Hillary Clinton's e-mail icontroversy

blacbird said:

I'm actually astonished that no one has brought it up here before now. So I will, without a personal opinion. My real question is:

Is this likely to torpedo her potential Presidential bid? What say you all?

caw

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Nope. Not a chance.

Since when has unethical and illegal behavior been a disqualifier for the office of the President?

I wouldn't think this would end up a blip.

First, she's not alone, and the Bushies will have to explain it as much as she will if the GOP pushes this that hard down the line.

Second, at some point, which I really think is in the past, somewhere around quarter after Benghazi, the public is going to get tired of this 'we've GOT HER!! Scandal!!' crap wrt Hillary, and just start dismissing it all.

It's not going to shift anyone's opinion, just solidify them. Those inclined toward her candidacy I suspect will take this as the GOP desperate to endlessly attack, and it will garner more sympathy than anything. Those disinclined will take it as more evidence of her unsuitability.

We ought to be getting used to dishonesty in the white house by now. She's good to go.

I don't think this will sink her Presidential ambitions.

But what she did was very, very wrong. And she absolutely knew it was wrong, imo. There's no excuse for it.

This country is threatened by vicious enemies who would like nothing more than to burn it to ashes, crumbling infrastructure, poverty, income inequality, environmental destruction, racial animus, sexism, homophobia, betrayed and abandoned veterans, homelessness, dysfunctional politics and obsessing over pseudo-celebrities and the color of ugly dresses, but I'm really supposed to get stressed out over Hillary Clinton's private email account?

The capacity of our servile, bored and lazy-ass media to fixate upon trivialities and irrelevancies is exceeded only by the capacity of our sheep-like, easily bored and lazy-ass populace to swallow this swill whole and ask for seconds.

H.L. Mencken was right about nobody ever going broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people and Up was right about "Squirrel!"

I'm not sure I understand the brouhaha. She was using her PERSONAL email for state secrets instead of an encrypted government-run email?

Why?

And personally, I don't think she had much of a chance prior to this. Far too much baggage. Upsets me that the DNC isn't even trying to run anyone else. Are there no viable candidates?

They will eventually ..

Yawn.I have lots of reasons not to trust Hillary in the Oval Office, but her email choices are way down the list. Seriously, I've been watching Republicans scandal-chase the Clintons for two decades. It's just a joke now, even if this is a breach of protocol that Hillary should have avoided out of common sense.

Shadow_Ferret said:

I'm not sure I understand the brouhaha. She was using her PERSONAL email for state secrets instead of an encrypted government-run email?

Why?

And personally, I don't think she had much of a chance prior to this. Far too much baggage. Upsets me that the DNC isn't even trying to run anyone else. Are there no viable candidates?

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All email correspondence by public officials is supposed to go through government-owned and managed servers, and copies are supposed to be maintained for a certain period of time.

Hillary having her own server, in her possession, is the equivalent of letting any suspect in any crime roam through the evidence locker and throw whatever they wish to in the trash.

I find it interesting that the government has no problem sending in thugs to seize evidence in cases like Gibson Guitars, closing down the business for specious reasons, yet has simply subpoenaed the server and is trusting that the appropriate records will be surrendered in due time.

Some animals are just more equal than others, I guess. It's really not worth getting your panties in a twist about, unless you happen to believe in the rule of law.

Wait. When and why did they seize Gibson?

Shadow_Ferret said:

Wait. When and why did they seize Gibson?

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Couple years back. Feds were looking for illegally imported mahogany wood.

Shadow_Ferret said:

Wait. When and why did they seize Gibson?

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Gibson has been raided twice. First, for allegedly buying illegal ebony then again for allegedly buying illegal rosewood.

They settled out of court on both accounts.

And the worst part of it?

She's cooperating and turning over her emails.

But whomever's running the Benghazi investigation this week is claiming there's a gap that doesn't explain Benghazi because Benghazi and Benghazi is Benghazi and Benghazi since Benghazi does Benghazi.

I have a hard time believing that while Clinton served as Secretary of State, no one in the administration knew she was sending and receiving email from her own server system. I have a hard time believing the president only found out from the news story.

I am not a fan of the Clinton style of secrecy at all, but I think there is more behind this story. And I don't think we will know what that is anytime soon.

Gibson guitars was being investigated for a possible specific criminal act – the importation of mahogany and Rosewood which are endangered. I actually think that's a pretty serious thing.

Hillary Clinton did not adhere to the federal rules about how to set up her email accounts.

She clearly was trying to do an end around to avoid having every email of hers scrutinized by her enemies. It was a mistake to do this, and not politically astute to be honest. But considering the decades long attempts of the Republicans to get her on something from Vince Foster to Benghazi, it's understandable.

