It's hard not to feel sorry for Hillary Clinton at times. Here she was the heir apparent to the White House, a long-time party go-along and malleable puff of air ready to say she believed whatever the driving trend of a given historical moment might be, and at the last minute, her turn was snatched away from her by the American people. She was left spinning, angry and bemused, and she's still not sure what happened.
But it's not complicated. At rock-bottom, it was Hillary's go-along readiness to manifest Obama's third term and "protect" his legacy, that ever-shifting never-quite-real belief system that Americans rejected. Hillary was for DADT before she was against it, she was for military engagement in the Middle East before she was against it, she pilloried and destroyed women who alleged sexual assaults before she thought they should be believed, she was for more taxes before she was against—and then once more for—them, she supported single-payer healthcare before she didn't (and then did again), she wanted lower taxes before she wanted to gouge the "rich," she was a foreign policy hawk before she was a dove. The list goes on. And on.