Trump received the exposure due to his outrageousness. What Trump did was he called into every morning talk show every day. This was whether they were for him or against him. He was the headliner on the news relegating Clinton to the back page most days. Trump sought exposure; he was the show man who believed in there was no such thing as bad publicity, no publicity was bad. Clinton tried to avoid it. She went over 200 days without a press conference and only appeared on shows that were 100% for her like The View. Yes, Trump knew how to manipulate the media for his exposure.

Throw this into the mix of Clinton being lazy on the campaign trail, she made only 71 campaign visits, stops, rallies etc. to Trump’s 116. Clinton’s 71 look larger than what it was as that included fund raisers in deep blue California and New York. There’s a lot more as to the reasons Clinton lost, but the media and laziness on the campaign trail are big. And yes, where Clinton relied on paid TV political ads, Trump was soaking up the free media exposure. I don’t think Clinton took Trump seriously. But that is just my opinion.

But the fact remains, Clinton was the first presidential candidate since 1960 to raise and out spend her opponent to lose. Although it was a quirk due to the electoral college. The earth, moon, sun, the stars, even galaxies had to align perfectly in order for Trump to win, they did. Voter turnout probably had a lot to do with it too. Democrats made up 33% of the electorate to the Republicans 27% in November 2016. A 6-point advantage for the democrats. But that advantage shrunk to just 3 points among those who actually voted that year. 36-33 over Republican with independents making up 31%. Clinton also lost the independent vote 46-42 to Trump with 12% of independents who did vote, voting third party.

Compare that to 2020 when the democrats held but a 1-point advantage, but a 2-point advantage 37-35 over the GOP among voters who actually turnout to vote. Biden won independents 54-41 over Trump with 5% voting third party. The democrats got their people to the polls in 2020, but not in 2016. I suppose 4 years of Trump was a great incentive for Democrats to get out and vote along with independents switching to Biden over Trump when in 2016 they went to Trump.

This year so far, as of today, independents are supporting Trump by a 39-35 margin with the rest in the vote third party or will not vote or undecided columns. This is why Trump is leading Biden by a couple of points today. Independents.

It's high past time that we start electing Americans to congress and the presidency who put America first instead of their political party. For way too long we have been electing Republicans and Democrats who happen to be Americans instead of Americans who happen to be Republicans and Democrats.