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New Clinton postmortem of campaign includes criticism of Sanders policy promises

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kirblar

Member
Ah. Clinton lost because "All white people are racist".

That's stupid.

That's not why Hillary Lost and if the DNC adopts that attitude they'll never win another election.
Obama->Trump voters are really fucking racist: https://www.voterstudygroup.org/reports/2016-elections/political-divisions-in-2016-and-beyond

figure8_drutman_e4aabc39aab12644609701bbacdff252.png
 

Calamari41

41 > 38
Problem is i'm not sure that there is a counter to it. You can break these promises down number by number and show that they don't add up, but at the end of the day people will believe what they want to believe.

We had the exact same problem over Brexit. I lost track of the amount of times the whole "350m per week to the NHS" was quashed, but come election day people were still regurgitating the same bullshit promises.

I hear you, it isn't an easy nut to crack. Funny enough, I think that a Trump-style mocking and negative branding is the best way to deal with someone who just keeps adding one to your proposals. Making the guy and his proposals a joke to the nation is probably the best counter to his act.

Like, there's no reason to not use that pony analogy in an actual debate.
 

lenovox1

Member
Or by writing an entire book titled "What Happened". The obvious inference of the title is that the fault lies elsewhere. If she truly takes "absolute personal responsibility", she shouldn't have written this book. Instead, her best course would be to fade into the background and let the Democratic party recover without her continually picking at the metaphorical scab that was 2016.

Clinton has been in the political and public sphere since she was 18. The idea that she would ever just disappear regardless of circumstances is hilarious.
 

JABEE

Member
Your take on this is too simplistic. Europe only got these things after literally being devastated by WWII, there was a significant change in mindset and approach to the way people thought about the role of government. The US only get its social programs in large part thanks to the Great Depression.

You can not expect to get the same European style solutions over night in a country which is still very much functioning and far from being on the verge of societal collapse.

So Hillary's proposals were far more realistic in the sense that they were grounded in reality trying to inch forward knowing how hard it is to change things in a society where for many people (not saying a majority) things were OK how they were.

Sanders was pure snakeoil. I say this as someone from the UK who abhors the right and who believes the 1946 Labour government is the greatest in this country's history.

I don't think this country is functioning properly though. The recession in 2008 should have been the time to fix these problems and change the dynamic and instead we bailed out the system.

I'm not sure if Bernie could have actually got things done, but I think the problems should actually be addressed completely before we get to the point of national catastrophe or "revolution."

Someone actually saying the things Sanders was saying is valuable when our parties have titled towards the right and are sliding. People are content to just maintain and fight back slowly against that tilt. It's going to get a lot worse.

Someone raising expectations for what the government can and should do for its people is the first step to getting actual change.
 
Blah blah blah overpromises etc. Shut up, your campaign and platform sucked. I can't think of single talking point from your campaign that could of materialised into actual policy, Hillary.

Bernie was campaigning with poetry which is how you are supposed to because it can lead to the unthinkable happening. The logistics of his promises were in the works but I think are possible with a D congress and president. Don't get mad at him for having a vision and wanting to move the country in the best direction regarding healthcare.

This is the most delusional thing I've read in a while.

Hillary had the unenviable position of running against bullshit artists on both sides. You present people with reality, they're going to notice it isn't as good as the bullshit they've fell for.
 

Fuchsdh

Member
This is exactly on-point.

Of course, one lesson I learned from last year is that you SHOULD offer magic abs.

Policy details and feasibility don't really matter in campaign.

Yeah it seems like you have to run a fine line between promising realistic action and promising something that gets people excited.

The problem with Bernie's proposals weren't really how unlikely they were from a legislative standpoint (you've got to start somewhere and negotiate down, that's the essence of politics) but that some of his proposals were simply impossible as stated (like paying for a bunch of his policies by the US having a massively higher rate of growth year-over-year, instead of through taxation.)
 
Hillary should have listened more to Bill Clinton and allot less to Robby Mook when it pertained to the Mid-West.

Bill would have wanted her to go to Wisconsin and Michigan. But lol Mook goes, "make a concert in Philly where you are already cemented"

yeah, Mook was total trash. You can even tell the way he talked in interviews that this guy lacked any passion or insight. But everyone assured me that he's good behind the scenes crunching the numbers :/
 
Blah blah blah overpromises etc. Shut up, your campaign and platform sucked. I can't think of single talking point from your campaign that could of materialised into actual policy, Hillary.

