Hillary faced hurricane level headwinds. She was bashed by her gender, decades of right wing media and most importantly, the meaningless email scandal that was reinvigorated in the closing weeks of her campaign. Trump was given unlimited free media. She lost, but by the narrowest of margins.
The autopsy of her campaign was bloody, brutal, and ultimately, wrong. She nailed Trump in all three debates and made historic inroads into the hispanic electorate. She won the popular vote. Her sins were underperforming many state polls, and a travel schedule that slighted parts of the Midwest.
Biden look up residence in the Midwestern battleground states. He stayed on a message made powerful by the mounting deaths caused by Trump's incompetent response to the pandemic. Although he probably will eke out the narrowest of victories, his underperformance of the polls is historic. The ballot excess over Clinton in the MidWest, although determinative, is de minimis.
With the hindsight of 2020, we can now reevaluate 2016. Trump is a far more formidable candidate than we knew. He is able to tap into an unimaginably large reservoir of white non-college educated grievance. His death defying rallies work. He is shameless, which allows him to lie and cheat in electoral politics as he did in business. He befuddles pollsters.
