A new study by the Wesleyan Media Project and published in the scholarly journal: The Forum: A Journal of Applied Research in Contemporary Politics explains why Hillary Clinton lost the campaign. Her loss had nothing to do with FBI Director Comey, or Vladimir Putin. The reason for Hillary’s loss is what we all knew but the Democrats refuse to accept, she ran a really crappy campaign. As a matter of fact the study found that Hillary’s 2016 presidential campaign was “without a doubt one of the worst-run political operations in years.”
For example in the rust belt states where President Trump earned surprise wins (Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania), the Clinton campaign didn’t advertise until the very end when it was obviously too late. Trump advertised at lower levels, but began much earlier which gave his ads time to build and convince.
Trump’s ads were generally issue oriented. However according to Wesleyan very little of Clinton’s ads focused on policy. When they compared the last four presidential campaigns (eight candidates) Clinton’s advertising ranked dead last in terms of presenting policy positions. About a quarter of her ads were purely about her positions on issues. Clinton’s ads focused on identity politics rather than trying to appeal to the broad electorate, and/or instead of presenting her stance on issues her ads attacked Trump.
Nearly half of all Clinton campaign airings were negative whereas over half of Trump campaign airings were contrast spots, which discussed Clinton negatively but also provided information about Trump.
You may remember all the times commentators were saying that Clinton didn’t do a good job of explaining why she ran. Apparently saying “I am a woman” and “Trump sucks” didn’t work.
On thing not explained in the study but showcased in the map below presented in the study. The Red areas below are where the Trump Campaign ran more ads than the Clinton effort, blue states are the reverse. The darker the color the bigger the advantage. The blue states in the rust belt below show a Hillary advantage because of the last-minute advertising.
The surprise on the chart is California. Some of the most expensive media markets are in California, especially southern California. And according to the California Secretary of State, the Democratic Party state has (and has had ) a huge advantage over the GOP in registration.
Therefore when one combines the fact that some of the most expensive media markets in the country are in the state and that with the large advantage the Democrats have, a huge question is raised. Why did Hillary Clinton out-advertise Donald Trump by such a large margin in a state where she could have been found in bed with an underaged boy and a dead gigolo and still win by a big margin? Did she know she was going to lose the electorial vote and wanted to push California so she could say she won the popular vote? If it wasn’t that, it had to be because her political strategists were as dumb as a doorknob.
The bottom line is that Clinton’s campaign was awful. Her ad placement was amateurish, she didn’t advertise where she should have, and wasted money in an expensive state that she would have won either way.
Clinton’s strategist must have ignored their polls. IMHO, her message that Trump sucks, did not resonate with the voters. It left voters wondering what her policies were, and for those who liked what Trump was saying Clinton’s message delivered an arrogant, “you must be stupid if you don’t understand.”
Hillary Clinton advertised in the wrong places with the wrong message. Neither Vladimir Putin, James Comey, the Tooth Fairy, nor even the man in the moon can be blamed for Hillary runny such a lousy campaign. And if she can’t manage a political campaign, she certainly can’t manage the federal government. America made the correct choice in November.