Bernie was campaigning with poetry which is how you are supposed to because it can lead to the unthinkable happening. The logistics of his promises were in the works but I think are possible with a D congress and president. Don't get mad at him for having a vision and wanting to move the country in the best direction regarding healthcare.

The only thing I resent about bernie's campaign is how he low key used the whole "corrupt politician" slander against Clinton. The right has used that baseless shit against her for a long time and maybe it seemed like good material at the time but it did lasting damage to her and helped Donald. He should of taken the high road and went after her stale shit campaign with zero vision instead of using low blow material painting her as a corrupt politician only out for wall street interests.

Now this is podracing
 
She's not wrong but there's more than enough information we know now that makes it look like a lot of the Berniebro thing was a Russian psyop, too. Especially when more of Sanders' supporters voted for Clinton than Clinton's supporters voted for Obama.

The bolded is the stat that matters. Hillary certainly is entitled to think she should go unchallenged by someone who has better ideas for where America should be heading. It's not "wrong" to aim high. That's how negotiation works. Corporate democrats don't get it because it doesn't work for them. Anything but an N+1 iterative model of progress bends them out of shape because it may inconvenience their economic position of power.

Still, the vast majority of Bernie people knew their best option was Hillary in the General, and how they actually voted reflected that. It's just that Bernie had populist/progressive economic ideas that appealed to many otherwise socially conservative interior blue collar voters who would have voted Republican or Independent/3rd Party anyway. That is her mistake. These people in the swing states were not going to vote for who they perceived as a corporatist no matter what this cycle.
 

"These people who voted for Obama but not Clinton are incredibly fucking racist".



I know many, many, many people who saw their careers go down the drain after NAFTA in the 90s, who voted for Obama and didn't see the return of blue collar jobs, and were scared to death of what Hillary and the TPP would do that NAFTA didn't finish.

Their vote for Trump isn't justified, but that's their thinking.

But if a Dem tells them they only voted for Trump because they're racist and they'll never vote for a Democrat ever again.
 
So the burning question.

Does she put ANY blame on herself and her campaign or is it everyone else's fault?

Cant read now as I'm at work but I'll read what's available a little later tonight.


Edit - Saw that the excerpts are from one page? Guess that means there are many other pages to pass blame around.

Although putting out books that put any blame at your own party is stupid right now. Creating further infighting is not needed right now.
 

DarkKyo

Member
This is so good. For sure buying this book now.

It reads like a pathetic livejournal post. Focus on the future, not passing the blame of your failures, to sell books. All she's doing is stealing headlines to cause infighting in her own party. Reading this stuff, it kind of makes me ashamed to know I voted for her in the general.
 

sangreal

Member
Well it isn't illegal to do so.

WaPo

From the article: "“The DNC reportedly argued that the organization’s neutrality among Democratic campaigns during the primaries was merely a ‘political promise,’ and therefore it had no legal obligations to remain impartial throughout the process,” a reporter for Newsweek wrote."

Let's look at the evidence laid out in that complaint:

1) Someone at the DNC wrote a memo with strategies for defending Hillary against GOP attacks during the general election. The memo was written before the primaries but after Bernie announced

...

...

That's it.
 

kirblar

Member
"These people who voted for Obama but not Clinton are incredibly fucking racist".
Yes. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...iced-whites-and-some-of-them-supported-trump/
At the same time, about one quarter of whites who didn't even think blacks and whites should date each other still supported Obama for president. An analysis by political scientists Sam Popkin and Doug Rivers showed the same thing: 20-25% of whites who opposed interracial dating supported Obama throughout the 2008 campaign.
"One of the Good Ones" in action.
 

Abelard

Member
So, basically like every primary ever? Don't see what the problem is here when every primary challenger in some way has damaged the other candidate. Still, y'all are hypocritical of you buy into this- 'member when Clinton dogwhistled to the Obama is unamerican (in values, not nationality) people during '08? I 'member! If it wasn't a problem then, this shouldn't be a problem now.

Also, why is it never Clinton's fault she lost? Its always Bernie/Obama/Trump/Comey/Russia, her majesty is never to blame.
 
This is the most delusional thing I've read in a while.

Hillary had the unenviable position of running against bullshit artists on both sides. You present people with reality, they're going to notice it isn't as good as the bullshit they've fell for.
It's funny how you frame Hillary as an underdog in your post.
 

