Granted, Trump played the media and got a billion dollars of free media exposure. He was the headline, top story of every news cast while Hillary was placed on the second page or further back. Hillary brought a lot of that on herself by refusing to go on any show or to be interviewed by anyone who didn’t downright support her.
I also agree that Hillary thought she had this won before it began. Also, Trump never thought he would win. He was just using the presidential election to get a better TV show and contract. I saw the look on Trump’s face when he was told he won; shock would be a mild way to put it. He never expected it.
Then there was turnout. The Democrats had a 6-point advantage in voter or party affiliation in 2016, but only a 2-point advantage among those who turned out to vote. There’s no doubt in my mind had the Democrats with their larger base turned out in the same percentages as the Republicans, Clinton would have won. Perhaps they too thought Hillary had it in the bag.
What I noticed was how energetic Hillary was during the primaries, she lost that energy during the general election campaign. I thought she was lazy at times. Which made me wonder if something was wrong with her, physically I mean. I don’t know, she never said. TV, reality, each of us view reality differently.
Republicans and Democrats own the horses/candidates in these races/elections. Their stake in the race/election is very high. A lot of independents are the 2-dollar window betters. They don’t have a stake in who wins or loses. They may have their druthers, but the stake is minimal. They’ll vote on a whim, on who’s more charismatic, who looks more presidential, who has the better presidential personality, on the thickness or thinning of their wallet, the better campaign slogan, etc. Many of our elections are decided by those who really don’t care who wins and couldn’t tell one thing about the candidates or where they stand on the issues.
