Believe it or not, I feel bad for Hillary Clinton

Over the last several days, even amid all of the news coverage surrounding Hurricane Irma, Hillary Clinton has once again managed to find her way into the news cycle for the release of her new book, “What Happened.” Stories surrounding Clinton and her book reveal excerpts that demonstrate her true thoughts on President Donald Trump, her now-evident dislike of Bernie Sanders and, ultimately, her thoughts on the 2016 election. As someone who has had nothing but political disdain for Clinton for most of my adult life, I now pity the poor woman. To detail her political loss, which was supposed to be the highlight of her career, must have been devastating. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. In fact, I feel bad for Hillary Clinton.

Now you may be thinking, “What the hell am I reading? Could this be?” Those of you who know me are likely shocked at the notion that I feel sorry for Clinton. Rest assured, my sympathy is sincere, and let me tell you why.

Clinton is a woman, who in my opinion, had everything gifted to her politically. OK, mostly everything. She deserves credit for the role she played in getting her husband elected governor of Arkansas and president of the U.S., I’ll give her that. As far as her individual political career, however, I’ll leave you with the words of my former liberal political science professor at Georgetown University: Hillary Clinton’s entire political career exists because of her husband. She rode his coattails to the Senate and the State Department.

That’s coming from a man who likely voted for her. But even if you don’t agree with him, consider this. The national media has fawned over Hillary Clinton for years, and last year her own party rigged the Democratic Primary in her favor. She escaped scandals that would destroy most people (Whitewater, Benghazi, Clinton Foundation). Yet, despite all of this, she still lost the election. Between interviews and her new book, Clinton has blamed the FBI, James Comey (an FBI director who exonerated her before properly investigating her), the Russians, “anti-American forces,”  Vladimir Putin (she oddly claims he wanted her to lose), poorly informed voters, everyone who assumed she’d win, President Barack Obama, misogynists, suburban women, The New York Times, Netflix, Facebook, Twitter, Wikileaks, “content farms in Macedonia” and “millions of white people” for her loss. It’s rather bizarre to me that Clinton never seems to assume personal responsibility for her campaign loss. That exact lack of self-awareness and proclivity to play the blame game is precisely what is infuriating members of the Democratic Party and the media.

Need more convincing? Here are some recent headlines from her book tour: “Hillary Clinton’s book signing was as insufferable as you’d expect,” “Democrats dread Hillary’s book tour” and most embarrassingly, “Hillary Lannister?”— a headline that references a comparison Clinton made between herself and the evil, murderous Cersei Lannister from “Game of Thrones.” I am still trying to figure out why she would compare herself to a character guilty of things Clinton herself has been accused of.

As you can tell, Clinton is embarrassing herself and doing a disservice to the Democratic Party. She’d serve them better to retire quietly and exit from politics. If you think I’m being too harsh, a former Clinton fundraiser recently had this to say about her:

“Honestly, I wish she’d just shut the f--- up, and go away.”

And that’s exactly the worst part. She still won’t go away. Months after the election, Hillary Clinton is ruining the remnants of her legacy, and she doesn’t even know it. At this rate, we’ll remember her as the biggest letdown who was once a predicted sure thing. That is why I feel sorry for her.

Eduardo Neret is a UF finance senior. His column appears on Wednesdays.