Everyone’s Sick And Tired Of Hearing About Hillary’s Emails, Sort Of
On Wednesday, the first of two shoes finally hit the floor for Hillary Clinton. The Emailgate saga that she has claimed for more than a year is nothing more than the usual vast right-wing conspiracy out to get her and her husband seems about to either vindicate or crucify her. Well, the State Department released an 80-page document that did not indicate any laws were broken, but did not absolve Mrs. Clinton.
Of course, you can guess how the conservative media is taking this. The end of the Clinton juggernaut and the Democratic Party is nigh! See we told you all along that she was corrupt! The State Department is verifying it to you. This disqualifies her for the Presidency! We should just lock her up and throw away the keys!
Most places haven’t quite degenerated to that level of spluttering lunacy yet, but it seems only a matter of time. Judicial Watch, a conservative action group, has demanded that the State Department turn over all emails they have from Clinton’s time as Secretary of State, which the department has admitted now that they haven’t released them all. They would also like to depose Mrs. Clinton about all of this.
I agree they have a right to the emails but not the depositions, unless those emails are classified or top secret, in which case they are likely just going to get pages full of black lines. However, the point of this group’s action isn’t about the freedom of information, which they claim. It actually is a partisan witch hunt. Their intentions stray away from the issue at hand.
Clinton has claimed even after the report that she broke no laws and what she did was legal. What is legal and a matter of good judgment in this case are two totally different matters. The State Department’s statements do make 5 points obviously clear. They don’t say she broke any laws, but they state quite clearly that she broke the rules, knowingly and flagrantly. She claimed that she had an abiding need to keep her private life separate from work. I know this is going to sound absolutely sexist and cruel, but how is the most qualified and esteemed woman in the world less able to do that than any other working woman in the workforce? Can she not multitask?
Another major shock to people, or maybe not, is the fact that Hillary and her aides basically refused to assist in the investigation. Really, even though Hillary said she was going to cooperate, it should come as no surprise that she lied. I hate to say it, but the Clinton’s rarely cooperate in an investigation into anything that involves them, so this comes as no surprise, despite the fact that every other Secretary of State was forthcoming.
We also now have proof that her server did see hacking attempts. Really only an idiot would have thought that they didn’t occur. Whether or not we ever learn that her server was or was not hacked doesn’t really matter I suppose. Some people are going to believe she was, even if she wasn’t and some will always believe she wasn’t even if they are shown positive proof that she was. This might be like the Kennedy assassination of our day, especially if a few months from now we elect Donald Trump.
The only thing I can say with any certainty at this point is that Hillary Clinton herself is absolutely sick and tired of the word Emailgate. In any other Democratic Primary year it would have dogged her throughout, and probably ended any chance she had at being nominated a long time ago. Now it looks like it may derail her at the end when it looks like she has victory in her hands. I know Clinton supporters are still going to deny this fact even now, possibly because they think I am trying to make a case for Bernie Sanders, but that isn’t true here.
Look at this from the broader perspective just on her electability. The email scandal is going to ride her into the ground from here on out. It doesn’t matter if the FBI exonerates her; the State Department has damned her by accusing her of breaking the rules and not consulting with them about her system. She has done what people have always assumed of the Clinton’s and wealthy Americans. Do what you want and screw the rules because they don’t apply to you.
It is one reason why her likability and admiration numbers fluctuate so much over time. She has used it to her advantage against her opponents in Congress to stand up for people, which raises her likability, but then instances like this decrease it two to threefold. You know Donald Trump and a number of conservative groups are going to hammer her on this issue and so many others as the summer carries on into fall.
The trustworthiness issue and the ability to make good decisions will make this so much worse. The recent news that Mitt Romney and Lindsey Graham have given up on the #NeverTrump movement will start to solidify people around that showman cancer. Despite her being more qualified and Trump being a complete and total ass, Trump seems to be able to manipulate the media far better than she has.
If the media were truly honest with America and to their profession they would never have allowed Trump to get as far as he has. Instead, they are more interested in ratings and playing up the divisiveness. They may truly want someone like Hillary in the White House, but because Emailgate will bring them ratings they are not averse to play it up and see where it leads for now. Of course, once you’ve released the genie from the bottle it is often extremely hard to put it back before it has caused irreparable harm.
I doubt that Hillary will step aside at this point for the good of the Democratic Party or the country. If she ever does, it wouldn’t happen until the national convention where she will have a plan in place where she will have a chance to have someone of her and the party’s choosing in place. If not, Emailgate will be an albatross slung about her neck dragging her and the Democratic Party down to the coldest depths of the deepest seas this November.
Anyone who didn’t already understand this long, long ago is an imbecile. Whether you liked HRC as your candidate or not, it would have been an intellectual self-deception not to see from the outset that Ms. Clinton was an extremely weak candidate, the weakest i’ve seen fielded by the Democrats ever in my adult life, just based on her high (if you prefer ‘fluctuating’, okay, fine) negatives alone. She is perhaps the only candidate who could conceivably lose to Trump. It was, of course, her right to run. But virtually the entire Democratic, the MSM, and her miopic moneyed backers put all their eggs in the Clinton basket, and showed staggeringly blind unearned confidence in this hobbled-from-the-get candidate, who insults, ignores, scolds and condescends to often immature and politically unsophisticated, yes, but likely very needed Bernie Sanders backers without let up. Wow, what a great display of judgement! HRC reminds me of the paranoid Nixon a lot, who also treated everyone with whom he disagreed as the direst of enemies, who needed to be destroyed at all cost! She is, rightly or wrongly, fairly or not, an extremely devisive figure, who attempts to unite by coercion, rather than compromise; and a candidate whose demonization is, and has been for decades, a veritable golden goose for conservatives of every stripe. All they have to do is mention her name, and crazy billionaires rush to line the pockets of any hack muckracker, crazy think tank “schollar”, or sweaty-palmed dime-store Illuminati prophesier who wants to enrich themselves. After all that, I will vote for her if she is the nominee, but only because i fear a Trump presidency more. Sanders would get a pummeling during the course of the general election had he been the Dem nominee, but I believe he would still have beaten Trump by a nice point spread in the end. Hillary might beat Trump. I listen to Sam Seder for hope, as he thinks, at present, that Trump would be soundly defeated regardless of the Democratic nominee.