Bill Clinton's former pollster rips Hillary's 'malpractice and arrogance'

(Image credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

last updated 22 September 2017

Bill Clinton's former lead pollster, Stanley Greenberg, published a blistering dissection of Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign on Friday in which he skewers her "malpractice and arrogance" for contributing "mightily to the election of Donald Trump and its profound threat to our democracy."

Greenberg acknowledges criticism of Clinton's "handling of the email server, paid Wall Street speeches, and [her] 'deplorables' comment," but in his takedown he offers up his own opinion on what happened:

The Trump presidency concentrates the mind on the malpractice that helped put him in office. For me, the most glaring examples include the Clinton campaign's over-dependence on technical analytics; its failure to run campaigns to win the battleground states; the decision to focus on the rainbow base and identity politics at the expense of the working class; and the failure to address the candidate's growing 'trust problem,' to learn from events and reposition. [Greenberg Research]

Greenberg, who also contributed periodic counsel to the campaign, details the decision making processes of Clinton's top aides and his shock that "the 2016 Clinton campaign conducted no state polls in the final three weeks of the general election." Greenberg additionally expresses frustration that "the fatal conclusion the Clinton team made after the Michigan primary debacle was that she could not win white working-class voters, and that the 'rising electorate' would make up the difference."

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"Had Hillary Clinton won the presidency, the debate around these stark questions would probably have been put off," Greenberg concludes, "but they can't be put off now." Read his full report here.

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.