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

The blurb says it all. I won't try to improve on it. This is just my experience of the book.

The book is not an 'anti-leftist' book, as all my latest reads (with more to come, so bite me). Reading them all does not make me the most popular person in the neighborhood. From experience I know I will lose a few friends. Not because I did something wrong, or perhaps I did, but because they are scared. I understand that. Oh yes, of course, I'm not a person to be associated with anymore. ***sigh****!

The point is, I'm not scared. Life, and work experience, taught me the golden rule of courage. Determination got me up the hill and down the other side with my integrity safely intact.

During the upheavals in our country, late Eighties, early Nineties, my daily schedule of interviewing people and compiling socio-economic reports for community development, brought me in contact with the entire spectrum of people and personalities on the face of this earth. Some were Communists, others were Capitalist; some were rich, others poor; prostitutes or church ministers, freedom fighters or police, and everyone had a reason for choosing their path in life. And all were exhausted.

One single mother with three children was in tears. She was told that same day that she was released from her job contract to make way for an 'affirmative action' appointment. She had no choice. In news bulletins all over the place, the new government supporters promised to take everything back that was stolen from the people, with 'energetic' reactions from all political parties.

Rumors did the rounds that people were getting murdered, and many indeed died on both sides of the equation. She did not know what will happen to her and her children without a job.

Later on the same day, I met a 'Communist' supporter. A single mother who took care of her old and very sick mother, as well as her cute little daughter. She had limited schooling, but just heard that she was appointed as the Director of the regional department of Agriculture. She was totally unfit for the position, but her involvement in the freedom struggle was rewarded. That was the good news. The bad news was that she was also just diagnosed with AIDS. At the time there was no cure or any treatment for the disease yet.

Both women shared their fears and anxieties with me. Both beautiful people. I listened. It was my job. I gave both a sense of hope. I supported them both. The first one opened her own book store, suffered financially, and just did not make it. Her children were taken away by family, while she went for treatment. It took her a few years to adjust, in both mind set and physically to her new environment. She emigrated and found a new job in Australia.

The second one passed away three months later. Her old mother passed away a few weeks before her. Her little daughter was left an orphan.

I cried for the children involved. I cried for both of them when I lay in bed, sleep passing me by, with another day of meeting people and hearing their stories lying ahead the next day. The world was, and still is, a very cruel place, when we remove the veneer and venture into the deeper realms of life, behind the smiles. My job was to tell all their stories with no fear or favor. And that's where I lose 'friends'. I simply refuse to take sides. Most of all, many people hated my guts. So be it.

And that's where I'm coming from with my latest reads. I went through the whole spectrum of philosophies and ideologies through a lifetime of reading and studying. I read a few hundred more books on Communism and Left-wing philosophies than any other. I had to study all the social trends. I worked with it for many years. I researched the consequences of every single one of them. Then 'translated' the findings into cold statistics. Numbers. My latest reads is to catch up on the current interpretations of those ideologies and philosophies. Trends. Motivations. Agendas. New eras. New people. New Dreams and Ideas. In between there are the media and their own ideas to promote. Reading, reading, reading.

Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton's Doomed Campaign by Jonathan Allen, was my next read in the non-fictional journey of words. A fascinating read of an election campaign, as told by the people behind the scenes. The profile of a remarkable women surfaced even more in this book.

My previous reads pictured Hilary Clinton as crooked, criminal and over ambitious. The books desrcibed her relationship with Obama as stand-offish and cold. The Obamas treated her very badly. Her relationship with her husband was business with no shared bed. The previous books detailed a blood feud between the Obamas and Clintons. Hilary was bad news. They did not trust each other, and certainly did not like each other either. The competition was hectic. Trump upset the whole cartel, he came to rescue the country from the crooks and communists. Hilary threw a major tantrum when the results were in. She was her old behind-the-scenes bad-tempered self. Trump won all the debates.

This book hailed the deep friendship and deep trust between Obama and Hilary. Obama is indeed the messiah, noble and brilliant. Hilary had her flaws, but it was the Russians, James Comey and a plethora of other people and circumstances which buried her in the end. Trump was the devil. Calling women pigs, strutting them in high heels and fancy dresses like young breeding stock. He hated women. While reading this mesmerizing book, I was smiling. So Trump hated fat women, even called them names, right? What the puck! Women do that themselves. More than anyone else on this planet. We hate each other! We call men fat. We have our own dictionaries of bullets to shoot each other with, and another one to slaughter men with. Nevertheless, Trump is the bad one. He will destroy the country. Hilary won all the debates. Hilary did not throw a tantrum when the results came in. She was calm and collected.

The book is a detailed account of the 2016 campaign and everything which can influence the outcome of an election. In this case all the bad news, particularly the email-issues were laid bare for all to read. Both the Wikileaks missiles, as well as the private email server debacles. It created havoc and took precious hours and people away from the campaign itself. Hilary spent a lot of time finding finances for the enormous expenses encountered by the campaign.

The role of Bernie Sanders. I was thinking about the role he played. He brought the very voters into the corral that would later vote for Trump. He participated in the election, attached himself to a political party which he was not a member of. Trump did the same, right? Hilary did score more support from the voters, even if the allegations that she stole the election was true. A few more million people voted for her anyway. The book implied that he damaged the campaign. Done in a very nice way. Read between the lines. And I actually have to agree with that.

The voter profile. Hilary was upset that all the minority groups did not tow the line. Hispanics, African-Americans, Jews, and women (the majority gender, so by the way). Oh yes, and the upper-, educated middle class. She stands for independent women. It's her passion, her mantra. Now let an old hand tell her something. The more educated people become, the more independent they are. More individualistic. It is a sure sign of intelligence. Expecting of all these groups to gather behind her as group, is a major insult to their education, intelligence, individualism. The more diversity, the higher the education and intelligence. In effect she expected all women to not be independent thinkers, to vote for her just because they are women, and the same with all the other groups she targeted for her campaign. All African-Americans, Hispanics and others were insulted, dear. Deeply so. How did you miss out on that one? Mind-boggling. But that's just me.

I really enjoyed reading this book. So informative and entertaining. And detailed. The book ends with election day and the morning after. What an event! It is not difficult to figure out the different approaches from different authors to the same events. For instance, the authors interviewed the same group of people but reported different stories. Some alleges that Hilary threw a tantrum which scared her staff. The other group related her calm and graceful reaction to the election results. Yes, somewhere among the tales the truth might linger, but it's not evident from the different books, for sure.

What I DID appreciate about these books, is the more complete picture of Hilary Clinton surfacing. She is a loyal, warm-hearted person to her beloveds, tough and resilient in her ambitions, diplomatic when she needs to be; she is a master of deception, challenges the rules, and follows the smell of money. She had a tough childhood, learnt early not to trust people; endures a conniving, cheating, brilliant, highly popular husband. (They share a deep long-lasting friendship). She enjoyes her own natural self. She lacks confidence, was forced to have some work done, and looked stunning and gob-smacking beautiful afterwards (my opinion). She is a role model for millions of women. A very hard worker. She has a temper which can flatten mountains, she cusses like a sailor, she is shy, introvert, private. She is loved and admired. She is hated and despised. She is unique. She is deeply flawed and human. She is all of us.

I would not have come to this conclusion by reading only one side of the story. Since all the authors claim to have interviewed hundreds of people and insist on honorable and truthful information, I have to believe them all :-))

This is a good read on its own. Worth the time.