How Hillary Snatched Defeat from the Jaws of Victory

This is a communication piece, not a political piece. But political campaigns are all about communication. Unfortunately, Hillary’s lessons are mostly “what not to do”.

Most people believe Hillary Clinton to be an intelligent and decent human being who would have been a better president than the incumbent. But the Donald won and Hillary lost. Perhaps there was a little diddling by the Russians, and perhaps there wasn’t. The truth remains that Hillary ran an awful campaign. Although it’s difficult to commit suicide by a thousand cuts, the Democrats found a way. And almost entirely by inept communication.

The first critique of the Dems is that they played “safe”. This almost never works– you have to play to win. Cautious and cagey just can’t deliver a message into the heart, especially with a sceptical audience. “I’m not perfect, but he’s worse” isn’t going to galvanize anyone.

The Dems counted on Donald Trump to self-destruct. With his having vanquished sixteen competitors and having brought the Republican Party to heel, it should have been fairly apparent that he was not to be underestimated. Good communicators can read the tea leaves.

Hillary didn’t deal with the skeletons in her closet. There was Benghazi, the e-mails and the server, but nothing was insurmountable with a little candour and a little vigour. As a communicator, there’s just no substitute for dealing with the ugly stuff up front and soon. Ignoring it makes people think you’re guilty, especially when your opponent is calling you “Crooked Hillary”. Stuff like this never goes away on its own.

She didn’t deal with the Elephant in the Room, namely the disenchanted white working class. It didn’t take a genius to see that Trump was successfully pandering to them. Even if his pandering was insincere, their angst was real and he was picking up major points. Communication is also about listening to everyone who has a stake.

Worse, while Trump was singing white working voters a love song, she insulted them. The revenge of the “Deplorables” put the Donald over the top. As a communicator, you just can’t say everything that is in your head.

She didn’t deal with the “Bill thing” and the Republicans wouldn’t leave it alone. All she needed to say was, “Listen, I’m not Bill and stop trying to hang him around my neck. But what I know is that I made a promise to Bill and to God forty-one years ago, and unlike Donald, I practice my faith, and I believe in marriage and I keep my promises.” I’ll guarantee that many Evangelical women would have said an “Amen, Sister!” to that.

There were dozens more communications failures, but mostly Hillary lost because she thought that elections are won by appealing to reason. Silly Hillary. A fundamental rule of communication is that you need to win my heart before you can speak to my head.

Great campaigns are won or lost on passion and presentation.

The Donald got that, the Dems didn’t. And that’s the whole story.

(Having worked over both the Donald and Hillary, next week we’ll do an analysis of their drawing power.)

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