No Excuses

Hillary Clinton is at it again.

At a recent conference in California, Hillary sat herself down in a red leather chair - apparently symbolic for a hot seat - and once again blamed Trump, the Russians, James Comey, and others for her loss in the presidential election in November 2016.  Only this time was different, because she also blamed the Democratic Party and the Democratic National Committee for her defeat.  She also complained that the party was bankrupt.

Well, it's certainly intellectually bankrupt, but Hillary means it was financially bankrupt and "on the verge of insolvency" when she became the nominee, and she bitched that she had to throw money at the DNC's data collection system.  "Its data was mediocre to poor, nonexistent, wrong," Clinton explained. "I had to inject money into it."

This comment left Democrats incredulous.  While the party has had its money issues, party insiders said that the problem with data has been less of a cash-infusion issue or a quality issue than a chronic inability to make it uniform and consistent - something that Hillary apparently failed to grasp when she was the party's de facto leader as its presidential candidate.  According to one Democratic insider, Hillary showed disregard for warning signs in key states like the so-called "blue firewall" of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, which all went to Trump.  The DNC's voter data in those three states, he said,  didn't look anywhere near safe but Hillary's campaign team "thought they knew better."  Her deflection of responsibility for her loss to people like Debbie Wasserman Schultz is more like mean, stunted fruit than sour grapes.

Hillary has taken to acting like the 2016 presidential campaign isn't over.  She needled Trump for his infamous "covfefe" typo on Twitter, and when Trump re-iterated her penchant for blaming everyone but herself for her loss, she then replied, "People in covfefe houses shouldn't throw covfefe."  She's still campaigning and apparently won't leave the stage until she gets a rematch with Trump.

Hillary - it's over!  Stop it!  You're not doing any favors for anyone!  Except the Republicans, particularly Reince Priebus, Trump's chief of staff, who cheerily tweeted how you conceded that the Republican Party "has much better resources and data than [the Democrats]."  You just didn't throw the Democrats under the bus, you threw them under a convoy!

But then, getting thrown under a convoy of buses by the candidate she rigged the system for doesn't make Debbie Wasserman Schultz a martyr . . .

. . . it just proves that she's as incompetent as a political operative as she is as a member of Congress.

Recipe for Democratic Disaster

* Start with six Democratic candidates for the party's presidential nomination. Prepare to tip the scales in favor of the establishment candidate.

* Make the establishment candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, a candidate who represents continuity when people want change and who represents dynasty when people don't want another heir apparent. Ignore the lessons of 2008.

* Put Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a craven congresswoman who'll pull any trick to help the Clintons, in charge of the Democratic Party. Make her think she's on top of things.

* Slowly remove other Democratic candidates. Take out Jim Webb, even though he speaks for white working-class voters that the Democrats need. Take out Martin O'Malley, the most Kennedyesque person to run for President since John F. Kennedy himself. Ignore his requests for more presidential primary debates until after he's out of the way.

* Ridicule any of Hillary's challengers if you have to. Shake well.

* Leave Bernie Sanders in, and cook his goose slowly. Accuse his male supporters of being sexist "brogressives."

* Make Hillary the nominee and ignore the lessons of a Clinton-connected continuity nominee like Al Gore (who at least would have been President had the GOP not stolen Florida from him).

* Concentrate less time and attention on Senate races when you need to regain control of the Senate. Cross your fingers.

* Upon learning that your Republican opponent is Donald Trump, laugh and do nothing else, thinking he will self-destruct.  Let Hillary laugh, if only to remind people how horrible her laugh sounds.

* Avoid shoring up your base in swing states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, where struggling Democratic Senate candidates could really use your help. Go after Republican states instead. Keep a straight face when you tell the media you're going to win Georgia.

* Assume the media's good press will be enough.

* Add an incoherent slogan  ("Stronger Together") and a cutesy-pie slogan ("Love trumps hate") to counter a direct slogan ("Make America great again!")

* Add dozens of Democratic National Committee internal e-mails talking about how you're staging Hillary and massaging and molding her messages. Get a cut-rate firewall for your computer. Feign astonishment when WikiLeaks hacks you. Blame the Russians.

* Have as your campaign surrogates celebrities who have more money and more opportunities to travel than the voters living in their parents' basements that you need to reach will ever have.

* Finally, add a condescending reference to said basement dwellers, and call half of your opponent's supporters deplorable.

* Spin.

BLECCH!