Re “Hillary Clinton isn’t getting her due’’ by Joan Vennochi (Opinion, Sept. 12): I am one of the Democrats who doesn’t want to hear from Hillary Clinton anymore. I followed the campaign closely. Yes, Clinton was the victim of James Comey, misogyny, Russian intervention, and Bernie Sanders. Still the Democratic Party and the Clinton team blundered throughout the campaign.

To start with, they ran a candidate who was weak from the outset. The right wing had been attacking the Clintons relentlessly for years, and the shots at Hillary had been particularly brutal. Donald Trump came along and escalated those attacks to a level I have never seen, even in the dirtiest of presidential campaigns.

The media aired Trump’s rallies, which featured his repeated lies and vitriol, seemingly around the clock. I heard no one in the media object to Trump’s repeated references to “Crooked Hillary’’ and to shouts of “Lock her up!’’ Where was the Democratic Party? Where was the Clinton retort? Their impotent response was, “That’s not right’’ and “When they go low, we go high.’’ The Democrats were fighting with slingshots against an atomic bomb. Clinton’s campaign managers were asleep at the wheel.

At the same time, Clinton had a tin ear, and often delivered the wrong (and boring) message as she crisscrossed the country. What interest does an out-of-work white male have in child care or minorities’ rights — issues that Clinton hammered away at? She also chose a weak running mate who hardly spoke out.

Clinton knows policy inside and out. She won all three debates against an ignorant Trump. Still she lost this crucial election.

Bottom line: The Democrats have to run a charismatic and politically savvy candidate next time — one who can defeat the right-wing dirty-tricks juggernaut.

Yvette Morton

Newton