Vote Comes Down to Liar vs. Liar
The report also scorched Clinton for keeping all her emails after she left the job, instead of turning them over under the Federal Records Act. It took her almost two years to surrender about half of the 60,000 emails that had passed through the server.
Clinton says the rest of the emails were personal, and had nothing to do with State Department business. We'll probably never know. All of this mess could have been avoided if she'd had two internet servers, keeping her private emails separate from the government emails. Was that really too much of an inconvenience?
Clinton's supporters point out that former Secretary of State Colin Powell also routinely used a personal email account for government business. However, the department's rules about cyber-communication had become more defined by the time Clinton accepted the post.
The FBI's ongoing investigation probably won't result in a criminal indictment, but the email furor will provide potent ammunition for Republican PACs and Trump, Clinton's opponent in the general election.
For months Clinton has said she'll cooperate with investigators and answer questions about her emails. Yet this promise is looking more and more like another shaded lie. Which investigators? Which questions?
She refused to be interviewed by the inspector general or his staff while they were working on their report. A number of her top aides also declined to be questioned.
Such uncooperative moves won't elevate Clinton's image with the public. Poll after poll shows her chief weakness is that lots of voters in both parties don't trust her. The only person with worse "unfavorables" is -- no surprise -- Trump.
Bernie Sanders looks like he just climbed out of a time-traveling DeLorean, but at least he brings a sense of shaggy sincerity.
A Clinton-Trump matchup is basically Liar vs. Liar, a soul-sapping scenario with the election only five months away.
It's almost inconceivable that the candidates will be able to recast themselves as shining paragons of integrity before November. Once the attack ads begin saturating the media, both Clinton and Trump will further wither in stature.
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