I want to believe that former Secretary Hillary Clinton can and will be a formidable presidential candidate in 2016, however, the Secretary's inability to answer questions about the scope and status of her emails during her tenure at the State Department gives me pause. Here is why.
In the news conference, former Secretary Hillary Clinton about 10 questions and repeated alot of the same information within her replies. Clinton did shed some new information, such as:
1. The email server is connected to President Clinton's personal computer.
2. Other than the work and 'personal' work emails given to the State Dept. during her tenure, any other emails have been deleted.
3. Even though she used her personal server for work, fmr. Secretary Clinton still believes her server is "private" and will not hand it over to State Dept. investigators for examination.
4. No classified information was carried on Clinton's private email server.
However, there are several issues raised by these revelations which the Republican House Committee on Ben Ghazi, the mainstream media, and the State Dept. will feel compelled to explore:
1. Did Secy. Clinton get permission from White House to break State Dept. security protocol and install her private email server at home?
2. Who are the administrator(s) of the private email server? Do they have top State Dept. clearance?
3. Is the email server actually connected to President Clinton's home server?
4. What are the security protocols to President Clinton's home server and whether they match or exceed top level-State Dept. clearance?
5. To be assured that there was no exposure of classified (or unspecified classified-level) information, why won't the former Secretary allow the State Dept. to examine her private email server?
[In order to answer these basic questions, the House GOP committee will have to file a subpoena for Hillary's email server which it seems she will fight.]
6. Who at the State Dept. did Secretary Clinton correspond with regarding Libya and Ben Ghazi?
[The committee will need to check their emails on State Dept. servers to verify Secy. Clinton's claim of receiving no classified correspondence during her tenure.]
However, this issue can be put to rest today if Clinton did the following:
Fmr. Secy. Clinton's email server should have several time-stamped "ghost copies" made as an automatic process designed to preserve information in case the server suffers a catastrophic failure.
House GOP committee and State Dept. IT specialists can easily be given those copies and examine them against her claims because (as of now) Secy. Hillary Clinton replies at the news conference does not answer key questions which leads to more speculation as to whether she made have inadvertently violated State Dept. security protocols which may raise to level of criminal infractions.
I believe fmr. Secy. Hillary Clinton owes full responses to these questions not only to her supporters, but to all Democrats who want the President nominee process to focus on issues we all as Democrats share.
2:44 PM PT: Question: If a potential Republican presidential candidate were a Secretary of State and (throughout their term in said position) had their emails routed to a private email server and explained in a press conference that that no classified information was passed on or discussed because he/she says so (not to mention, unknown persons with administrator access to said information), would you be satisfied with that response?