Suikoguy

I whinny my fervor lowly, for his length is not as great as those of the Hylian war stallions
I mean I think the thing where he traveled around the country campaigning for Hillary probably helped

That helped counter the negative attacks he made on Hillary herself.
That's the typical cycle of a primary.

What's not, is the attacks on the party itself, and that's where my criticism resides.
 

fireflame

Member
Sanders had great ideas for tuition and social welfare, was the hero America needed. Meanwhile Hillary live inside her bubble and did not care about lower classes.
 

DOWN

Banned
So, basically like every primary ever? Don't see what the problem is here when every primary challenger in some way has damaged the other candidate. Still, y'all are hypocritical of you buy into this- 'member when Clinton dogwhistled to the Obama is unamerican (in values, not nationality) people during '08? I 'member! If it wasn't a problem then, this shouldn't be a problem now.

Also, why is it never Clinton's fault she lost? Its always Bernie/Obama/Trump/Comey/Russia, her majesty is never to blame.
She’s literally said her own actions shifted her lead away from her. Do some research.
 

slit

Member
If progressives can't reunite after not getting their way then that is on progressives not Bernie Sanders. Hillary had some gaping flaws that he had every right to challenge.
 
So, basically like every primary ever? Don't see what the problem is here when every primary challenger in some way has damaged the other candidate. Still, y'all are hypocritical of you buy into this- 'member when Clinton dogwhistled to the Obama is unamerican (in values, not nationality) people during '08? I 'member! If it wasn't a problem then, this shouldn't be a problem now.

Also, why is it never Clinton's fault she lost? Its always Bernie/Obama/Trump/Comey/Russia, her majesty is never to blame.

It was HER turn! Everyone else was supposed to just step aside.
 
So, basically like every primary ever? Don't see what the problem is here when every primary challenger in some way has damaged the other candidate. Still, y'all are hypocritical of you buy into this- 'member when Clinton dogwhistled to the Obama is unamerican (in values, not nationality) people during '08? I 'member! If it wasn't a problem then, this shouldn't be a problem now.

Also, why is it never Clinton's fault she lost? Its always Bernie/Obama/Trump/Comey/Russia, her majesty is never to blame.

Same reason why it's never Bernie's fault he lost the primary, but rather Clinton's, black people not seeing the light, conspiracies, sabotage.

Folks don't like to admit the person they rooted for fucked up.
 

pigeon

Banned
"These people who voted for Obama but not Clinton are incredibly fucking racist".



I know many, many, many people who saw their careers go down the drain after NAFTA in the 90s, who voted for Obama and didn't see the return of blue collar jobs, and were scared to death of what Hillary and the TPP would do that NAFTA didn't finish.

Their vote for Trump isn't justified, but that's their thinking.

But if a Dem tells them they only voted for Trump because they're racist and they'll never vote for a Democrat ever again.

Those people voted for a Nazi.

I'm not particularly interested in their self-serving justifications for doing so.

If they aren't racist, I assume they're organizing against Trump now that they've seen what they've unleashed, and apologizing profusely to the people around them

But I suspect they aren't. I wonder why?
 

sangreal

Member
So, basically like every primary ever? Don't see what the problem is here when every primary challenger in some way has damaged the other candidate. Still, y'all are hypocritical of you buy into this- 'member when Clinton dogwhistled to the Obama is unamerican (in values, not nationality) people during '08? I 'member! If it wasn't a problem then, this shouldn't be a problem now.

Also, why is it never Clinton's fault she lost? Its always Bernie/Obama/Trump/Comey/Russia, her majesty is never to blame.

Hillary in 08 didn't leave her supporters with the lasting impression that the Democratic party was rotten and working against them.

And that was an election where the party actually fucked voters over (Michigan and Florida)
 

pigeon

Banned
So, basically like every primary ever? Don't see what the problem is here when every primary challenger in some way has damaged the other candidate. Still, y'all are hypocritical of you buy into this- 'member when Clinton dogwhistled to the Obama is unamerican (in values, not nationality) people during '08? I 'member! If it wasn't a problem then, this shouldn't be a problem now.

This is a very weird argument to make. Do you think we were all Clinton supporters in 2008? Why would you think that?
 

jackal27

Banned
Omg move on. Your campaign had a shitty narrative that didn't resonate with people and so many of them went with one that was easier to understand, Trump's.

You could see this coming from miles and miles away with Bernie's campaign and how it resonated with people, but you chose to ignore that because you were arrogant. She was a historically weak candidate in a historically difficult election and she didn't want to believe it, still doesn't apparently.

