Failure to define a simple, coherent, bumper-sticker message
During the 2012 campaign, the Daily Show did a report where they asked Democrats at rallies to summarize why they were voting for Barrack Obama with “something that would fit on a bumper sticker”. Nobody could even come close. Someone at the Obama campaign obviously saw the show and shortly afterwards, they came up with: “Saved GM, Got Bin Laden”. It was brilliant. It defined a domestic achievement and a foreign policy achievement in 5 words.
Hillary needed a simple positive message like this. During the debate, Trump ridiculously accused Hillary of not having any policies. Hillary’s response was basically “look at my website”. Trump had snappy lines like “Build the wall” and “Lock her up”. Obama had “Yes we can”. Hillary was a bit all over the place. “Stronger together” may have been focus group tested, but it’s not snappy.
On the economy...
On the economy, Hillary seemed to be running both for and against the current economy at the same time. Barrack Obama won on the 2012 economy. The economy is much better than it was in 2012. There’s been 80 months of consecutive job growth. If you want to go back further, the Bill Clinton was the best in the last 40+ years. Yet, when asked who would do a better job on the economy, polls showed Trump and Clinton nearly even.
Failure to fight back effectively
After 2004, John Kerry said that his biggest regret of the campaign was not fighting back against the Swift-Boaters. It not only took away from one of his greatest strengths, but he missed a fantastic opportunity. He could have turned it around to great effect: “How dare you attack a war hero like this”.
On Emails...
In July, when James Comey made his report exonerating Clinton, where were the Democrats? Hillary should have done a press conference right then. She should have been on every talk show crowing about this. Democrats should have been on flooding every channel talking about how this was great news. Instead, 2 horrible narratives were established. First that his report was “devastating” to Clinton, and second that the Comey was somehow covering up for Clinton because this is a Democratic administration. How many people really know that almost all of the emails that were classified were classified after the fact? How many people know that not only did Comey say that the private email server was not even close to being criminal, but that legal scholars were almost unanimous in agreement? I know that talking about emails is not good for the campaign in the short term, but wasting a week 4 months ago to fight this narrative was infinitely better than slowly bleeding over 4 months.
On the foundation…
The Clinton Foundation should have been a source of strength. By any objective measure it does great work and has been validated numerous times. Why not make the foundation part of the campaign. Spend a week talking about nothing but the foundation. When people question the ethics of obscure seating arrangements, the response should be “How dare you question this organization that has saved so many lives?”
On Wikileaks...
Podesta’s emails dripped in small batches in a way that would inflict maximum damage. Why not get out in front and drop them all at once? You get 2 days of bad press and then it’s over. On top of that, I was really struck at how clean the campaign was. This is a political campaign, not a choir school. I expected much worse. Can you imagine what would be in Karl Rove’s email? When Republicans question you, challenge them to release their emails. Nobody expects politicians to be saints. The Clinton campaign was extremely clean and fair compared to anything the Republicans have ever done. Whining about Russia got them nowhere.
Failure to look beyond their base
It has to be a lot easier to increase your support from 15 to 20% than to go from 80 to 85%. If there was ever an election where you could try to woo evangelicals, this was it. The pretzel logic required to support Trump was incredible. Trump made a big show about going to a black church. Why wasn’t Clinton doing the same thing with evangelicals. Make a big deal about how this time you are going to win them over. The left has a lot in common with evangelicals in terms of the environment and social justice. Where did Jesus ever rail against the estate tax? Even if you don’t get anywhere, at least make a show about trying.
On rural voters...
I’ve heard numerous campaign operatives talk about how the campaign more or less abandoned rural areas. A campaign with more money than God had a vastly inferior turnout operation in rural areas than Barrack Obama’s campaign. Do more rural outreach. Don’t just give these voters to the Republicans. Make the case that you are better for their economic needs than Trump. Republicans still fight for city votes. Just like the Democrats need a 50 state strategy, they also need a “50 county” strategy within states too.
Hillary almost certainly would have won if Comey had not made his announcement. Not only did it ruin her last week’s narrative where she was trying to consolidate her support, but it saved Trump from himself by focusing his campaign. But the election should never have been that close to begin with. I know that she was running a safe, front-runner campaign, but it was too timid, too jumbled and too narrow.