2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Bill Press: Sanders didnt damage Clintons public image [View all]Raster
(20,999 posts)...No, they did not.
Y'all need to get off "it's all Bernie's fault," and take a good, long, hard look AT ALL OF THE FACTORS. And number one, which most of you are refusing to even acknowledge, is that Hillary Clinton was one of the most polarizing candidates ever in American politics.
The Reich-wing smear machine had been working on their Hillary repertoire for years. When it came to negative numbers throughout the GE, Hillary and tRump were neck-in-neck. Even though most felt Hillary was more qualified to be POTUS, they also tended not to trust her. Add to the mix the prospect of the American electorate thinking they wanted change, as evidenced by the electorate interest in the primary candidacies of both Trump and Sanders. Like it or not, Clinton was viewed as the establishment candidate.