I decided to provide what I thought was a somewhat appropriate-in-an-ironic-way music background for this post, a song about New York backing my post about a New York-based politician. It helps that the song shares a title with the book I'm about to discuss: Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton's Doomed Campaign.
Authored by political insiders Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes, the dome relies on interviews with campaign workers and volunteers (who go unidentified through the book in order to protect their identities, likely from recrimination from the Clintons). While this factor may lead the reader to initially question the authenticity of the claims made through the book, I found that there seemed to be enough consistency with the claims made and the historical record to allay this concern.
From reading the book itself, I found myself arriving at the following impressions:
1. Hillary Clinton was her own worst enemy on several occasions described in the book. Start with her "basket of deplorables" comment, followed up by her campaign's treatment of the Ready For Hillary PAC (which could have provided much-needed grass roots support to her campaign), and her non-communication regarding the pneumonia she suffered toward the end of the campaign. The list is long, and it's disturbing for somebody of her intelligence and capability.
2. The book placed what I think is an inordinate amount of blame on the Bernie Sanders campaign. Specifically, the book claims that the Sanders campaign relied on attacking Hillary's character, by bringing up her too-cozy relationship with the country's Financial Sector and Corporations. My recollection of the 2016 Primary was that Bernie was bringing up facts about the candidate - which is HIS RIGHT - and that he was trying to win a primary - which is ALSO HIS RIGHT.
3. As for the contest between Hillary and Bernie, the authors show a definite slant towards Hillary. Bernie was portrayed as an inferior candidate, with big ideas and no substance to back them up. Hillary was described as having performed extremely well during the primary candidates: a virtual mirror image of the opinions of much of the mainstream media.
4. You may have seen excerpts from the book regarding her (and Bill's) joint chew-out session with her campaign staff over the lack of movement in her numbers and the failure of the campaign to wrest control of the campaign narrative. This assignment of blame to others can be seen in her recent interview where she "took full responsibility" for the campaign's failure, but then blames James Comey for his ill-timed letter and "Russian Wikileaks". The book, on the other hand, places the primary blame where it belongs: on the candidate herself.
I've heard about what a horrible candidate she was, what a horrible politician she is, what an enviable resume she has, etc. etc. etc. When one boils it down, one finds that Hillary Clinton, in order to win this election, had to convincingly portray something she is not - a person of the people. The book describes her as the consummate policy wonk, a competent administrator, and an expert as to the workings of the DC machine. But a candidate has to be able to make the sale to the voters - a skill that, in these days, is so important that it renders all of the other qualities almost unnecessary. Proof of this is easy to find on the Twitters and on the News: President Donald Trump. Trump was a salesman, and he made the sale to the critical swing state voters. Hillary, unfortunately, did not generate the same kind of buzz. She seemed to be the most comfortable in the circles she ran in most often: big money donors and other influential people and groups. She seemed to believe that qualifications should beat out salesmanship in an election. In the perfect world, this would be the case.
The book is an imperfect, but worthwhile read.
Legal Note: The Youtube video attached to this post contains musical content owned by Universal Music Group. It has been included here only for editorial purposes and no infringement is intended. I will remove the link upon request.
