It should have been Bernie. I’m a pragmatist. I fought tooth and nail with people because I thought Hillary had a better chance than Bernie. I was stridently pro-Hillary and argumentative and often times rude. But I was wrong. Very wrong.
It’s been a little over a week and given that time to reflect there’s no doubt in my mind it should have been Bernie for one main reason:
Bernie had something that Hillary didn’t have and that was that he generated ENTHUSIASM. That’s the difference in winning elections. It’s enthusiasm. Bernie was drawing huge crowds. He had an inspirational message. He was bringing new voters and infrequent voters out. He was inspiring college students and the working class.
Hillary was not. She was not inspiring huge crowds on college campuses. There was no electricity around her on the campaign trail. I could argue that the reason why Mitt and McCain lost was that they also didn’t inspire enthusiasm. Maybe she would have done better against someone less inspirational than her like Jeb, but it was Trump and his huge crowds of rubes coming out of the woodwork to vote for him.
Sure she had endorsements from newspapers, from party leaders, from prominent Republican defectors, she won debates, etc. But in the end, none of that mattered because she didn’t inspire enthusiasm in people. Her main appeal to many was her wonkiness and her competence and it was vote for me because I’m not Trump. But you don’t win elections when people are just voting against your opponent. You have to inspire – people have to WANT to vote for you.
I know some will disagree and say they saw people who were very enthusiastic for Hillary and were inspired by her. But it was never going to reach that critical mass of enthusiasm that I believe is needed to win at the national level now.
So it’s enthusiasm. Obama had it. Trump had it. And Bernie had it. Hillary didn’t have it. Next time I hope we have a candidate who inspires massive crowds.
So I was wrong. We were wrong. And I’m sorry.
