I've now read and heard nearly a gazillion news reports that talk about a supposed public perception of Hillary Clinton as "untrustworthy" and "dishonest." So far as I can tell, here are no concrete references to actions that would support such a perception apart from a Republican congressional fishing expedition into emails sent from a personal email server during Clinton's otherwise successful tenure as Secretary of State - an expedition that has come up with nothing even mildly scandalous apart from the very iffy issue of the use of the personal email server itself - a practice followed by her predecessor, Colin Powell, whose use of personal email, by the way, is being ignored by the same folks who think it indicates something disturbing about HRC's character. Nevertheless, as Charles Pierce notes, the media have swallowed the GOP script hook, line and sinker:
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It is at this point in every HRC e-mail bombshell at which we ask ourselves that age-old Whitewater question, "What in the hell is this whole thing about anyway?" Is it about HRC hiding the smoking IM in which she confesses that she and Zombie Vince Foster planned the Benghazi assault in a Moroccan safe house? Is it about the reckless handling of classified material? (If so, then the fact that HRC is not a subject of investigation according to the FBI would seem to be dispositive.) Is it Russettized investigative collating; you said this once, now what about this? (It's a two-bit ring from a Cracker Back Jox!) Or is it about the NYT being pissed that, somehow, they never brought down a Clinton. Why do people laugh at their mighty sword?
I think what it's about is obvious. What it's about is creating something out of nothing, a baseless narrative that will weaken a strong Democratic frontrunner and torpedo the Democratic party's chances in 2016. And so far, we seem to be letting the GOP and a compliant Media get away with it.
Hillary Clinton (HRC) isn't just any candidate, but the strongest in the Democratic lineup. I say this not because I'm an ardent supporter of HRC - I'm not. Obama was my man in 2008. I have always believed that "triangulation," the Clintonesque strategy of giving a couple of inches to get one back, was one of the factors that gave the Republican party the space to move into the rightwing no-man's land that they now occupy, while moving the center dangerously rightward in pursuit of the ever more extreme GOP. That said, not only does Clinton have the potential to do a good job as president, I don't think that any of the other candidates pose a viable alternative.
I would like nothing better than to see Bernie Sanders or someone like him as president. But I know that that won't happen. He may "surge" in a state like New Hampshire, but in the recent national Monmouth poll, he ran two points behind Joe Biden. Joe Biden! (And if you think Biden is a viable option, read this analysis of his potential candidacy by Michael Tomasky and return to reality.) Sanders' function, as far as I am concerned, is to help the progressive arm of the Democratic party flex its muscle in order to move folks like Clinton in the right direction.
It's possible that Sanders could win the nomination, but I'd lay odds that he'd never win the presidency. I'm old enough to remember the heady victory of George McGovern in the 1971 primaries - and the desolation of his near landslide defeat by Richard Nixon in 1972. There have always been insinuations that McGovern was Nixon's choice for his opponent and that his "dirty-tricks" squad did what they could to help McGovern get the nomination. More recently, Missouri's Claire McCaskill probably owes her Senate seat to the primary victory of the certifiable Todd Akin - a victory that she now admits she tried to engineer. I would suggest, as much as I would like to be wrong, that Bernie Sanders would similarly be a GOP dream candidate. There's a reason, after all, that Republicans are devoting their energies to smearing HRC.
By now Republicans know that Benghazi is a dudd as a campaign issue; countless investigations show it to be a tragedy, but not one that can reasonably be laid at Obama's or HRC's door. So, predictably, the last, best hope for the GOP, the House Select Committee on Benghazi is also going nowhere when it comes to amplifying the Behghazi refrain with anything of substance. But hey! Who needs Benghazi, not to mention substance, when you can expand the investigation in just about any direction that strikes the fancy of Chairman Trey Gowdy, randomly subpoena anyone or anything, keep testimony secret, leak what seems to be, out of context, incriminating tidbits and pretend that there's a great big mountain over yonder where there's not even a molehole. Talk about creating a negative narrative ex nihilo, these guys are pros when it comes to using their time in the People's House to score political points.
And those empty political points are quickly taken up and amplified by a salivating media that, for whatever reason, corporate malfeasanse or just the vanity of the spurned, seems to have it in for HRC. Eric Boehlert observes that:
It's official: Hillary Clinton now faces two looming campaign challengers, Republicans and their allies in the press. But don't take my word for it. The anti-Clinton press campaign is now an open secret in the media, and it marks a whole new chapter in campaign journalism.
[...]
"The national media has never been more primed to take down Hillary Clinton," Politico's Dylan Byers observed late last week, as he surveyed the unfolding campaign season. The same press corps, he added, stands poised to "elevate a Republican candidate."
All of us know that any Democrat is better than the best Republican come 2016. Bernie Sanders himself
noted that his supporters are not necessarily anti-Hillary Clinton. He remarked that “Democratic leaders are not dumb. What they want and what I want is to make sure that we do not see a Republican gain control over the White House.” Maybe the way to do that will be through the candidacy of a Bernie Sanders, a Martin O'Malley or a Joe Biden rather than HRC. But we can't let Republicans and a hostile media make the decision for us. We need to fight to keep all our options as strong as possible. For me personally, the more they come after HRC, the more I'm inclined to support her - it goes against my grain to silently watch a railroading that's as obvious as the current GOP/media charade and do nothing.
ADDENDA: And Hillary Clinton needs to stop apologizing when she doesn't need to do so. I'll admit that If she wants respect, she has to stand up and demand it.