Amie Parnes writes in The Hill about the future of the “legions of politicos” who had “hitched on to the Clinton train” for decades. Donald Trump’s defeat of Hillary Clinton “shattered the dreams of thousands of longtime Clinton aides and supporters who hoped to follow her to the White House.”

From The Hill:

This week, the Clintonworld train went off the rails — this time, seemingly for good.

In interviews with more than a dozen former Clinton aides, they expressed a grief and pain akin to losing a member of the family.

…

“For many people Clintonworld is life,” said one former aide.

“They don’t know anything else. There was a lot of measuring the drapes and not just now, it’s been that way for a long time,” another former aide said.

Those in her orbit didn’t just expect Clinton to win. They expected her to win big with the campaign telegraphing that states like Arizona were in play.

“And people thought she was going to win with 300 electoral votes. Everyone was thinking about their own lives in another Clinton administration. It seemed like it was finally happening.”

Weeks and months before the election, many aides, former staffers, surrogates and anyone who had ever worked for either Clinton had been lining up for jobs in what they thought would be a return of the Clintons to the White House.

Read the rest here.