Hillary Clinton blamed the FBI, the Russians and sexism for losing the election in her little chat with CNN media celeb Christiane Amanpour. The responses were not charitable.
The New York Times’ Glenn Thrush, who has reported on Clinton for years, tweeted “mea culpa-not so much,” suggesting that the former candidate “blames everyone but self.” Obama-campaign strategist turned pundit David Axelrod gave an interview claiming that while Clinton “said the words ‘I’m responsible’ … everything else suggested that she really doesn’t feel that way.” Joe Scarborough called her comments “pathetic”; David Gregory suggested she was not “taking real responsibility for the fact that she was not what the country wanted.” And in the Daily News, Gersh Kuntzman delivered a column that began, “Hey, Hillary Clinton, shut the f— up and go away already.”
Later, Amanpour would tell me how surprised she was by the negative reaction. “The idea that she shouldn’t mention the Comey letter when the entire nation and the most respected statisticians are considering its impact is so strange,” she said. “If she were a man, would she be allowed to mention it? As a woman, I am offended by the double standards applied here. Everyone shrieks that Hillary was a bad candidate, but was Trump a good candidate?”
Yes, clearly it's just because Hillary Clinton is a woman. Not any other reason. Just her gender.
If Kerry or Romney spent their campaign afterlife blaming everyone else instead of taking responsibility, they would have been celebrated. If after losing to Bush, Kerry had gone on a speaking tour and blaming the Norwegians, the CIA and Francophobia, he would have been loudly cheered from Martha's Vineyard... to Martha's Vineyard.
What's the double standard exactly?
Hillary Clinton is a pathological liar who evades responsibility for everything. Including rigging and then losing an election. Burning through a fortune in other people's money. And then blaming everyone else for her miserable failure.
These are the qualities that lost her the election. And constantly blaming sexism didn't help.
That's not a double standard. It's a standard. Something the Clintons, male and female, are unfamiliar with.