For Want of a Nail
Hillary Clinton had spectacular credentials. She was first lady of Arkansas for 9 years and the first lady of the United States for 8. While technically not jobs, they were compelling learning environments for experiencing local and national politics up close and personal.
Afterwards, she became a two-term United States Senator from New York, abbreviating the second term to run for president in 2008.
She competed against a community organizing black man who served a few terms in the Illinois Senate, less than one term as a United States Senator, and had a terrorist sounding name. Barak Hussein Obama.
The democrats rejected Hillary and her deep resumé, selecting Obama and his spare one. That might have been a clue.
President Obama appointed her Secretary of State. A position she held for 4 years.
Detractors said she did a terrible job. Proponents claimed she was spectacular. Neither side could convincingly back up their claims off the cuff.
As Obama was departing, Hillary decided to run again. Vice President Joe Biden also considered running, but he was recovering from a family tragedy, and might have sensed the imminent Party coronation. He declined.
During all her public years Hillary accumulated baggage…luggage. She claimed that she was the target of a vast right wing conspiracy. Probably.
Some of her actions and decisions made the targeting easier.
Polls indicted that fairly or not, she was a polarizing figure…adored by many, despised by as many.
During the primary campaign we discovered through leaked emails that Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Chairwomen of the Democrat National Committee, was plotting to undermine Hillary’s one serious opponent, Bernie Sanders. The scandal forced her resignation.
Then we learned that the interim replacement, Donna Brazile, through her affiliation with CNN, obtained questions which were to be asked during the upcoming primary debate.
The questions were forwarded to Hillary’s staff.
Bernie had no such advocate or advantage.
Brazile resigned from her CNN position and Hillary did nicely in the debate, having prepared in advance for questions that were asked…verbatim.
She might have won the debate. She clearly won the nomination.
It came down to last man and woman standing;
two people with near historic negative ratings.
Trump was caricature-ish with the citrus color, unusual hair, vulgar and aggressive remarks, and spastic gestures.
Hillary was groomed, poised, intelligent, and soft-lit.
Trump said outlandish things. Often.
Hillary was articulate and on script. Always.
The polls indicated not who, but by how much.
Days before the election a letter was released by FBI Director, James Comey, stating that the FBI found new potential evidence on a laptop computer relating to Hillary’s email server.
It ultimately led to nothing…except intense media attention.
After losing the election, Hillary pointed to the Comey letter as the reason she lost momentum and the election.
Hillary explained, “There are lots of reasons why
an election like this is not successful but, our analysis is that
Comey’s letter raising doubts that were groundless, baseless,
proven to be, stopped our momentum.”
She went on to say that a second letter from Mr. Comey, clearing
her once again, which came two days before Election Day, had
been even more damaging.
The letters created enough drag…a final straw…to whittle away
the critical votes.
Epilogue
The new evidence Comey referred to was discovered during an unrelated inquiry into former Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner regarding an allegation that he sent illicit, sexual text messages to an underage girl in North Carolina. In the course of that investigation, agents seized a laptop computer Weiner shared with his wife, Huma Abedin, Hillary’s closest aide.
