Scandals themselves won’t bring down Hillary Clinton, but the drama surrounding them might

by | Mar 12, 2015 | Editor's Blog, National Politics | 6 comments

The current email scandal won’t bring down Hillary Clinton. Nor will Benghazi or whatever “scandal” crops up next. And one will almost certainly crop up. Petty scandal is the natural environment of the Clintons. Some are self-inflicted. Some are contrived. All are greeted with glee by Republicans who then overreach. The Clintons have survived Travelgate, Whitewater and all of its spinoffs, Paula Jones, Gennifer Flowers, Monica Lewinski, the Marc Rich pardon and a bunch of other blips on the scandal radar.

It’s no wonder that Hillary Clinton doesn’t trust the media. However, as several commentators have pointed out, without a strong Democratic primary opponent, the press will focus unrelentingly on her for the next 20 months. We’ll probably hear about everything from the sexist, like her grandmothering skills or her latest hair cut, to in depth and nuanced analysis of policy positions like her stance, or lack of one, on the Iranian nuclear negotiations.

Press coverage of the Republicans will focus more on what the contenders are saying about each other and the general horserace than more substantive matters. They will battle each other while Clinton battles the press. Her hope, for better or worse, is that next winter and spring the crowded GOP primary takes the spotlight off of her until she has an opportunity to go head-to-head with the eventual nominee.

Clinton’s problem is less about a specific scandal than the drone of continual coverage about her lack of transparency. After more 20 years battling stories about her personal life, her professional life, and her political life, she has little trust in the press. In efforts to keep the media, and the public, out of her business she’s invited the scrutiny that inevitably leads to more petty “scandals.”

On the upside, the public is now used to it and many people believe that the criticism is just the noise of the “vast right wing conspiracy,” otherwise known as Fox News. Outside of the beltway, people don’t care about her emails and don’t believe she’s responsible for the deaths of Americans in a war-torn, dysfunctional country. She’s neither beloved nor hated by most Americans. She’s just a fixture of the political landscape to be admired and criticized accordingly.

Clinton’s biggest problem is just that. We know too much about her and it’s really not that interesting, regardless of how worked up the wing-nuts might get. We know that her presidency would be marred by drama and hyper partisanship. We also know that she brings an unprecedented combination of experience, knowledge and relationships, both within our government and internationally. Are we willing to put up with the near constant distractions of a Clinton White House for the competence in running a government that goes along them? That’s likely the central question for both a Clinton primary and general election.

6 Comments

  1. TY Thompson

    They’re our enemy, yet the President negotiates with them. But be that as it may, not clear on how this is any different from Congressional types telling the Ortegas they’d resist Reagan’s efforts against them several decades ago.

  2. Pat Moore

    I will work for, support financially and vote for Elizabeth Warren if she is prevailed upon to run. She is currently working to solve big problems. Hillary continues to surround herself with the drama of her “possible” candidacy, as well as continuing to make errors in judgement which give her foes new red meat. She is currently absorbed with making speeches for money and.trying to decide how to position herself as a candidate.

    Surely we will not have another Clinton/Bush election, in which two entitled candidates take huge contributions from the corporados who have caused our problems. They continuie to talk nice, while soaring inequality, lack of Justice, militarism rage, due to corporations which extract the last resources from the earth and its people continue to be the real rulers.

  3. Chris Lizak

    This is just a lot of kabuki theater to obscure the fact that the media are already on board the Clinton bus, and will ensure that she wins the Democratic nomination (and most likely the Presidency, as long as she doesn’t leave the Wall Street / Neo-Con reservation) regardless of who else runs.

    The mainstream media must appear to be tough on her to give her a defense against the usual Fox News “liberal-media-bias” schtick. The members of the 1% who own the media do not want to be trapped and boxed in by their own media business brands into sabotaging their own hand-picked candidate. They have to keep an alternative waiting in the wings, of course, to keep Clinton from taking any kind of independent action on her own initiative – but barring the miracle of Hillary growing a spine, what they REALLY have to concentrate on is making sure the intelligensia don’t get upset that the kabuki theater is of such poor quality that they look like fools playing their designated roles within it.

  4. cosmicjanitor

    Hillary Clinton is a DINO who has distinguished herself as a self-serving establishment insider with not one redeeming quality that makes her suitable to be a presidential candidate. If the voters allow the media to make her the un-primaried democratic nominee they will have successfully delivered the country lock, stock and barrel into the hands of the corporate/republikan party – and that is exactly what the establishment – the PNAC signatories have long-planned, bringing their fascist/corporate agenda to absolute fruition.

  5. larry

    The writers are assuming this “scandal” is based on substance. More likely it is the DC and NYC press corps Clinton Scandal Fetish. Hoping for a real one..but will take a…semi real…sorta real…kinda real…might be real….coulda sorta might be real…all pumped up to a Good Year blimp size. Like the blimps mostly hot air filled. Everyone gives the GOP more credit than there limited intellect should…this is like the majority of the Clinton scandals for the past 20 years….reporters taking a little crumb left for them by the right wing and pumping and pumping and pumping and pumping until they feel really important. Otherwise how is it Jeb would get away with a personal server and releasing a big old 10%…because the DC press corp has a fatal case of Clinton Scandal Fetish….yeap CSF. The GOP just likes to take the press output and turn it into making money baby.

  6. David Moore

    Never before has a “First Lady” of the United States gone on to be so successful; It is Unprecedented Worldwide!
    As first lady the secret service , NSA, CIA, FBI, and all sorts of others protect her and the family around the clock, and in every form and fashion. That extends to I.T. and communication packages especially. Her servers, as all the current and former Heads of State are secured by our governments top I.T. people, and the mere acknowledgement of that fact by those in the know would constitute a major criminal act. The news media, and clowns like Trey Gowdy do not possess those security credentials, and certainly do not meet the higher standard of “need to know”.
    It’s national security, and the presence of it, shouldn’t be a surprise, unless one lives under a rock.

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