Democrats searching for reason behind loss

I have spent the last joyous week deleting hundreds - if not thousands - of Hillary Clinton-related emails, articles, cartoons and commentary.

This years-long collection served as inspiration and ammunition to address the twisted policies of her ultimately failed effort to return to the White House.

In the wake of her stunning defeat, political theorists and pundits on the left are turning circles trying desperately to explain the election outcome.

As the dust is now settling, the progressives have more excuses for her defeat than states she won.

Clearly her defeat - as the progressive narrative goes - was because of the FBI or the Russians or the low minority turnout or Anthony Weiner.

They even blame election day itself which they want to move to a weekend.

You see, the left cannot blame dirty money because they outspent Donald Trump by millions. And they certainly can't blame the media because those talking heads were clearly in the Clinton camp.

And, above all, they had the messiah Barack Obama on the stump reminding voters that his policies were solidly on the ballot.

The game plan all along was to join Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama at the hip and allow his coattails to pull her across the finish line.

Her promise of "more of the same" was a poll-driven, focus group concept that the Dems believed would end the conservative movement and the GOP once and for all.

But as the New York Times reminded the nation on Sunday, "Presidents cannot transfer popularity."

As I deleted my personal Clinton file of tidbits, I came across one that I had long forgotten. Lost in the minutiae of the Clinton campaign rhetoric was a small State Department briefing on Feb. 15 of last year.

By then, Secretary Clinton had long abandoned the State Department to mount her presidential bid. Yet her fingerprints and direction remained.

In that press briefing, the State Department spokesperson said the way to defeat ISIS was to provide them with jobs.

So "Jobs for Jihadists" was born.

Now granted, in the entire election cycle, this one dumb comment could easily be lost. And though political cartoonists and Saturday Night Live had fun at the expense of the State Department, "Jobs for Jihadists" was quickly forgotten.

Yet that long lost comment illustrated a much larger problem and served as an example of the delusional world of the Obama administration.

All that now remains is the predictable finger pointing. That may linger for a while.

I suspect when the election autopsy is complete, the jobs program for ISIS will not make the list.

But maybe, just maybe, it should.