnerves Clinton Campaign
Late Monday night, supporters of Hillary Clinton gathered for what they expected would be a victory rally.
Over the weekend, her campaign had exuded confidence, with some advisers predicting she would win the Iowa caucuses by several percentage points, and by Monday evening, they were urging news outlets to call the race in her favor. Mrs. Clinton prepared a victory speech in which she virtually ignored her rival, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and attacked the Republican candidates.
Then the caucus results started rolling in. And everything changed.
The outcome in Iowa effectively a tie with a far left senator from a small New England state dealt a jolting psychological blow to the Clinton campaign, leaving volunteers, donors and aides confused throughout the night, and then crestfallen. They had hoped that the former secretary of state would garner a decisive victory here and put to rest any doubts about her strength as a candidate.
Instead, they now head to New Hampshire, where Mr. Sanders is heavily favored in the polls, and brace themselves for another loss before they reach more hospitable states like Nevada and South Carolina.
Even before Mrs. Clinton finished her brief remarks to her supporters late Monday night, discussions were underway among her outside advisers and donors about the need to bring in longtime Clinton aides and diminish the role of Robby Mook, her young data-driven campaign manager. Asked about such discussions, Nick Merrill, a spokesman for the campaign, grew irritated. Are you serious? he said tersely to a reporter.
<snip>
Whats more, Mr. Sanders showed strength in unexpected ways that could signal trouble for Mrs. Clinton, performing surprisingly well in rural counties and small caucus precincts, and even making some gains among Hispanic Democrats, his advisers said on Tuesday morning.
<snip>
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/03/us/politics/democratic-race-iowa-clinton-campaign.html?_r=0
cali
(114,904 posts)morningfog
(18,115 posts)On the NH, where she will be clobbered by Bernie.
Over the next week, the question is how much will Hillary hurt herself with her nasty campaigning?
cali
(114,904 posts)KittyWampus
(55,894 posts)Not once, not twice but several times now.
How conveniently you all forget that.
cali
(114,904 posts)Hortensis
(58,785 posts)This article is about Hillary supporters getting all excited at the caucuses. and then disappointed and "confused" by lack of a good win.
Compare that with the behavior of the berners here when some little thing goes wrong -- long, long threads of flaming, spiteful insults, outrageous accusations flying 30 directions.
They'll do fine as the primary season unfolds and finishes, whoever ends up winning.
cali
(114,904 posts)Bernie's supporters of.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)from Hillary's supporters at the caucuses. Mere confusion at not winning outright when expected is so much more honest and true to reality, not to mention nicer, than erupting in flames.
cali
(114,904 posts)roguevalley
(40,656 posts)They post and repost the tiniest thing about Bernie and the Berniebros but cannot take criticism of Hillary. She flat out lies and we are suppose to ignore it. We get "your opi ion noted" "you're sounding like republicans", and something g about how they are the adults and we were all just school children. It's not our fault that there is so much to say against Hillary that the Republicans can see it too.
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)They looked devastated. From those pictures, I gather that Hillary has quite a temper and is emotionally, well, not the easiest-going person.
It was the Clintons who looked so disappointed and crestfallen. And rightfully so. Hillary is not a strong candidate. She just isn't.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)either manufacturing slurs about Hillary or for so foolishly leading the conversation to bad-tempered behaviors when Bernie is all too well known for often treating people badly, and even more often than that rudely.
In contrast to Bernie, Hillary has NEVER been known for mistreating those who work for her. People close to HER actually like her.
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)I know this for a fact because I call and talk to voters. They could care less whether a politician is liked. They want jobs and an economy that is not rigged.
Even if Hillary wanted to deliver on a promise to straighten out the economy and end the rigging and the export of jobs (which she never would because she likes money for herself too much and has too many rich, greedy friends), she would not be believable on the economy because of her ties to her wealthy donors.
Bernie is the man of the time, the guy just individualistic enough to tell the rich and powerful who are rigging and ruining the economy for the rest of us where to go and what to do with themselves when they get there.
Back in the 1980s, before Reagan, people in Iowa could earn $15 plus benefits for good factory jobs. And now look, 35 years later and Bernie promises to gradually raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour and Hillary says, "No, we can't." Hillary is way, way, way, way, way out of touch with the misery of the ordinary people in America.
And now the Fed is talking about negative interest rates? That means we pay the banks to protect our money from what?????
Bernie is going to win this thing. Nobody cares if he tells people off and is rude. Because this election is about paychecks and being able to feed and clothe your kids and your parents and how in the world we are going to take care of ourselves and each other in a crumbling empire.
We need to spend less money on military defense and more on economic security for everyone.
Hillary is behind the times.
antigop
(12,778 posts)grasswire
(50,130 posts)....and looked like someone should take him by the hand and put him to bed.
I used to admire him, and I defended him for his worst years, and Hillary as well.
Now I just want them to go away.
ieoeja
(9,748 posts)in_cog_ni_to
(41,600 posts)Damn right she's unnerved. She should be.
WE THE PEOPLE are going to win.
PEACE
LOVE
BERNIE
Fuddnik
(8,846 posts)It's gonna get REALLY ugly from here on out.
Android3.14
(5,402 posts)Bernie went down to the Rich Man's House!
pengu
(462 posts)However, there's not much for them to be celebrating beyond very, very narrowly avoiding the headlines that come with the outright loss. This is better for her, but just barely. Considering the resources they put into this going for the early knockout I doubt they're feeling too secure this morning no matter their public face.
Erich Bloodaxe BSN
(14,733 posts)And still didn't get the knockout they were trying for.
pengu
(462 posts)Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)They would learn that it was a massive, decisive, Bern-extinguishing victory, herp derp.
