Harry Bosch
Contributor
Did they mismanage the election? Lets remember something, almost no candidate without any incumbency did what Trump did. The "grab them by the pussy line" the "bleeding from wherever" would have (has) buried any other candidate (Allen, Akins, Angle, O'Donnell). I think Clinton ran the right campaign that would have won almost any other election, but there was a significant movement from the right-wing to push for a candidate like Trump. She trounced Trump in the debates, but it didn't matter. Trump said deplorable things, like inciting violence at a rally... it didn't matter. How do you beat a candidate that can't go too negative?The question of whether it's bothersome and what the deciding factor in the election was can be considered separately.
If the Dems didn't completely mismanage the election strategy they could have won regardless of the hacked emails. And let's not excuse the fact that a Gmail phishing message (which the Clinton IT guy thought was real) was the attack vector.
She made two mistakes in hindsight. First, she went for the landslide and polls were pointing there, but it turned out Republicans weren't telling the truth when they said they wouldn't vote for Trump. She should have stayed local and protected the Midwest. Secondly, she picked the wrong VP candidate. Oddly her only gamble the entire election, going for the landslide hurt her. Her VP choice was way too conservative, and she should have gone Latino. That would have likely won her Wisconsin, Michigan, Florida, and possibly PA and NC.
I'd agree with Athena that HRC didn't run a great campaign. But part of this was that she had to be so defensive regarding Comey and Russian hacks. Her team would wake up each day with a very detailed and planned strategy, only to be completely sidetracked due to Comey and hacks. She was always on the defensive. Couldn't get her message out.
Secondly, was it bad that Podesto and others said bad things about Sanders. You bet! And this depressed democratic turnout. However, isn't it interesting that none of Sanders top advisers had e-mails hacked that showed their suspicion of HRC?! Now it's being reported that Putin deliberately directed the leaks. There are allegations (no proof) that Putin may have been coordinating this with Trump campaign in order to depress democratic turnout. We know that Rudy was coordinating with some of Comey's FBI advisers (maybe even Comey himself).