So, what does all of this mean? Well, it seems clear that something happened in Wisconsin and Michigan which eluded both the Clinton campaign and almost every independent pollster. In Michigan, the black vote clearly didn’t come out strong for Clinton. In Wisconsin, it seems obvious that overconfidence, fostered partly by her not even visiting the state, led to the liberal base there not being energized.
Like any close football game, there are almost always a multitude of reasons why one team won and the other lost. However, given the closeness of these races and how very off the polling data was (when, nationally, the polls were pretty much dead on), it is certainly reasonable to conclude that Russian efforts, much like a late field goal, were in fact a deciding factor. This case is especially persuasive when you consider that Hillary’s problem in these two states, horrendously depressed turnout, was EXACTLY the type of result which the Russian “fake news” campaign appeared designed to create.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member