2016 Postmortem

Clinton should have known better. She certainly knew she'd run for president again, and how the media works with trumped up scandals, and yet it didn't cross the mind of her, or anyone associated with her, that maybe this was going to be a problem if she ever did run for president? She admitted to making a mistake, the deleting of all those e-mails and the unsecured private server, so, I know she at least had some idea it wasn't good. But worse, it wasn't good politics. She would be president right now had she never established that server. The Clinton Foundation and speeches hurt - but it was the e-mails that continually dogged her campaign, and, at the very end, still dominated it.

I'd wager Comey's letter clearing Hillary did more damage than it did to help, mostly because it was the last thing we heard before voting - Clinton's e-mails...it brought it home. To be sure, the original Comey letter helped do her in, but I think she might've staved off Trump had he never released that second letter...because, again, not only did it bring the e-mails back into the discussion at literally the final hours of the campaign, but it also riled up Republicans, who felt she was once again being let off easy.

It wasn't that dissimilar to the polling drop she saw after the FBI initially cleared her in the summer. Her numbers took a hit, even when she was cleared.

But oh well. What done is done.