2016 Postmortem

Always easy to criticize after the fact, but IMO they handled the e mail "issue" very poorly.

The whole thing was way overblown by the media, however the campaign helped fuel that by refusing to confront the issue head on for months trying to stall and hope it would fizzle out .

First she stated that it was allowed by the State Dept, then that no classified material was ever sent, then it was that nothing marked classified was ever sent. All of these nuanced statements just dared the media to try and prove her wrong and instead it just became a constant drip leading right up to the election. Absolutely, Comey absolutely played a role as well and needs to be held accountable, but all it did was make people think she was trying to hide something. I'm sure her attempt at humor was caused by frustration, but when asked about he server being "wiped" her retort "you mean like with a cloth" hit like a lead balloon.

She should have been able to demolish Trump with one hand behind her back, so while there was a litany of outside reasons that affected the results, the campaign did make some fairly egregious mistakes including taking too much stock in flawed polling.

Added in that very few parties win three straight Presidential elections (only happened once in my lifetime) and that many people were just tired of both Clinton and Bush dynasties (that is why I think Jeb lost so bad)