Divernan
(15,480 posts)And in the same classic, passive-aggressive style with which he damaged her chances in 2008, his comments implicitly acknowledge her "POOR PERFORMANCE", i.e., not good enough, Hillary; not as good as me, Bill. Just like her abusive father - whatever she achieved, it was not good enough. When she got A's, her father ridiculed the teachers as not very good if they gave her A's.
Former President Clinton had been among those who have attributed his wifes poor performance more to her campaigns muddled strategy and lack of a clear message than to Mrs. Clintons own failings.
But strategic weaknesses can explain only so much. This election cycle has shown a hankering for anti-establishment candidates and a wariness toward political dynasties, whether their surnames are Clinton or Bush.
Youre talking about someone who wants to move back into the White House, which is sort of a fundamentally anti-American notion, said Stuart Stevens, Mitt Romneys chief strategist in 2012.
Whats more, Mr. Sanders showed strength in unexpected ways that could signal trouble for Mrs. Clinton, performing surprisingly well in rural counties and small caucus precincts, and even making some gains among Hispanic Democrats, his advisers said on Tuesday morning.
Mr. Sanders won several counties that Mrs. Clinton carried in 2008 in conservative-leaning southwestern Iowa and in the northern part of the state, including Cerro Gordo County, where Mr. Sanders drew three times as many people as Mr. Clinton as the two men held dueling rallies last Wednesday night.
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)Senator Sanders has rocked the boat..the disturbance continues, I am
so pleased.
K&R and THANK YOU Iowa!!!!!!!!
mountain grammy
(26,648 posts)where the right wing and evangelicals rule with voter suppression and an anti worker agenda? Where liberal voices and ideas, are oppressed, even more than in the country as a whole, even more than Iowa? This is where Mrs. Clinton plans on winning?
Maybe they're ready for a revolution too.
hedda_foil
(16,375 posts)Nuclear Unicorn
(19,497 posts)isn't a very inspiring battle-cry.
mountain grammy
(26,648 posts)doesn't mean they'll vote for any Democrat ever.
mountain grammy
(26,648 posts)Punkingal
(9,522 posts)Vinca
(50,303 posts)The idea we might end up with a Bible thumping religious fanatic in the White House makes me physically ill. (The speeches amounted to 2 things: Hillary is a criminal, Jesus was the reason for the victory.)
democrank
(11,104 posts)was pure, raw arrogance. Even though it was a virtual tie, Hillary just stuck the tiara on her own head and beat it out the door.
artislife
(9,497 posts)ErisDiscordia
(443 posts)maybe she's rethinking how much she wants to win.
Response to ErisDiscordia (Reply #21)
Post removed
Ligyron
(7,639 posts)Do you not think that calling other democrats "scum" on a democratic site is a little over the top? He may well be the candidate in the general and name calling helps none of us.
drm604
(16,230 posts)What electoral fraud?
joeybee12
(56,177 posts)Right next to it was a piece about how the results were bad for sanders. Pick and choose time in the echo chamber
NCjack
(10,279 posts)Jarqui
(10,130 posts)Hillary wanted to politically cut Bernie's throat in Iowa - to quell the uprising before it got momentum. She failed.
In that way, she lost pretty big. Bernie's campaign is still growing. Lots more folks found out last night in a speech to a very large national audience that they have a real alternative they didn't know about. More will find out between now and Feb 20th in Nevada because that's at least how long the media wave from this splash is going to last. There might be another splash Feb 9th when he wins New Hampshire.
As well, the media is going to be pretty negative wondering what happened to Hillary. Wondering why the most powerful and long established political organization in America spent $29 million more and mobilized media, distortions or flat out lies, etc and couldn't beat a 74 year old man with no money, no organization and 6 pts in the polls last May.
Whether Hillary squeezes out the tiniest of a victory founded on winning 6 out of 6 coin tosses or a recount/error swings it to Sanders, Hillary lost pretty badly last night. From the looks of her and her immediate family during the victory speech, they also knew it:
In the coming days, no matter how they choose to spin it, the country is going to find out what the Clintons and we already know.
I hear this nonsense about the minorities being her firewall. Bernie sincerely offers the minorities more. We know from the Clinton years terrible welfare reform, three strikes laws and her Wall Street leaning policies, minorities do not truly mean as much to her. Minorities jumped ship for Obama early into the 2008 primary - not before - when they got the sense he might be able to actually win. Last night started to give them that sense. When the minorities start to find out about what Bernie offers and the civil rights he fought for in the 60s and ever since, and I suspect a lot of them started to get a sense of that also last night, that firewall for Hillary might turn into a fire and burn her campaign.
Nuclear Unicorn
(19,497 posts)Prism
(5,815 posts)She's a terrible campaigner. Why blame Mook for what are her inherent flaws?
And last night, we got a nice big taste of everything that's wrong with her.
She has her team try to manipulate the media. MSNBC were just flat out mocking her at that point.
Then she walks out unannounced and violates basic protocol by stepping on Cruz's speech.
Then she's clearly pissed. Watch her speech on mute. Watch not only her expressions and body language, look at Bill and Chelsea. They were infuriated that people didn't vote for her in the way she felt entitled to.
Then she whirled off without thanking or interacting with anyone.
This behavior is who she is. She's telling us the kind of person she is and the kind of President she would be.
I believe her.
Erich Bloodaxe BSN
(14,733 posts)And he warned her far in advance about underestimating Sanders.
amborin
(16,631 posts)triumphed against unimaginably difficult opposition
Avalux
(35,015 posts)I love that phrasing, and it's true. They did not expect this and heads will roll as a result. Unfortunately it's the candidate herself who is the problem.
artislife
(9,497 posts)randome
(34,845 posts)[hr][font color="blue"][center]There is nothing you can't do if you put your mind to it.
Nothing.[/center][/font][hr]