John's Reviews > Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton's Doomed Campaign

I'll start with a disclaimer: I never liked the Clintons from their arrival on the national scene in 1992 until Hillary's 2008 concession speech. I still don't think a lot of Bill, but made my peace with her from 2008 - 2015. I did not want her to run again, but supported her last fall (with limited enthusiasm). Now you know.

The book begins slowly with backstory about the days leading up to her official entry into the race (one of history's Worst Kept Secrets). At that time, I knew loyal Democrats who were dreading the idea of her candidacy - not because they were necessarily left-wing activists, but from severe Clinton Fatigue Syndrome. Big clue for me at the time. At any rate, behind the scenes back then, all was far-from-well in the assembling campaign.

By the time the book focuses on Iowa, Sanders' popularity there has made Team Clinton quite nervous. They pull it out in what's essentially a tie . . . ignoring the state pretty much thereafter. They new NH would be bad, but not that bad. They went on to solidify minority support after that, ensuring a slew of delegates in states with few white primary voters. As with Iowa, though Sanders romped there, it was treated as a no-go zone through November: not one visit. Eventually, Sanders has no path left, but stays in through June. Hillary resents this, irony not being her strong suit. Meanwhile, Trump is attracting white working class voters.

The summer section focused on the convention. I wasn't as focused on that part myself, so have less recollection. However, again there was emphasis on all-but-white (males) voter turnout as key. Trump was really tanking from his own problems at the time, though they don't go into that in detail.

The fall section focuses a bit on the debates, which Hillary "won" though it came to have little benefit for her in the end. WikiLeaks making Podesta's emails public caused a significant distraction of resources. I'm less inclined to comment on the Comey matters, as I don't fully understand those. I get that they were very badly handled (to say the least), but don't see them as having much of a direct effect. The last part covers election day and aftermath. This part is best read directly without my comments; however, I'll throw out that campaign manager Mook admitted to Hillary, "Our data was wrong."

That serves to explain why the title refers to her campaign as "doomed". Mook made a decision to scrap actual voter polling to go with cheaper "analytics" (which I take to mean some sort of projection or modeling). As mentioned, there was a problem early on regarding "turf" - professionals vs. Clinton loyalists. Additionally, there's an Empress' New Clothes atmosphere, with no one willing to challenge Hillary. Throw in that she handled the private server matter, and Goldman Sachs connection by doing nothing (leaving it to her surrogates to fake it as best they could), the "doomed" label makes more sense. Bill knew they should've done more for white working-class voters, rather than a focus on cities and suburbs.

This is not to say that the authors were biased in Trump's favor, not at all. They make it clear that they felt she was definitely more qualified than he was for the job. The emphasis in the book is more on Hillary the candidate (politician), which I believe was established as her Achilles Heel.

Bottom Line: more devoted Clinton fans won't likely appreciate the book, while those with a more open mind will do so. Highly recommended!