What Went Wrong for Hillary?

By Anastacia Mott Austin

As the Democratic nomination fight finally, finally winds to a close, pundits are left to ponder the aftermath. Other than the buzz about who the candidates’ running mates will be, the most interesting topic of discussion is what happened to Hillary "in it to win it" Clinton?

At this time last year, the Democrats’ reigning first daughter was poised to coast to the finish line with nary a challenge.

It was supposedly well-known in the inner circles of Democratic Party power that it was Hillary’s "turn," she had waited until the timing was right, and now it was her time to shine.

It certainly seemed as if she would be the eventual pick. Democrats not entirely sure they wanted her as the nominee had to wrap their minds around the possibility that they might have to support her anyway.

She was assured, tough, and confident, and strongly backed by the powers that be in the Party.

In the end, it may have been that "confidence" that did her in. Quite simply, she never expected to not win.

An admirable quality, to be sure, in a potential President. But it led her to make mistakes that may have cost her the nomination.

Several surprising early losses in the primaries didn’t seem to signal to her campaign that they needed to make any changes. They ignored caucuses for primaries, helping her opponent to win almost all state caucuses. She never acknowledged Barack Obama for the real threat that he was.

During a time in the country when the people were crying out for change, she emphasized her (supposed) years of experience, her political connections, her status within the Democratic Party, everything the voters were saying they were against.

When she faced those early losses, she told her supporters not to worry because she had what really counted – the support of the superdelegates.

But in the end, the will of the people prevailed, not inside political connections. When Obama began to lead in the popular vote as well as primary and caucus votes, those darn superdelegates proved they had minds of their own and began to trickle away from Clinton and toward Obama.

Her inability to acknowledge that there was any problem, combined with other missteps, made party insiders believe she had lost touch with reality.

Her husband certainly was no help. After comparing Obama’s win in South Carolina’s primary to Jesse Jackson’s victories there in 1984 and 1988, Clinton lost support in the African American community.

Her campaign made other mistakes as well, most of them based on "misunderestimating" Barack Obama’s universal appeal. The Clinton camp was so confident of winning that they essentially did not budget past February’s "Super Tuesday" primaries, thinking they’d have it all sewn up by then. As a result they were short of cash during the very important period of time that followed. Clinton was forced to loan her campaign money twice.

Obama’s campaign was able to successfully fundraise far beyond Clinton’s abilities, and as a result he consistently outspent her.

They also underestimated Obama’s appeal among younger voters, and were surprised that it actually translated to more votes at the polls, as younger voters typically don’t show up at voting time.

Clinton’s refusal to backtrack over her vote on the Iraq war, her refusal in fact to back down or apologize for anything didn’t endear her to voters, especially when she was caught not telling the truth (most notably the blatant misinformation about having been under sniper fire in Bosnia, for which she responded, "I say a lot of things - millions of words a day - so if I misspoke, that was just a misstatement").

As recently as this week, Clinton turned off even her most ardent supporters when she refused to concede the race to Obama after he had clearly secured the nomination. This apparently surprised even die-hard Clinton insider support, who then strongly urged her to concede.

In the end, the pundits say what did her in was an over-reliance on political connections, stretching them beyond their abilities to support her when the will of the voters became clear. Superdelegates say that the Clinton camp called them repeatedly and put intense pressure on them to support Clinton, but that they felt compelled to reflect the desires of the voters.

Simply put, politics in its purest sense trumped established political ties. This can only be encouraging to all of those voters who say their strongest desire is to see a change in the status quo of Washington. Bad news for Hillary Clinton, who was operating under the old rules. Possible good news for Barack Obama, and certainly an indication that the voters’ desire for a change is being heard, even in those old power circles.