Patterico's Pontifications

6/1/2017

I Don’t Think Hillary Clinton Understands What Taking Responsibility Means

Filed under: General — Dana @ 10:43 am



[guest post by Dana]

Blaming others for her stunning election loss, while simultaneously claiming to have accepted responsibility, seems to be Hillary Clinton’s default post-election position. Apparently, the loss had nothing to do with simply being a terrible candidate who couldn’t get a consistent, solid message out, and whose historical dishonesty and corrupt baggage trailed behind her wherever she went:

Hillary Clinton blasted the Democratic National Committee on Wednesday, saying that she “inherited nothing” from the party after winning its presidential nomination last year.

“So I’m now the nominee of the Democratic Party. I inherit nothing from the Democratic Party,” she said during a question and answer session at Code Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.

“I mean, it was bankrupt. It was on the verge of insolvency. Its data was mediocre to poor, nonexistent, wrong,” she recalled. “I had to inject money into it.”

Further:

Although Clinton acknowledged that she wouldn’t have used a private email server when she was Secretary of State if she were given a do-over, she said the coverage surrounding the server and the investigation were relentless and damaging. “[The media] covered it like Pearl Harbor,”she said of her emails. “I didn’t break any rule; nobody said don’t do this. I was very responsible, and not at all careless. You end up with a situation that was exploited.”

Ultimately, Clinton said, the emails were what she called a big “nothing burger” — one that she said her campaign was able to “put to bed” in July when former FBI Director’s James Comey declined to press charges. But the coverage, she argued, combined with decision to re-open the email probe on October 28th, doomed her candidacy.

Clinton, speaking at Recode’s 2017 Code Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, also cited Russia’s “weaponized” technology used against her, as well as media coverage of her infamous Goldman Sachs speeches as reasons for her loss. When asked about why she did the speeches, Clinton replied, “They paid me”.

Wrapping it up, Clinton gave this assessment:

“I take responsibility for every decision I made, but that’s not why I lost,” she said. “I think it’s important we learn the real lessons of this last campaign.”

I’m not terribly optimistic about her learning any real and lasting lessons from this experience.

(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana

42 Responses to “I Don’t Think Hillary Clinton Understands What Taking Responsibility Means”

  1. Two things to think about for 2020:

    Joe Biden has launched a PAC, and although you might guffaw, think about the novelty of it.

    Dana (023079)

  2. Steyn had a great riff off red queen blaming Macedonian content farmers?? For her loss.

    narciso (d1f714)

  3. I’m not terribly optimistic about her learning any real and lasting lessons from this experience.

    Why on earth would you want her or any other leftist seditionist to learn a lesson about the campaign? I want them to keep doing it wrong. Forevah.

    Rev.Hoagie® (630eca)

  4. Esquire has a piece keeping the grishenko meme alive ostensibly in a profile of kisyak who is actually ukrainian like brezhnev

    narciso (d1f714)

  5. My guess is that what she cannot come to terms with is … “Trump? Trump? I lost to Donald Trump?”

    nk (dbc370)

  6. Lock her up!

    Rev.Hoagie® (630eca)

  7. Note the Iran deal is left out of the piece, but the new start deal that fooled castle brown and Murkowski is not.

    narciso (d1f714)

  8. This is why they are yelling bear in a crowded mayflower hotel.

    narciso (d1f714)

  9. I’ll put the link in the block, you’ll know why

    narciso (d1f714)

  10. what’s stinkypig trying to accomplish by constantly rehashing how she got her ass kicked

    happyfeet (a037ad)

  11. OT, but how about a new thread on Trump’s breaking his promise to actually move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem? It would be amusing to read the Trumpkins’ excuses for this unforced capitulation to the RINOs and Lefties they so revile.

    This was actually one of the promises I thought Trump might keep. Silly me.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  12. wherever you put the silly failmerican embassy it’s just gonna get nuked by iran thanks to anti-semitic douchebag barack obama

    happyfeet (a037ad)

  13. Beldar,

    Working on that…

    Dana (023079)

  14. Could be worse, she could be taking responsibility for every decision as THE FIRST WOMAN PRESIDENT while blaming everyone else as the country continued its slide into four/eight more years of the Obama dumpster……..

    ……..no, wait I take that back. If she had been elected she’d be on a minimum two year self-congratulation tour leaving her only minimal time to reward cronies, sell favors and punish enemies (and underlings/supporters who had gone past their usefulness expiration dates).

    harkin (464dab)

  15. A promise every president since Reagan has made on and reneged sadly.

    narciso (d1f714)

  16. Beldar,

    Breitbart says Trump is continuing Obama’s catch and release program. He can’t keep any promises.

    DRJ (15874d)

  17. I guess that could be good. I doubt he will keep any promises he made the Russians.

    DRJ (15874d)

  18. 12 – “This was actually one of the promises I thought Trump might keep.”

    He’s probably got numerous advisors telling him the move would trigger WW3.

    I’m more concerned that he keep his promise to get us out of Barack T Firefly’s Paris Climate Accord and minimize illegal immigration and sham refugees.

    harkin (464dab)

  19. obama hates israel – he arranged for them to be obliterated by the persians!

    he never promised to move the embassy

    happyfeet (a037ad)

  20. I’m also waiting on what he will do to France to get even with the Macron handshake.

    DRJ (15874d)

  21. So now you believe breitbart, when they were pointing every breathlesz kerfluffle of the last five monthes it didn’t count.

    narciso (d1f714)

  22. yes yes i’ll be so upset if he doesn’t shove the paris agreement down rape aficionado angela merkel’s throat

    happyfeet (a037ad)

  23. They have a named source from the Border Patrol, narciso. President of the National Border Patrol Council. Someone with knowledge, access and authority willing to go on the record. Sounds credible to me.

