Politics Hillary is done

http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/235286-clinton-fails-to-calm-email-storm

Clinton fails to calm email storm

The political storm over Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email account intensified Tuesday as she revealed that more than 30,000 “personal” messages have been erased from the server in her home.

Holding her first press conference in nearly two years, the likely presidential candidate defended the account, saying it was chosen only for the “convenience” of not having to use two personal devices while serving as secretary of State.

“Looking back, it would’ve been better if I’d simply used a second email account and carried a second phone, but at the time, this didn’t seem like an issue,” she said.

Clinton two weeks ago said she now uses both an iPhone and a Blackberry.

She insisted that she followed all federal rules and regulations, and said every email message related to official business was preserved and turned over to the government.

“I have absolute confidence that everything that could be in any way connected to work is now in the possession of the State Department.”

According to a nine-page document provided by Clinton aides, the personal account once contained 62,320 emails that were sent and received between March 2009 and February 2013, when she left President Obama’s Cabinet.

Of those emails, Clinton’s team determined that 30,490 were work-related, in part by searching for the names of top officials and for emails ending in “.gov.” Those records were provided to the State Department two months ago; the other 31,830 were apparently deleted.

“Secretary Clinton chose not to keep her private, personal emails that were not federal records,” the document states.

Clinton defended the process as thorough and fair, and suggested that she has the same right to privacy as everyone else.

 

Were it not for the SNL opener this weekend and this thread, I would be blissfully unaware of this "scandal". As it is, I just don't care.

 

Binders of women. Huge campaign issue. More important than Benghazi which happened at the same time.

 

I don't think it's republicans behind this. The left wing media isn't exactly brushing this off.

CNN, for example:

http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/10/politics/donors-hillary-clinton-emails/index.html

Hillary Clinton donors frustrated by email controversy

...

But one well-connected private sector observer based in New York said some donors are "very worried" about just how long the email scandal will haunt Clinton.

"It is a huge distraction and will take a long time to resolve," the person said. The main concern among top allies, they added, is that the issue "will be unresolved story for months."

and

http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/06/politics/hillary-clinton-emails-was-there-wrongdoing/index.html

So it looks like there's no smoking gun. But her decision to use a personal email account stored on her own private server raises questions, at best, especially when you're (likely) running for president. Anything else?

There's also a tinge of hypocrisy in the air.

During Clinton's personal-email-using, private-server-having tenure, U.S. Ambassador to Kenya Scott Gration was criticized and ultimately pushed out of his post in part for using a personal email address "for official government business, including Sensitive But Unclassified information."

Again, there's no evidence Clinton included "sensitive but unclassified information" in her emails, but a State Department investigation skewed the ambassador in question for using his personal email at all in his official capacity. (He also used an official government email.)

The 2012 Inspector General's report, which was released shortly after Gration resigned his post as the ambassador in Kenya, wrote that the use of personal email was against policy "except in emergencies" and repeatedly slams him for using "commercial email for official government business."

All the while, Clinton was exclusively using her personal email.

There's just one more tidbit revealed in a 2011 internal, unclassified, diplomatic cable from Clinton's office -- though there's no evidence she personally reviewed the cable. It gives the department's employees guidance on "securing personal e-mail accounts," Fox News reported.

One of the guidelines?

"Avoid conducting official Department business from your personal e-mail account."

 

Sean Trende, the polling analyst for RealClearPolitics:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2015/03/11/why_clintons_emails_matter_125899.html

But one only need watch the press conference from Tuesday to see the real cause for concern. It isn’t just that Clinton looked tired, was flat-footed in her responses, and made some cringe-worthy comments about not wanting to have two email accounts to follow. To be sure, it was difficult to watch—almost as bad as that 2007 debate.

The seasoned politician and former Cabinet member had several days to formulate a response to “email-gate.” But her answer was that she had combined her personal and official emails onto a private server for “convenience.” And, she added, she would not turn over that server for inspection.

The press just wasn’t buying it. To run the sort of larger-than-life campaign that Clinton seems to want to run, she has to fit the larger-than-life bill. The reason Barack Obama was treated like LeBron is that he sort of was LeBron. His campaign racked up only a handful of mistakes. He always seemed to pull things out when he needed to. He hit the three-pointers when it mattered. This created a virtuous cycle: He did amazing things, and the press treated him as such. If Obama had had as many problems as Clinton has, and had responded in the same way, his campaign would have gone nowhere.

If you followed Twitter on Tuesday, it is safe to say that Clinton will not be getting the sort of treatmentshe needs to run a celebrity campaign just by virtue of being Clinton. TMZ and Gawker, which are generally thought of as having a liberal tilt, helped break the story. "SNL" lit into her in a way that it arguably still hasn’t for Obama. Again, I don’t think this is because these outlets are inherently pro-Obama. He just played a role almost flawlessly, and reaps the benefits from time to time.

She will have to earn favorable coverage, and she isn’t doing it so far. If it keeps up, not only will she not have an advantage in how the “intangibles” stack up, she might have a disadvantage that pushes her below what the fundamentals suggest.

 

Sounds like Vladimir Putin is voicing these concerns.

 

In 2007, top Clinton donors bailed on her for Obama. Many of them said the Clintons are "ethically challenged" or "play loose with the truth."

I think she's done because the democrats will find another candidate to throw their support behind.

 

Thanks Obama!

 

For the 1%.

 

Unemployment numbers aren't great. The workforce shrunk so much due to people unable to get a job and no longer trying, they're not counted.

Unemployment for minorities is ridiculously high.

Income growth is stagnant at best.

http://www.brookings.edu/research/p...me-growth-decline-economic-prosperity-shapiro

 

Binders of women.