Readers Write: Why Hillary Clinton really lost

The Island Now

Once again, in her long political/power seeking/wealth producing career, Hillary Clinton is portraying herself as a victim, rather than admitting that she is anything but that.

On Page A14 in today’s Newsday (Sept. 9), you’ve reprinted an Associated Press story about the release of Hillary Clinton’s latest book, “What Happened.”

The AP story says, “In a candid , angry new book, Hillary Clinton relives her defeat to Donald Trump, admitting to mistakes and defending campaign strategy, even as her return to the stage refocuses attention on a race Democrats still can’t believe they lost.”

Some of the factors that Hillary believes contributed to her loss are: interference from “Russian backers,” accusations leveled at her by former FBI Director James Comey, a divisive primary battle with Bernie Sanders and her gender.

She also addresses criticism that she didn’t have a compelling narrative for seeking the presidency.

Each of those factors may have worked, to some extent, against Hillary’s efforts to win the presidency and some may not have been a factor at all, but I believe that none of them, singly or some grouped together, are the reasons for her defeat.

I believe that Hillary lost the election for the following reasons, which she, playing the role of the victim again, neglects to mention:

1. President Barack Obama. Hillary indicated that her administration would be a continuation of President Obama’s, but during his eight years in office we suffered (a) prolonged wage stagnation, (b) the outsourcing of thousands of American jobs to Mexico and overseas, (c) the flight of a significant number of American companies out of the country, (d) disastrous foreign policy failures, one after the other and (e) as a result of those failures, America’s enemies, Iran, North Korea, China, Russia, ISIS, the Taliban and Radical Islam, became emboldened to step up their threats against the U.S. and our allies.

Also, during the Obama years, new government business regulations ran rampant and loose immigration policies caused serious national problems.

I believe that Hillary’s defeat last November was, to a great extent, a repudiation of the eight years of the Obama presidency

2. Baggage. I don’t believe that any presidential candidate in my lifetime (and I can remember back to Presidents Roosevelt’s 1944 campaign, when I was 10 years old) ever carried the heavy baggage of scandals and borderline criminal goings on, that Hillary still carries to this day.

Books have been written detailing that baggage.

Was any other candidate for the presidency ever being investigated by the FBI for punishable crimes, while he or she was seeking the office? And to top that off, did the director of the FBI ever say before, about any other candidate, that although he or she, like Hillary, was guilty of breaking an important federal law, that he, the director, was advising the Department of Justice not to prosecute the offender, because like Hillary, he or she really didn’t mean to break the law? It’s too bad that Willy Sutton’s lawyer never thought of that defense. Poor Willy, he never meant to break the law, after he accidently wandered into the bank.

3.  Lack of Accomplishments. Although Hillary has told us that she is the smartest woman in the world, after spending eight years in the White House as first lady, then eight years as a senator from New York and then four years as Secretary of State for President Obama, it is nearly impossible to find any piece of legislation (federal or state), or any foreign policy accomplishment, tied to her name. (And I won’t mention the Benghazi scandal.)

4.  Persona. For millions of voters, it is very difficult to pull down the voting lever for someone who tells them that it is her turn to be the President of the United States and the leader of the free world, and that no one in her party should dare to oppose her in her quest for the presidency.

While millions of voters crave a strong leader, who promises to do all their thinking for them and to care for them like children, millions of other voters cannot abide such arrogance. I believe that Hillary turned away millions of voters, who were not looking for a “Big Daddy” form of government.

5.  Empathy. Early in 2008, when Bill and Hillary were preparing to leave the White House, Hillary announced that they were broke (had no money), that they didn’t own anything and that they owed millions of dollars in legal fees, for services rendered in connection with President Clinton’s impeachment problems and his dalliances with Monica Lewinsky and other women.

During their last few days in the White House, however, President Clinton did earn $2 million to $3 million dollars by selling presidential pardons.

Now, 16years after they left the White House, it’s estimated that Bill and Hillary have a personal net worth of between $150 million and $200 million, after taxes, and that they control and benefit from, a private foundation that has approximately $36 billion (that’s billion, with a “B”) in net assets.

How the Clinton’s managed to amass this fortune is explained in the recent book, “Clinton Cash”, by Peter Schweizer. I urge everyone to read this book.

The Clintons did not amass this fortune from book royalties, or speaking fees. They amassed it from influence peddling, much of it to the detriment of our country.

During this last presidential campaign, Hillary made very strong efforts to capture black and minority voters, and also all voters receiving food stamps and other government support benefits.

She largely succeeded in her efforts, but not completely, because for many voters on the margins of our society, it was hard for them to believe in a woman as hugely wealthy as Hillary is, along with her Wall Street connections.

Only time will tell if Hillary has the resilience to make another run for it in 2020, or if the Democratic Party by then, will have had enough of her pomposity.

I have the feeling that the Republican Party would love her to be the Democratic candidate in 2020, because I think that deflating her then, would be as easy as letting the air out of a child’s balloon.

 

Joel Katz

Port Washington

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