I voted for her, but I was never once captivated by her narrative or her message. She was completely reactionary rather than visionary.
 

GSG Flash

Nobody ruins my family vacation but me...and maybe the boy!
Does she also point out how she was handed the primaries on a silver platter?

A stronger candidate would've been able to brush off these attacks on her or him, Hillary was entitled and not a strong candidate.
 
I mean I think the thing where he traveled around the country campaigning for Hillary probably helped

Means jack shit when you spent an entire year convincing your supporters that Hillary Clinton was a crook, that was rigging the primaries and would go to war as soon as she took office. Then you continue with this message way past the point where you could win the primaries using any sort of math.
 

Eidan

Member
Omg move on. Your campaign had a shitty narrative that didn't resonate with people and so many of them went with one that was easier to understand, Trump's.

You could see this coming from miles and miles away with Bernie's campaign and how it resonated with people, but you chose to ignore that because you were arrogant. She was a historically weak candidate in a historically difficult election and she didn't want to believe it, still doesn't apparently.

I voted for her, but I was never once captivated by her narrative or her message. She was completely reactionary rather than visionary.

Did you expect Clinton to not make a book on the campaign? Did you expect her to not discuss one of her chief challengers?
 
Some of them, I assume, are good people.

If you're continuing to support the WWE there's no good excuse besides ignorance.

They're an organization that helped promote Trump's image during their events over several decades.

They refused to condemn Trump at all during the campaign. Now Linda McMahon is in charge of the Small Business Administration of the executive branch.

Both Linda and Vince also donated large amounts of money to Trump's sham of a charity organization.

And neither of them have bothered to criticize Trump, instead they're taking photo with him in the oval office.

 
All this "woe is me" shit from a rich old white person is precisely what we need right now.

It's a tell-all book. These excerpts are an accurate description of the primary. Nowhere does she say anything that could be resembled as "woe is me." Pointing out a strategy is not "woe is me." It's pointing out a strategy.

Some people remember PUMA, asshole.

Yeah, she was so hard into PUMA that she endorsed Obama rather quickly after suspending her campaign. She was so hard into PUMA that she served in his administration afterwards.
 
I always find it funny that the argument was simultaneously "you have no idea how to pay for something like Medicare For All" and also "your middle class tax-raises that would pay for Medicare For All would scare off everyone!". Which is it?

I often find "it's impossible" arguments to be more often an argument from cynicism anyway, rather than an actual impossibility. It's more a "corporate and other political interests are too damn strong, so there's no point in even fighting them, and this is all we can get" approach. So that's how you get all the "well, maybe we can just tweak the ACA every once in a while and hopefully turn into Switzerland one day" takes. Those same takes also presuppose that Republicans would be open to that approach, which is weird, considering they didn't even vote for the already compromised, relatively corporate-friendly ACA.

Another thing I'd argue that the whole point of something like a presidential campaign is to articulate a vision for what/where you want the country to be. If you compromise during the actual legislative process, that's one thing (especially if you can at least clearly show you were fighting for something more before compromising, unlike Obama for example), but what's the point of compromising when you're trying to GOTV? Who are you compromising with at that point? The point of putting Medicare For All in a platform is that it's a policy that perfectly communicates your vision of "health care should be a right, and no one should ever go broke paying medical bills". And it's an obviously doable policy (not easy, but it's obviously doable, since it literally already exists in other countries). It's not in your platform because you think it'll get instantly passed in your first year of office.

I've seen arguments that candidates should continue to take mass amounts of corporate money because there's no point in handcuffing yourself, yet will turn around and limit themselves to arbitrary notions of "realism" when it comes to any sort of major progressive policy. Even though this kind of "realism" is the kind that often says spending trillions of dollars on war is rational because "something has to be done", while spending trillions of dollars on guaranteeing health care is "irrational" and similar to wanting "ponies". Meaning, not actually "realism" at all, but simply different priorities and agendas by various interests.
 

shamanick

Member
Did you expect Clinton to not make a book on the campaign? Did you expect her to not discuss one of her chief challengers?

This is pouring gasoline on the fire that's raging through the Democratic party right now. Calls for unity by the Clinton wing are completely hollow.
 
From the article linked it doesn't really sound like she blasted him tbh.
Yeah. I'd expect this kind of thing to happen with any candidates on relatively the same team.

And Hillary did call out some of Bernie's ideas as impractical during the debates. She just made a point of being more composed and prepared in her arguments than she was with Obama, for instance.
 
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