I think enough time has gone by that we can begin to assess what did happen, what went wrong and what was done right. For what it might be worth, here is my modest contribution to doing just that.

It was apparent more than a year ago that the Democrats were in serious trouble. Remember the first debate? That was the weakest Democratic field since at least 1960, and possibly the weakest ever. John Kennedy's opponents included Stuart Symington and Lyndon Johnson, and I think Hubert Humphrey ran that year also. Obama faced off against Mme. Clinton, Joe Biden and Bill Richardson, among others.

In debate 1 we had, Martin O'Malley, OK, not bad, some old guy from Roe Dyland--what was that all about?--another old guy from Vermont, Herself, whom we all knew and loved, and this Republican Democrat from Virginia. The Virginian got in some nice licks about how HIS foreign born wife is a professional who put herself through college, unlike (it was implied) SOME people we could mention. Sanders was the only person on stage who sounded like he might possibly, sort of, care about what he was saying. I remember wishing he were ten years younger and from a bigger state.

Sanders was already drawing big crowds and then he began winning primaries. That was not in the script, and then it got worse. Herself, with typical incompetence, brought in a bevy of ladies, I am using the term advisedly, to threaten The Women's Vote back into obedience. The harpies included one Maddy "Why can't we take that army out and use it, General Powell?" Albright, and CIA asset Steinem. And that prompted, among other things, an article in Salon by Paglia, who is not bad when she condescends to reporting, about how that same Agent Steinem undermined and coopted the women's movement way back when. Clearly Something Had To Be Done, God only knew what secrets might come tumbling out of obscurity next. The Establishment had, of course, seeded the Sanders campaign with its own operatives, making sure, for example, that the candidate was not on hand to thank the voters and rally the supporters after his awesome victory in Michigan. The Clintonistas were forced, I tell you, forced to activate their voting theft apparatus which was supposed to be in reserve for the General while Killary cruised through the primaries.

The Clintons are as vulgar as vulgar comes, and could not restrain themselves from putting down the upstart as brutally as possible. There was obvious theft in the CA primary. There was the Nevada State Dem. Convention, which I happen to think was a lot more significant than many realized. Watching the behavior of whatshername on stage, I think, prompted many to ask themselves, do I want to live with 4-8 years of out of control functionaries like her? For myself, that was the moment I concluded that I had more to fear from Hillary and her apparatchiks than I did from a possible Trump presidency, bad as I knew and know that will be.

From then on it has been little short of a nightmare. Just when you thought things couldn't get worse, they got worse. Emails. wikileaks. Miss "I don't get protested" Debby WS. Miss Donna., both of them admitted back stabbers and fixers, and "Whatchagointo do about it, huh?" Maybe, how about, not vote for your corrupt candidate? Maybe, just stay home this time? Half the American people do just that, and I don't see you calling them names.

Then the fall campaign was, like, not even there, somehow. Trump was drawing the big crowds of his fanatics. Clinton barely deigned to campaign at all, and down ballot candidates seemed to have been selected with one qualification in mind--you must not look or sound better than Killary. I have no brief for Trump when I say that I do love to see the bad guys hoist on their own petard; Trump was supposed to be the easy to beat guy, the one we want to win the nomination. Then came more wikileaks and then the voting machines didn't do what they were told to do, and meanwhile Republican voter suppression worked like a dream, partly because the Dumb Party officials, who are PAID to deal with things like that, couldn't be bothered to pay any attention. Oh, and Killary was going around the country telling her carefully selected minicrowds how she was going to bomb, bomb, bomb Russia, Syria and apparently anyone else she didn't happen to like as soon as she got elected. And, at the last minute there were the Podesta emails, the significance of which is not unconfirmed weirdness, but that they reminded voters that Bill had been caught partying with a real, live convicted pedophile, Brian Epstein.