As we all know by now, the New York Times published a wanna-be scoop on Monday evening regarding Hillary's private email account at the State Department. After the supposed revelation erupted on Twitter, it became headline news at every other news outlet and was even declared a possibly deadly blow to a candidacy that hadn't even started yet...before soon being dismantled as sloppy, vague and misleading. I was more than happy to help.
And lo and behold, today it seems the tone of the coverage might be changing. For example, there's a perceptive new piece out today that dismisses the whole thing as being irrelevant for 2016 from...uhh, the New York Times?
Yep: Voters Unlikely to Care Much About the Hillary Clinton Email Furor
The actual public response to the controversy is likely to be a combination of apathy and partisanship. Few Americans are paying attention to any aspect of the campaign at this point. Those who do notice will most likely divide largely along partisan lines, with Democrats interpreting her actions more charitably, especially once they see Republicans attacking Mrs. Clinton on the issue.
It hardly matters now.
It is hard to believe that a lack of transparency in Mrs. Clinton’s use of email will have a significant effect on a general election that will be held some 20 months from now. As the political scientist John Sides wrote on Twitter, “In October 2016, no persuadable voter will be thinking about Hillary Clinton’s email account.” It’s equally implausible that this revelation will draw a second top-tier candidate into the race for the Democratic nomination given the advantages Mrs. Clinton retains over possible rivals like Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren.
And it's not ever going to change anything, really.
If there’s one thing we’ve learned from past presidential campaigns, it’s that most supposed game-changers like this quickly fade from the memory of the political class, having never been noticed by most Americans in the first place.
So nevermind.