    DRJ (15874d)

  24. But you have covfefe.

    DRJ (15874d)

  25. Breitbart was in the tank for Trump but this is an admission against interest, because it’s critical of Trump. It’s called logic.

    DRJ (15874d)

  26. Well, see, Dana, that’s the thing. You just need to look at it from her perspective.

    What do you think of when you hear the phrase “taking responsibility”? Most likely, something like “accepting personal culpability and the associated consequences”.

    Now ask yourself: When has anyone declared the Haggard Queen culpable, or meted out any consequences directly to her? Certainly no one with any power to enforce either.

    And there’s your answer. No, she doesn’t understand what that phrase means. It has never been applied to her in any way that would resonate with her aging, deteriorating mind. She’s suffering from Advanced-Stage Affluenza.

    PCachu (5376c0)

  27. @DRJ: President of the National Border Patrol Council. Someone with knowledge, access and authority

    The union? The union president is the credible source? Ok then.

    Frederick (64d4e1)

  28. Mawdie, ‘denial’ is a river in Egypt.

    “I accept full responsibility. But not the blame…” – Richard Nixon [David Frye] ‘Richard Nixon: A Fantasy’

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  29. Now instead of “the russians” it is “1000 russians”.

    jim (a9b7c7)

  30. I’m torn on this.

    I think Clinton was a bad candidate – given three opportunities to vote for her i’ve only taken one – but I also don’t think that Democrats, or the country, are well served by simply focusing on her shortcomings as a candidate. Refusing to look at the factors *other* than her poor retail political skills makes it harder to improve next time.

    aphrael (3f0569)

  31. Greetings:

    Me, I’m thinking “Live by the Private Server, die by the Private Server”.

    11B40 (6abb5c)

  32. Is that the same union that Trump proudly boasted was supporting him over Obama during the campaign? Why, yes, indeed it is.

    Care to revise your attack on DRJ (#28), Frederick?

    Beldar (fa637a)

  33. 31 – “but I also don’t think that Democrats, or the country, are well served by simply focusing on her shortcomings as a candidate. Refusing to look at the factors *other* than her poor retail political skills makes it harder to improve next time.

    Shortcomings are shortcomings.

    Dishonesty, corruption and incompetence were game-changers for most and that’s why she’s on her Accusation Tour and not selling American assets, influence and secrets to contributors to The Clinton Foundation.

    harkin (cdb06f)

  34. @Beldar:your attack on DRJ

    How are you construing a question as an “attack”?

    I asked if the union president was the credible source, doesn’t seem like an “attack”. Union presidents are not generally in charge of operations are they? They only would know what they are told by some of the members they represent, wouldn’t they?

    And I’m not seeing how their support or lack of for Trump would prove they have credible inside knowledge. As well as not seeing how anything I said is an “attack” on DRJ or anyone else.

    Frederick (64d4e1)

  35. Ah. Thanks for the clarification, Frederick. Remind me, when candidate Trump was trumpeting their endorsement, did he likewise suggest that this union’s leaders didn’t speak for their members? I kind of remember it being the other way around, with him pointing out that this union’s membership were the ones seeing, day to day, the consequences of Obama’s illegal executive orders.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  36. @Beldar:. Remind me, when candidate Trump was trumpeting their endorsement, did he likewise suggest that this union’s leaders didn’t speak for their members?

    Failing to see how what Trump thought, or didn’t, about how well they speak for their members, is evidence of credible inside knowledge of a directive to continue “catch and release” that comes from Trump.

    A union president generally acts and speaks in ways which he believes will benefit the union, not in ways which will necessarily benefit the claimed mission of the workforce from which his members come, or indeed even benefit the members themselves.

    The information is at least second-hand, and there’s also the principal-agent issue, isn’t there?

    Ah. Thanks for the clarification, Frederick.

    Is this a revision of your characterization of my question as an “attack on DRJ”?

    Frederick (64d4e1)

  37. Clinton, speaking at Recode’s 2017 Code Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes. . . .

    Hey, she was in our esteemed host’s neighborhood! I’ll bet he had a grand time trying to commute to and from work while she was lounging about with her security detail.

    JVW (dadb0c)

  38. @ Frederick (#37): Yes, I take you at face value when you say you intended no attack.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  39. Frederick,

    Everyone knows Trump can’t end catch and release, especially with his poor administrative and organizational skills. The poor guy doesn’t know how to do anything but give out soundbites and tweets.

    DRJ (15874d)

  40. 31. aphrael (3f0569) — 6/1/2017 @ 1:42 pm

    Refusing to look at the factors *other* than her poor retail political skills makes it harder to improve next time.

    Hillary Clinton isn’t intereted in the Democratic Party getting a better candidate next time – she’s interested in trying again. And if not her, someone linked to her and Bill.

    Sammy Finkelman (7509c5)

  41. The not-ending of Catch and Release is directly downstream of not getting appointments slotted and approved and holdovers remaining in place.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)


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