‘Shattered’ had to happen — it was inevitable, but to explain why I’d like to start by taking you back to the year 2000 AD and a cold February night when I was driving around the Upper West Side looking for a place to park my Volvo (yes, I owned a Volvo) for the night and was listening to AM radio to pass the time because finding street parking on the UWS often requires 30 minutes (or more) of searching and heard the voice of Hillary Clinton screeching through the squawk box. That voice… that voice, thought I, is not the voice of a politician or any other kind of entertainer — not even a schoolmarm — but of an administrator and task master. Maybe it was the circumstances of my listening, colored as it was by frustration and disappointment driving the streets and avenues between Zabar’s and Barney Greengrass searching in vain for a parking spot, but I completely tuned out the substance of HRC’s formal announcement of her candidacy for the U.S. Senate from New York and listened only to the voice. If you were a Martian visiting Earth and heard this voice you would be amazed that such a person could even run for public office — any public office because irrespective of what she says (and all of that is poll tested leftist boilerplate) the voice grates and irritates. Take a listen for yourself, I don’t mind, close your eyes and imagine your self navigating Columbus Ave on a cold winter evening.
I’m not alone and I’m not some misogynist outlier nit picking about a minor physical flaw or annoying gesture or tick, congenital or otherwise, to run HRC down. When she gave this speech in 2000 she was polling 10+ points behind in a hypothetical race against Rudy G. and experts were called in to explain the confusing lack of support (which is what they’ve been doing throughout Her 40 year political career).
Asked why these voters were opposing her, Moss and a host of other political experts offered the same theories: Clinton inspires jealousy and resentment among some women; others see her as an “enabler” for her husband’s personal shortcomings; still others are reluctant to back her because they want more from a candidate than the generalities and vague statements that have characterized Clinton’s error-prone campaign so far.
In other words, she’s a hated blabbermouth who can’t keep her husband at home and covers for his infidelity while living a lifestyle that other, more honorable people, envy. The fact that the NY State Democrat Party rolled over like a trained pooch and let this carpetbagger waddle into THEIR state and “represent” them in the US Senate added an exclamation point of humiliation to the long list of injuries dragging down Her approval rating. And this was after an eight year transformation were HRC evolved from a dark roots blonde with an faux Razorback twang to a quaffed model of elocution and efficiency — A DC matron modeled on the same bitches who loathed her when she first arrived at the White House in ’92. This public impression of Hillary never changed, never softened or mellowed over time (why should it) and, if anything, it probably solidified into a rock hard certainty by the time 2016 rolled around.
And that rock began to grow, and grow, and grow… Two years ago, April 2015 the KOTCB called out the HillBilly messaging “problem” in a post titled Dugan Hicks as Little Miss Sunshine which declared the Mystery Machine to be the perfect symbol for Her campaign. Not long after that Hillary was being compared to Nixon, accused of protecting bankers and many other smears by friend and foe that increased the mass and weight of this mighty stone. By May 2016 the Clinton campaign was lashing out and failing to land a punch on a competitor who’s nimble, heterodox and, at times, contradictory style was running circles around Her leaden, plodding and formulaic appeal. Late night comedians couldn’t help Her. The FBI couldn’t help Her. The CIA couldn’t help Her. And when pundits (and the candidate Herself) wondered why she couldn’t put Trump away the response was always “There Is Just No Good Answer” and even The Closer couldn’t save Her game. Finally the rock shattered the glass floor it had been resting upon for 40 years and began falling into the black pit below dragging everyone who had tethered themselves to it right along with — to Hell.
Now that it’s over the recriminations start and that means the NYTimes reviews “Shattered” by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes who give the inside scoop on Clinton campaign disfunction and missteps that cost Her the presidency. The books title would have been the same no matter the outcome of the elections for if Hillary had won the content would have centered around how the most professional and competent campaign staff ever assembled helped Hillary shatter the glass ceiling AND saved America from the barbarian Trump. It’s been six months and everyone has already blamed the Russians, Jim Comey, Brexit and misogyny so it was only a matter of time until the candidate and Her people got hauled to the pillory and punished. As satisfying as it might be to peer into the Clinton carnival and see who gets drawn and quartered for letting Trump win I think it misses (purposefully) the truth of the 2016 election.
Hitlery was never a good candidate — in my opinion she has always been the Florence Foster Jenkins of American politics and Her husband played on the girls passion and commitment to d0-gooderism like the master flim-flam artist he is. She was reliably liberal or progressive or left-wing or whatever you call it, but as the left moved further away from traditional American values she had to adopt positions and policy outside of her comfort zone — pot smoking, gay marriage, endless war, BLM and transgender bathrooms were all positions she had to not only defend but to promote! And she had to do so against a candidate who claimed all those issues, and many more, were bullshit distractions from the real issues that effected Americans daily life and happiness. She was forced to Hate Trumps Love and convince the voters to hate it too. Running a campaign fueled on hate and pious moral superiority is what cost Hillary Clinton the elections and it sent Her, and her party, crashing through the glass floor of reality.
