Of all the unbelievable things happening in this year's Presidential campaign, here's one more to throw into this hot mess — I can't believe that no one bothered to record any of those speeches that Hillary Clinton gave to big Wall Street banks.
So we're supposed to believe that in the past four years that Clinton's clearly been running for President, that no one present for any of those speeches just happened to open the Voice Memos app on their iPhone and tap that big red button? That no one propped a smartphone up against a glass and set the camera to record, like the bartender at that Mitt Romney house meeting four years ago?
Really?
One of the first steps in any political campaign is opposition research. With Presidential campaigns having become never-ending cycles now, it's inconceivable that a strategist working for any potential Presidential candidate would not have tried to get her or his hands on a closed-door speech made by the obvious front-runner for one party's nomination, as Clinton has been for the Democrats at least four years now.
You're telling me that there wasn't at least one Republican donor at any of those speeches, someone who'd been courted by a campaign fundraiser in the past and would have been willing to at least try to make a recording as a favor to a GOP campaign? I might believe that there weren't any Bernie Sanders fans in those meetings. But no Republicans?
No way.
Here's why this is so important — With the incessant demands from reporters and Sanders himself for Clinton to reveal what she said in those speeches, her failure to do that strongly suggests that she said something in those speeches she now considers potentially damaging to her campaign. You can be certain that if what she said in those speeches would help her standing with voters, she would have released them long ago. Clinton's refusal to disclose what she said suggests that these speeches include her version of Romney's "47 percent" remarks — a divisive comment that reframes the race and damages a candidate's standings with voters.
Maybe the speeches do include something like that. Maybe they don't. But until we know for sure — until Clinton releases those transcripts or recordings — Democrats can be excused for fearing that a time bomb that will blow up the Clinton campaign is sitting on someone's iPhone out there.
So why hasn't anyone released a bootleg recording by now? Let's game this out. Obviously, if Sanders supporters had an embarrassing recording of Clinton speech, they'd have released it. But, as I mentioned above, I'm willing to concede that gatherings of Wall Street bankers are about the least likely place in the United States where you would find Bernie Sanders fans. A Clinton fan who had an embarrassing recording will sit on it until his or her dying day, to protect Hillary.
That leaves the Republicans. With Sanders polling better against all GOP candidates in the general election than Clinton is, it's understandable that GOP supporters would rather wait to do anything that might torpedo Clinton's campaign until she has the nomination in hand, and Sanders is out of the picture. The only things that Republicans — especially Wall Street Republicans — fear more than a Clinton presidency is a Sanders one.
So here is the conclusion that should make any Democrat shiver with fear — if someone does have a bootleg recording of a Clinton Wall Street speech, and it is damaging to the Clinton campaign — there's almost no chance that person would do anything with it until after the Democratic convention.
Again, Democrats can take their chances and hope that Hillary didn't say anything in those speeches that would make Democrats less likely to turn out for her. And if she did, they can hope that no recorded those speeches. And if someone did, Democrats can hope that person won't release them before the election.
Or... Democrats can face up to the fact that Hillary's refusal to release the speeches doesn't bode well for what she said in them. And that by throwing their support behind the candidate who polls better against all Republicans — including Trump — they can make the whole controversy over these speeches moot.
This post originally appeared on SensibleTalk.com.