So tell me again where we went "wrong".

[0rganism]

197. likewise, thank you for yours

i'm also glad that there wasn't a hide, as i do think the video illustrates important points, some of them above & beyond what the commentator is saying, plus we get to continue the conversation in-context.

i think -- and this suffers from all the usual shortcomings of "counterfactual hypotheses" -- the Comey letter's effects would have been much less significant had there not already been a dominant notion in the zeitgeist that HRC was corrupt. whatever her campaign's reasons for not intercepting this concept head-on, in the long run it did hurt her with middle-America. maybe there was even a sub-text of "if she won't fight to defend her own honor, how can i trust her to fight for mine?" i don't know anything about that, but it seems plausible.

now i don't know if she or her campaign could have done anything to challenge completely this common idea, but by doing nothing about it they accepted a hostile branding that led to further damage. at the very least, it does seem she could have been more aggressive in pointing out just how corrupt Trump is. instead, by letting this slide, her campaign allowed Trump to burnish his false image as a force of integrity -- she and her surrogates said he was going low, when in fact he was grabbing the high ground every time he called her "crooked" and hollered about corruption in government.

there are dozens of lessons to be learned here, and i can only hope we have a free and fair elections in 2018 and 2020 in which such learning can be successfully applied. the idea that false bi-partisan comity will lead to future victories is, as you observe, a pitfall we can ill afford.