A fundamental rule of political campaigns is “whoever controls the agenda, wins the race.” It is precisely because of this reality that Hillary Clinton, despite all her political clout and huge campaign bankroll, will not be the next President of the United States. Nor will she be crowned the Democrat nominee, even though many believe it is inevitable.
The issue that has hijacked control of the campaign agenda is the legitimate concern raised by her inappropriate use of private servers for official emails while Secretary of State. This issue will continue to put her on the defensive (or worse) through at least the middle of next year. It has now become the dominant topic on every interview, at every appearance, and in almost every article or news clip about her candidacy. Even when she appears at staged events that should be friendly she is being asked questions such as, “How can you apologize for the decision to keep official email on a private server and at the same time blame Republicans for a partisan witch hunt?”
And the controversy keeps mounting. Recently AP reported that China, South Korea and Germany all tried to hack her personal server. Wait a sec … are we saying “they” knew about her private server and “we” didn’t? Now word is out that the FBI “seized” four state department servers as part of its probe. How serious does the FBI think this is in order for them to take such action?
It hasn’t helped that Ms. Clinton has played dumb about it and her husband has said it’s a lot about nothing. Nor has it helped that she has said, “None of the emails I sent were marked classified at the time I sent them.” Hundreds of the emails on her server were classified. She had to know many were classified, simply by the nature of the content. For example, she had to know that information collected by drones is classified the moment is collected regardless of actual content, simply because we don’t want outsiders to know our capabilities and what information we are collecting. These are not issues to be taken lightly. People’s lives are at stake. So is our national security.
Worse yet, by attempting to mislead everyone about details regarding her emails, her servers and their content, Ms. Clinton has damaged her reputation. In a recent survey two thirds of those surveyed said she lacks integrity. It’s hard to dig out of a hole that big, no matter what your finances or party connections.
It now also looks like many of the deleted emails will be recovered. If any of these contain other than personal information, it is hard to imagine any way she can rebound. And yes, there will be people releasing information because they are partisan and opposed to her. One of the benefits of our political system is that the electoral process always brings distasteful information out into the open. But it works for and against both parties and the advantages and disadvantages balance out in the long run, so it’s hard to say the process is unfair.
Several months ago I predicted that Joe Biden would enter the race this fall. I thought it might happen in September, but didn’t considering the Pope’s visit to America. Biden’s handlers wisely decided not to compete for air time with the Pope. Now it looks like they’ll wait until after the first Democrat debate—another smart move. But when it finally happens, Biden’s announcement will drive the nails into the coffin of an already-dead presidential bid by Hillary Clinton.