Thursday, August 27, 2015

Hillary Clinton’s Handling of Email Issue Frustrates Democratic Leaders

From the New York Times:

A number of Democrats said in interviews that they were disturbed when Mrs. Clinton had joked that her Snapchat account messages “disappear all by themselves,” and had reacted peevishly to a reporter’s question about wiping her server. (“What, like with a cloth or something?” she had replied.)

“Instead of flippant and smart-aleck comments, it would just be better to come clean in a straightforward way,” said Pat Cotham, a Democratic national committeewoman and county commissioner from North Carolina. “People don’t expect you to be perfect, but they just want to know what the deal is.”


More here.

Look, I'm NOT happy about this being a problem for her. This is not Clinton bashing.

But, as I asserted weeks and weeks ago when the story first erupted, this is most definitely a problem for Hillary. I mean, if it was a problem for Bush, then it's a problem for Hillary, and nobody has yet explained to me why it's just fine for her to do it, but not him. I'm still waiting for an explanation on this, but nobody seems willing to give one.

Instead, all we've gotten from Hillary, her campaign, and her supporters is just a big brush off, you know, "this isn't an issue," etc. But the whole thing smells enough like a scandal, a real scandal, not crap like Benghazi, that brushing it off just looks bad, really bad. I mean, as the article observes, this is very likely the reason Biden is inches away from jumping into the race: the Democratic establishment wants an establishment candidate without the stench of scandal.

When you respond to questions about wiping your server with patronizing bullshit such as “What, like with a cloth or something?” you are INCREASING the stench, not decreasing it.

My original question back in March was about whether this thing is due to some sort of nefarious intent or just because of incompetence. I feel pretty safe now in saying that it's probably not something sinister. But that, and the way she has since handled the situation, is making the incompetence angle look better and better.

And that's bad for Hillary.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$