Jeffrey, I know Trump got a lot of free media exposure Clinton didn’t in 2016. That was because of his outrageousness and that he believed in that old showman’s adage. That there’s no such thing as bad publicity, no publicity is bad. A lot of Trump’s coverage was portraying him in a bad light for his outrageousness and stupid things he said and did. But it kept him in the spotlight along with forcing Clinton’s coverage much later in the news report. Sort of a front page vs. back page coverage. The thing is Trump outrageousness drew in viewership whereas Clinton’s more normal demeanor was in the boring category where folks didn’t tune her in. That outrageousness paid off in 2016.
Clinton on the other hand ran a very inept campaign, hid from the media for the most part, relying on paid advertisements whereas Trump’s got his exposure for free. One can’t overlook the fact Hillary let Trump both outwork and out campaign her. 117 campaign rallies, visits, stops for Trump, only 71 for Clinton which looks larger than it actually was. That 71 included fund raisers in deep blue California and New York. Clinton racked in the money; one could call her money savvy. Trump was much more media savvy. Trump was always busy calling into every morning TV talk show whether they were for or against him. Clinton appeared on The View a couple of times and that was basically it. She only went on programs 100% for her. There’s much more. Something happened to Hillary between the primaries and the general election. In the primaries she was aggressive, a go getter. But became laid back as if she thought the presidency was hers without having to work for it. Without giving it the old college try. What that was or what happened to her I don’t know. Perhaps she thought Sanders was the bigger threat to her gaining the presidency than Trump. That once she defeated Sanders, she had the presidency in the bag. I don’t know as that is pure speculation. All I know is the get up and go she had displayed during primaries got up and left her during the general election.
She had a 7-point lead in the polls at the begining of the campaign season, 1 September which shrunk to 3 point in November. She won the popular vote by 2.1 points. She made no campaign visit to Wisconsin, only one to Michigan, 5 to Pennsylvania. Whereas Trump made 5 to Wisconsin, 6 to Michigan and 8 to Pennsylvania. The 5 to Pennsylvania includes an election eve visit to Pittsburgh. Even in electoral rich Florida, she let Trump outwork and out campaign her there 13 visits, rallies to 8 for Clinton.
I’d say Clinton lost because she became lazy, not because of the media or free airtime. Had Hillary worked as hard as she did to get the democratic nomination in the general election, she'd have won the presidency. For whatever reason she didn't, she became lazy.
