Ugly news always follows the Clintons, but rarely derails them. This has been an especially trying week, though, with reports of Secretary Clinton's using official State Department travel as donor-maintenance junkets to the foreign governments with whom she supposedly was negotiating on behalf of the United States, and conducting most if not all of her official State Department business on a private email account, for the apparent purpose of avoiding the need to respond to FOIA requests and in an equally apparent disregard for the continued security of classified information.
Bill Scher at Politico is beginning to entertain the unthinkable: what will happen to the 2016 race if Hillary Clinton drops out? The assumption is that at some point this press will become so disabling that Ms. Clinton's hand will be forced. Will it, though? Imagine what would have happened if John Ehrlichman had been in charge of the U.S. press in the early 1970s.
This has been a week in which the Establishment -- which exists in both parties -- has shown its main strength. The Clintons are the very heart of the Establishment on the Democratic side. They lost in 2008 in spite of that, swept away by a moment of unreasoning madness and lust for a savior among the Democratic electorate. The People are only ever imperfectly controlled.
ReplyDeleteThey could lose again on merit, but I wouldn't count on it.
In the event that she does bow out, though, I'll be supporting Jim Webb. In spite of his occasional madness, I think he has a good strong heart and some traditionally American principles.
ReplyDeleteI'd support Elizabeth Warren. We need an American Indian in the White House. It's time. Or at least time to try.
ReplyDeleteEric Hines
How are those two propositions connected? She's as Cherokee as I am. Vote Grim.
ReplyDeleteShe says her mother said so. I have an Indian Princess in my ancestry. Or so my dearly departed mother once said.
ReplyDeleteVote Hines.
You're a man of honor, Mr. Hines. I'd believe you if you told me you were an Indian Princess.
ReplyDeleteVote Grim.
You don't believe my mother was as honorable as Warren's?
ReplyDeleteVote Hines
I grew up under a strict injunction never to speculate about the character of a man's mother.
ReplyDeleteVote Grim.
Well, that settles it, then.
ReplyDeleteVote Hines