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factfinder_77

(841 posts)
Sat Sep 16, 2017, 09:02 PM Sep 2017

Hillary Clinton blames herself at least 35 times in What Happene

https://qz.com/1077873/hillary-clinton-book-how-many-times-clinton-apologized-in-what-happened/

To clear up any doubt, we’ve listed each of those apologies below—perhaps reading them in sequence will quench the thirst for female contrition.

When they said they had no further questions and thanked me, I apologized to them all, saying that I was sorry they’d had to spend so much time on this matter.

I said how sorry I was and that I understood why people were angry.

I then called President Obama. “I’m sorry for letting you down,” I told him.

I regret handing Trump a political gift with my “deplorables” comments. […] I am sorry about that.

I’ve made mistakes, been defensive about them, stubbornly resisted apologizing.

I made a mistake with my emails. I apologized, I explained, I explained, and apologized some more.

I felt absolutely sick about the whole thing. I clarified and apologized and pointed to my detailed plan to invest in coal communities. But the damage was done.

A few weeks after my “gaffe” I went to Appalachia to apologize directly to people I had offended.

I blamed myself. My worst fears about my limitations as a candidate had come true. […] I had been unable to connect with the deep anger so many Americans felt.

It’s fair to say there was a fundamental mismatch between how I approach politics and what a lot of the country wanted to hear in 2016.

It seems as if many Trump voters were actually voting against me more than they were voting for him.

I go back over my shortcomings and the mistakes we made. I take responsibility for all of them. You can blame the data, blame the message, blame anything you want—but I was the candidate. It was my campaign. Those were my decisions.

“Could the campaign have been better?” Christiane Amanpour asked me. “Where was your message? Do you take any personal responsibility?” “I take absolute personal responsibility,” I replied.

I was the candidate, I was the person on the ballot.

Many in the political media don’t want to hear about how these things tipped the election in the final days. They say their beef is that I am not taking responsibility for my mistakes—but I have, and I do again throughout this book.

None of the factors I discussed here lessen the responsibility I feel or the aching sense that I let everyone down.

I have tried to learn from my own mistakes. There are plenty, as you’ll see in this book, and they are mine and mine alone.

Every day that I was candidate for President, I knew that millions of people were counting on me, and I couldn’t bear the idea of letting them down. But I did. I couldn’t get the job done, and I’ll have to live with that for the rest of my life.

At every step, I felt that I had let everyone down.

I felt like I had been fighting for her and millions like her my entire career. And I had let them down.

I run through the tape over and over, identifying every mistake—especially those made by me.

That was a mistake […] I shouldn’t have assumed it would be OK for me to do it. Especially after the financial crisis of 2008-2009 I should have realized it would be bad “optics” and stayed away from it. I didn’t. That’s on me.

This is one of the mistakes I made you’ll read about in this book. I have tried to give an honest accounting of when I got it wrong, where I fell short, and what I wish I could go back and do differently. […] My mistakes burn me up inside.

It was a mistake to have a personal account. I would certainly not do it again. I make no excuse for it.

Another example where I remained polite, albeit exasperated, and played the political game as it used to be, not as it had become. That was a mistake.

During the campaign, I tried endlessly to explain that I’d acted in good faith. I tried to apologize […] No matter what, I never found the right words. So let me try again: It was a dumb mistake.

Given my inability to explain this mess, I decided to let other voices tell the story this time.

I listened carefully, determined that if I did jump in the race, I would have to avoid the mistakes that had dogged me the last time.

In the end, we decided it would be better to just let it go and try to move on. Looking back, that was a mistake.

Sometimes it just comes out wrong. It wasn’t the first time that happened during the 2016 election, and it wouldn’t be the last. But it is the one I regret the most.

Or maybe I was the wrong messenger.
“Well, Dad, what if I lose an election I should have won and let an unqualified bully become President of the United States?”

I should have seen that coming.

He told me he had followed his doctor’s orders and stayed home for a week. Looking back, I should have done the same.
Now I wish I had pushed back hard.

Right there and then, I should have known there would never be some magical words to prove how silly it was and make it go away.
Slowly working through why I lost, what could I have done better.

I wish more than anything that I could have done a better job speaking to their fears and frustration. […] I wish I could have found the words or emotional connection.
14 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Hillary Clinton blames herself at least 35 times in What Happene (Original Post) factfinder_77 Sep 2017 OP
I blame her too for not predicting and stopping Comey from making that Eliot Rosewater Sep 2017 #1
+100 narnian60 Sep 2017 #4
+1000 catrose Sep 2017 #6
+1000 Maven Sep 2017 #11
Let's send her a shirt with a giant scarlet letter A on it... lapucelle Sep 2017 #2
It fucking tears me up reading this. We didn't deserve her. No one had her back. NO ONE. boston bean Sep 2017 #3
Correct leftofcool Sep 2017 #7
When a psychotic, narcissistic, incompetent baffoon "defeats you" in an electoral college democratisphere Sep 2017 #5
Oy. aikoaiko Sep 2017 #8
What so you mean,oy?? boston bean Sep 2017 #10
Seriously melman Sep 2017 #13
This is is heartbreaking. She shouldn't apologize. Every winning candidate for POTUS made mistakes lunamagica Sep 2017 #9
That's plenty. And the topic is "TRUMP RUSSIA". nt greyl Sep 2017 #12
Thanks for posting this. sarah FAILIN Sep 2017 #14

Eliot Rosewater

(31,109 posts)
1. I blame her too for not predicting and stopping Comey from making that
Sat Sep 16, 2017, 09:08 PM
Sep 2017

absurd comment, opponents fucking her up and the russians hacking everything on the planet

Why didnt she anticipate all this and stop it


this is sarcasm in case anybody cant tell

she might as well blame herself for not getting MORE than 3 million MORE than asshole

she won, no reason to blame herself at all

leftofcool

(19,460 posts)
7. Correct
Sat Sep 16, 2017, 11:44 PM
Sep 2017

I don't believe she let us down at all. I think the Democratic Party let her down. I will always blame the party for this.

democratisphere

(17,235 posts)
5. When a psychotic, narcissistic, incompetent baffoon "defeats you" in an electoral college
Sat Sep 16, 2017, 09:19 PM
Sep 2017

rigged presidential election, anyone would look in the mirror and ask themselves "where and how the hell could I have gone so wrong?"

lunamagica

(9,967 posts)
9. This is is heartbreaking. She shouldn't apologize. Every winning candidate for POTUS made mistakes
Sun Sep 17, 2017, 12:31 AM
Sep 2017

And if this had been an honest election she would have won by a mile

sarah FAILIN

(2,857 posts)
14. Thanks for posting this.
Sun Sep 17, 2017, 01:35 AM
Sep 2017

I'm sick to death of some people who I shall not name constantly blaming her and insisting she doesn't blame herself.

I love this woman. I'm not going to perpetuate the bs by listening to certain groups continue to tear her down.

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