I sat in the shade under Billy Penn as Bernie Sanders’ supporters swarmed to City Hall in Philadelphia. Long an acknowledged curse for Philadelphia sports teams, the statue seemed the fitting start for a march supporting a doomed campaign and 2nd place finish. The American Revolution began in Philadelphia and Hillary Clinton and the DNC had no intentions of letting the city lay claim to a second insurrection.

Ultimately though the DNC missed the warning shot fired by the democratic base that assembled here. A year earlier Sanders, a self-acknowledge socialist democrat, barely registered in the polls with 11% of the primary vote. Then, with eerie foreshadowing, Sanders began to pick off key Clinton states, including Michigan, that propelled him to the City of Brotherly Love.

Joyful in their anger, and with a righteous middle finger pointed directly at the establishment, the marchers baked in 97 degrees and a sun that seemed to grow hotter by the minute. Marijuana smoke drifted through the crowd, a megaphone peeled out and the march against the DNC’s perceived manipulation of the electoral system was underway.

After sweating their way down Broad Street, the same parade path reserved for the city’s heroes, Sanders’ delegates and supporters found themselves at the Wells Fargo center. Tired, hot and frustrated, those with the coveted lanyard filed their way into a contentious cauldron of red, white and blue; ready to pick a fight.

While they may have missed the warning shot, the DNC and Clinton’s election team clearly felt the palpable dissension in the ranks. Behind the scenes, the DNC and the candidates’ camps had spent weeks ironing out the party’s platform along with the final communications to Sanders’ supporters. That night, a deafening chorus of boos that would have made Eagles’ fans proud, rained down from the rafters every time a speaker dared breathe Hillary Clinton’s name.

After a week of stirring speeches, a cascade of red, white and blue balloons, and a big bump in the polls, the Clinton camp took to the campaign trail. There they would find admiration and admonition, delectation and discouragement, hope and hate.

In the end however, too many voters found themselves unable to connect personally with Secretary Clinton; the one-on-one engagement we could see in her videos never played well on a national stage. Her missing charisma, the seeming detachment from the working class and the undermining drumbeat from Wikileaks and the FBI ultimately prevented a great leader from reaching her fullest potential.