First, this is not a pro-Trump column. I dread the thought of four years of his presidency because I doubt that he has the skill and experience for the job.
On top of that, I have grave doubts about his personality and character. Because Clinton’s biography is even more troubling to me than his, I am very relieved that she will not become president.
What interests me today is the navel gazing of journalists everywhere in this country. Journalists, who pride themselves on their understanding of politics, were caught flat-footed by Tuesday’s results. Even the veteran reporters and anchormen and women on Fox News Channel were struggling to sound intelligent after about 10 p.m. election night when the expected results did not materialize. I’m sure they had prepared themselves with all kinds of statistics to explain what they thought would happen.
Then something unexpected happened, Florida did not shut off Trump’s path to victory. Trump was even leading in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina, and Wisconsin. I didn’t watch CBS, ABC, NBC, CNN, or MSNBC. The reporters and anchors on those networks must have been even less prepared than their colleagues on Fox News. Deep down in their bones, they could not believe what they were witnessing.
I lived in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. for 17 years.
I developed a habit of reading the Washington Post, which is one of the leading liberal newspapers on the east coast. In September, I wrote a column, entitled “Media Bias for Clinton,” that used the Washington Post as an example of slanted coverage. So I was amused to scan that paper’s website on the morning of Nov. 10.
There was an article explaining how Bernie Sanders could have won. There was an explanation of how to survive the next four years. One reporter thundered that neither Giuliani nor Christie should be the next attorney general. Only one article attempted to explain why Hillary Clinton lost: “Clinton dynasty was undone by the voters it once knew so well” by David Maraniss.
Maraniss’ theory is that she lost because she lost touch with her middle-class background because she is a woman, and because Bill Clinton had laden her with political baggage.
Other articles looked elsewhere for a reason. Gregg Jaffe and Juliet Eilperin wrote “Trump’s victory exposes Obama’s inability to connect with white working class.” I see a trend here. Even after the election, journalists continue to see opponents of Hillary Clinton as sexists, racists, uneducated, and white.
Here is a different theory to explain her loss: she is a flawed person and was a flawed candidate. Do any of the well-educated journalists remember her infamous statement during the Benghazi hearings when asked about what was the cause of the attack on the American ambassador where four Americans died?
Responding to questions from Republicans, she said, “At this point, what difference does it make…?” She also dismissed the e-mail scandal by saying that she wouldn’t do that again. What? Her e-mail server was a very serious violation of law. If she were anybody else, she would be under indictment already and, maybe, she would be in jail. Could that be the reason that American’s didn’t vote for her? It was my reason.
William Safire called her a congenital liar in 1996. He was right. She lies like most people breathe. Sometimes she lies when a lie serves no purpose. For instance, she said, as secretary of state, she landed in Bosnia under fire. I don’t remember how she responded when pictures of her receiving flowers from a little Bosnian girl surfaced. She said that she was named after Edmund Hillary, the first man to climb Mt Everest in 1953. Didn’t she ever question that considering she was born in 1947? I could go on and on.
She can take cold comfort that, in their contest to be more deplorable, she came out number one to Donald Trump’s number two. However, that leaves me with cold comfort that the number two deplorable will become president of the United States Jan. 20 2017.
I fear for my country. If you pray, please pray for us.

Michael Waldron is a retired lieutenant colonel, U.S. Army, who was born and raised in Niles. He previously served on the Niles Community School Board of Education. He can be reached at ml.waldron@sbcglobal.net.