2016 Postmortem

1) I don't think she did everything she needed to. 2) I think it general she ran a good campaign but in retrospect I think the messaging could have been better honed and directed.

Now, that article. It shows little understanding of how voter turnout operations work. It's clear the author has never worked for or volunteered for a campaign. It's not true that they didn't focus on Democrats until two weeks before the election. They were in my state of MN--not a swing state--in the summer registering voters and recruiting volunteers. I myself worked on voter registration in 100 degree heat at a street fair. They did try to win over Republicans and swing voters because there was polling to indicate Trump's support was soft with them. But a key point of the author's claim that is false is that two weeks before an election is too late. How is it too late?
The point of the ground game is to turn out voters, not persuasion. Research indicates that personal contact from a volunteer in the THREE DAYS before the election is the most effective way to get people to vote.

Then the author says the campaign was incompetent because 5-25% of contacts were Trump supporters. Identifying supporters is key to getting them to the polls. If there is no party registration in a state, you can't know (aside from market data indications and voting history)how they are thinking about the election until they tell you. And even if there is party registration, people do cross party lines. Part of a ground game is to gather than information. When someone indicates they are not a Clinton supporter, the volunteer marks that and they are then removed from the list. If respondents are undecided, they will continue to be contacted.

Now I will ask you if you volunteered for the campaign? A ground game depends on volunteers. If you didn't, you really ought not be pointing fingers.


MY OP, however, is not a general assessment of why Clinton lost but an observation about the continued repetition of propaganda generated by the GOP to tarnish Clinton and help their own party. People should think about their role in that. Also the entire concern about "corporatist" Dems is made moot from this election. How people can imagine that's a problem when faced with what Trump is doing is bizarre.