re: #102 Scout

What ever you do, don’t make the same mistakes as me. Do not suggest Hillary Clinton ran anything less than a perfect campaign in 2016, and do not suggest that dehumanizing North Koreans is a bad thing.

Like me, you will be vilified.

Every candidate runs a highly flawed campaign. It’s after the fact that the media develops a narrative as to why the candidate won or lost. The 1955 incarnation of the great Doc Brown explained (my paraphrase) that “Of course Reagan won — presidents have to look good on TV”. Of course, given that the counter-intelligence investigation into the 2016 election was probably short-circuited by the Trump administration, we will never know if Trump’s victory was aided by Russian success in changing actual votes or how many voters were disenfranchised by Russian changes to the voter databases.

There are single-issue voters (gum-humpers, anti-choice fanatics) who make their decision on policy; there are others who vote party allegiance without thinking. But as for the rest — it’s personality that controls the decision-making process. In the Nixon-Kennedy nail-biter, Kennedy ultimately carried the day because he was a star on the new media. Hillary was totally un-charismatic; she made her appeals strictly to the thought processes of the American public — a losing strategy. Yes, she did win the popular vote — but that is irrelevant. What we need is someone with the intellect of Hillary but the charm of Bill.