Hey, remember Vince Foster? The guy that the Clintons had murdered and Hillary was involved in the cover-up?

If the emails from her server don't magically show up on the 'net, whether by Anonymous or some other hacker org? 1) Make her president, if only because she "gets" the current state of global communications. 2) Put whoever set the server up in charge of global communications in the US.

Don said:

All email correspondence by public officials is supposed to go through government-owned and managed servers, and copies are supposed to be maintained for a certain period of time.

Hillary having her own server, in her possession, is the equivalent of letting any suspect in any crime roam through the evidence locker and throw whatever they wish to in the trash.

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I suppose we could wait for Hillary Clinton to be prosecuted for a crime before comparing her to a hypothetical suspect who has, but hell, we're on the Internet where you're guilty first and innocent maybe. Hang her now and put her on trial later.

vsrenard said:

I have a hard time believing that while Clinton served as Secretary of State, no one in the administration knew she was sending and receiving email from her own server system. I have a hard time believing the president only found out from the news story.

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And I have a hard time believing you believe the president is supposed to know that every one of his Cabinet members have their emails set up properly.

"Hey, John, sorry I had to blow off the State of the Union speech, but I was trying to figure out why all my emails to Hillary at the State Dept. are bouncing back as 'undeliverable.' Catch ya next year, okay?"

Don said:

Since when has unethical and illegal behavior been a disqualifier for the office of the President?

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"When the PRESIDENT does it, that means it is NOT..."

I suppose that now also applies to Presidential candidates who are "qualifying" to be President.

Shadow_Ferret said:

Wait. When and why did they seize Gibson?

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http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=223212

nighttimer said:

I suppose we could wait for Hillary Clinton to be prosecuted for a crime before comparing her to a hypothetical suspect who has, but hell, we're on the Internet where you're guilty first and innocent maybe. Hang her now and put her on trial later.



And I have a hard time believing you believe the president is supposed to know that every one of his Cabinet members have their emails set up properly.

"Hey, John, sorry I had to blow off the State of the Union speech, but I was trying to figure out why all my emails to Hillary at the State Dept. are bouncing back as 'undeliverable.' Catch ya next year, okay?"

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I dunno, if you're used to seeing emails from [email protected] and then you get one from [email protected] ... my first thought would be that someone is making a laughable attempt to spoof the Secretary of State.

nighttimer said:

And I have a hard time believing you believe the president is supposed to know that every one of his Cabinet members have their emails set up properly.

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Of course I don't believe the president would keep tabs on such things himself. But given the hacking that has been of real concern lately, I would think his administration would keep a close eye on how secure their own people's communications are.

vsrenard said:

Of course I don't believe the president would keep tabs on such things himself. But given the hacking that has been of real concern lately, I would think his administration would keep a close eye on how secure their own people's communications are.

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Perhaps she felt her own dedicated server was more secure than the government system.

As we have seen through several high-profile cases, the security of governmental emails would not necessarily inspire a high level of confidence.

As I said, I think this was a very bad idea on her part. But I really can't see any nefarious purposes. If she had anything to hide, she certainly would not wanted to co-mingle it with governmental business. It would be far easier to separate it out to a personal email account, while conducting all governmental business on a governmental account.

My personal belief is that she didn't trust the governmental email because of the access that could be obtained, not by outsiders, but by high-level people in government. People who would be scrutinizing everything she said or did with the desire to bring her down.

Ordinarily, I would deem that as being paranoid. With Hillary's history and the right's obsession with destroying her, I'm not so sure it is.

vsrenard said:

Of course I don't believe the president would keep tabs on such things himself. But given the hacking that has been of real concern lately, I would think his administration would keep a close eye on how secure their own people's communications are.

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If Fast Eddie Snowden and Glenn Greenwald call a press conference to share Hillary's secret emails fessing up she knew all about Benghazi that's when I'll get interested.

The real issue is as far as "scandals" go this is a pretty tame one (so far). I would expect a Justice Department to be announced at some point and the Clintonistas will bide their time waiting for the story to fall off of Page 1.

Earlier hits to the Clinton Inevitability Express have come in the form of her age, the post-fall concussion, and the Clinton Foundation's fundraising from foreign governments. Oh, and Monica Lewinsky joined social media. There may be other shoes to drop, but is any of this as interesting to voters as it is to the punditocracy?

Nobody I know is losing any sleep over it.

What is causing Dems a bit of angst is Hillary is Plan A and there is no Plan B should she falter badly coming out of the gate. She is their best hope to maintain control of the White House. If she fails to launch and crashes on the pad, that's bad news for her and her party.