The Great Smoky Mountain Journal
Staff, Wire Reports
Posted: Sunday, January 21, 2018 03:53 PM
56 Reasons And Counting - One For Each Week Of The Year And A Month - Hillary's Excuses For Losing
Hillary Clinton’s new
book entitled “What Happened” was officially released on Tuesday.
Since then, she has been promoting it with the zeal of an indefatigable
carnival barker. It seems to be working.
The line for her book signing at a store in New York City stretched
around the block. Indifferent to her disciples who had already been
waiting for hours, Clinton showed up an hour late. It must be difficult
to meet such a demanding schedule, given all her promised appearances on
“The View,” the “Today Show,” “CBS Sunday Morning,” CNN, MSNBC, the
“Late Show,” and… well, you get the idea. Adoration can be burdensome
for the adored.
I’ve spent two days and consumed three packs of Tums trying to digest
all 464 pages. (I’m a fast reader.) I initially counted 43 reasons
Clinton gives for her 2016 election loss, as she meticulously faults all
the people who sabotaged what was rightfully hers. But upon closer
examination, I have discovered thirteen more who are to blame.
Incredible. But not surprising.
You see, Clinton has long had an aversion to the truth.
She twists it, bends it and contorts it to fit her own needs and
ambitions. And so it goes in Clinton’s current “blame tour” as she hawks
her book with an eye toward fattening her already considerable bank
account.
If you are expecting the truth in “What Happened,” you will be left
bereft. Her mythical memoir bears no resemblance to the truth of what
happened in her losing quest for the presidency.
Instead, Clinton engages in what psychiatrists call “projection” –when
people persistently blame others for their own failings. They view
themselves as chronic victims, refusing to accept personal
responsibility for the decisions they alone make.
Hillary Rodham Clinton, center, greets people who waited in line of a
signed copy of her book "What Happened" at a book store in New York,
Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2017. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
In Clinton's universe, everyone is to blame but her. She seems to have
adopted the Richard Nixon spoof, "I accept the responsibility, but not
the blame."
And, like Nixon, Clinton’s name is synonymous with scandals and
controversies, all of them self-created. No one forced her to set up a
private email server. No one made her pocket $225,000 from Goldman Sachs
for a speech. No one coerced her into using her foundation in a way that
smacks of influence peddling and self-dealing.
In rationalizing her behavior, Clinton tends to manipulate the facts and
engage in wholesale deceptions, peddling one fatuous canard after
another. She does it so often and so cavalierly that it seems second
nature. Distortions and fabrications are endemic in her personality.
Yet, Americans saw through it. Polling data consistently showed that a
majority of voters did not trust Clinton because they didn’t believe
her. In politics, if they don’t believe you, they’ll never believe in
you.
This is Hillary Clinton’s fatal character flaw.
The truth is Clinton was an uninspiring candidate who ran a flawed
campaign. She ignored the advice of experienced political professionals.
She never understood what voters truly cared about and failed to devise
a coherent message that resonated with Americans. And, of course, she
was marred by scandals of her own making and the copious excuses she
conjured that few seemed to believe.
But in her book and in her many public appearances and interviews,
Clinton refuses to acknowledge the truth. That would take the kind of
courage that demands honest self-reflection. She is incapable of doing
so.
If you want to empty your wallet for a book of fiction disguised as
non-fiction, be my guest. If you don’t, here is a list of all of those
who Clinton blames for her losing presidential bid. The list will,
undoubtedly, grow as she continues talking about it.
1. Sexism
2. Racism
3. Misogyny
4. Xenophobia
5. Suburban women
6. James Comey
7. FBI
8. Russians
9. Vladimir Putin
10. WikiLeaks
11. D.N.C.
12. Barack Obama
13. Joe Biden
14. Bernie Sanders
15. Anthony Weiner
16. Electoral College
17. Polling Data
18. Cable News
19. New York Times
20. Fake News
21. Bots
22. Facebook
23. Twitter
24. Netflix
25. TV Executives
26. ‘Anti-American forces’
27. Democrat documentaries
28. Low information voters
29. People wanting change
30. People who assumed she’d win
31. Republican Party
32. “Content farms in Macedonia’
33. Infowars
34. Goosefer
35. DC Leaks
36. Jill Stein
37. Steve Bannon
38. Voter I-D laws
39. Chief Justice John Roberts
40. KS Sec. of State, Kris Kobach
41. Citizens United
42. Colluding Trump officials
43. Benghazi
44. Rep. Kevin McCarthy
45. Gen. Michael Flynn
46. Julian Assange
47. Roger Stone
48. Reddit
49. Drudge Report
50. Alex Jones
51. Russia Today (RT)
52. Sputnik Network
53. Robert Mercer
54. Koch brothers
55. NBC’S Matt Lauer
56. Fox News Channel
Gregg Jarrett is a Fox News legal analyst and former defense attorney.