Hillary Clinton email megathread

[Angel of Death]

Those sound like alternative rock band names.

[NHI]

So far, it appears most responders don't view Clinton's mishandling of classified information to be a serious matter.  Whether the average voter cares or not, mishandling classified information is a crime that Federal employees must acknowledge when they accept a security clearance.  I believe the penalty is a $10,000 fine, 5 years in prison, or both.

If the 10% rate of classified material that the IG reportedly found in the first forty e-mails checked continues, the AG would be hard pressed not to prosecute.  Even if they just strike a plea bargain (likely for her to have no further access to classified material ever), how is she supposed to continue forward as a credible candidate?  (And, if you think about it, how would the government be able to prosecute or penalize others who breech classified information if they don't go after her?) 

Sure, the 40% of hard-core Democratic voters won't care, but a solid majority will take note and she will be mercilessly hammered for this during what is turning out to be a 15 month campaign   I'm not a Democrat and won't likely vote for whoever might run in her place, be it Warren, Biden, Cuomo, or even Webb.  But I can't believe it is too late for a strong candidate to emerge to take her place.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2015/08/12/clinton_campaign_seeks_to_calm_supporters_about_emails_127750.html

My prediction: her defense is going to be that someone else screwed up, and she had no idea there was all that classified information on her server.  And it'll play well enough that the only people who will care will be people who would never vote for her in the first place.

This.

[Torie]

If it is found that she handled classified e-mail on her dot-com server (as appears to be unavoidable to me), she will surely face charges for violating Federal law.  I think she should end her campaign now and focus her energy on defending herself.  Also, she could provide a credible Democrat with time to organize an effective campaign.

Do you really think Obama's AG will go after Clinton in a serious way?

The problem for Hillary is the FBI that is doing the actual investigation with subpoena power, which is pretty insulated from political pressures. If it is clear she has been lying and covering up as the evidence emerges, it's rather irrelevant whether or not she is prosecuted.

[dmmidmi]

If it is found that she handled classified e-mail on her dot-com server (as appears to be unavoidable to me), she will surely face charges for violating Federal law.  I think she should end her campaign now and focus her energy on defending herself.  Also, she could provide a credible Democrat with time to organize an effective campaign.

Do you really think Obama's AG will go after Clinton in a serious way?

The problem for Hillary is the FBI that is doing the actual investigation with subpoena power, which is pretty insulated from political pressures. If it is clear she has been lying and covering up as the evidence emerges, it's rather irrelevant whether or not she is prosecuted.

Thanks for the laugh.

[Torie]

So far, it appears most responders don't view Clinton's mishandling of classified information to be a serious matter.  Whether the average voter cares or not, mishandling classified information is a crime that Federal employees must acknowledge when they accept a security clearance.  I believe the penalty is a $10,000 fine, 5 years in prison, or both.

If the 10% rate of classified material that the IG reportedly found in the first forty e-mails checked continues, the AG would be hard pressed not to prosecute.  Even if they just strike a plea bargain (likely for her to have no further access to classified material ever), how is she supposed to continue forward as a credible candidate?  (And, if you think about it, how would the government be able to prosecute or penalize others who breech classified information if they don't go after her?)  

Sure, the 40% of hard-core Democratic voters won't care, but a solid majority will take note and she will be mercilessly hammered for this during what is turning out to be a 15 month campaign   I'm not a Democrat and won't likely vote for whoever might run in her place, be it Warren, Biden, Cuomo, or even Webb.  But I can't believe it is too late for a strong candidate to emerge to take her place.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2015/08/12/clinton_campaign_seeks_to_calm_supporters_about_emails_127750.html

My prediction: her defense is going to be that someone else screwed up, and she had no idea there was all that classified information on her server.  And it'll play well enough that the only people who will care will be people who would never vote for her in the first place.

That will be hard to believe if a bunch of the emails were top secret, and if you or I viewed them, we would know that they are top secret (e.g., very high resolution satellite photos of Iran's nuke facilities or something). Then she is left saying that she didn't read those emails, or read them, but thought since she didn't send them it was not necessary to take some action, or that she just had really bad judgment. And this is all after she said she was confident nothing was secret on her server. And that still leaves open the matter of the potential recovery of her deleted emails. Apparently if not recoverable, that means some IT expert took extraordinary measures to make them unrecoverable (all for chit chat about Chelsea's wedding and such - really?). That won't look too good either.  

[Yelnoc]

Isn't it amazing that Biden is thought to be the strong, establishment alternative. Have we all forgotten what a gaffe machine the man is?

[rbt48]

There is a newer topic on this matter that future comments should perhaps be placed in:
https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=217446.0

[Torie]

There is a newer topic on this matter that future comments should perhaps be placed in:
https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=217446.0

We could ask Morden to merge this thread into mine, and perhaps rename my thread the Hillary email mega-thread perhaps. If you like that idea, I will PM Morden suggesting it.

[Progressive]

Should Hillary Clinton end her campaign, it would spell defeat for the Democrats so long as the GOP nominates either Rubio or Bush.

Jeb? He has been the most lackluster frontrunner I've ever seen. He's worse than Romney 2012.

[Free Bird]

Isn't it amazing that Biden is thought to be the strong, establishment alternative. Have we all forgotten what a gaffe machine the man is?

Have we all forgotten how much he made Ryan his bitch?

[Türkisblau]

Hillary should be dropping out seeing as Americans clearly do not want any more career politicians in the White House.

[Free Bird]

All the Democrats need to take off their partisan sunglasses and acknowledge that she probably broke federal law and therefore drop out. I don't even know why you should support her. She CANT win at this rate

[Mehmentum]

The fact is that without Hillary the Democrats don't really have a plan B.  Sanders and Biden are both unelectable, and O'Malley/Chafee/Webb aren't viable.

At this point, I would be willing to support an alternative to Clinton, should a serious and electable alternative emerge.  Unfortunately, nobody of that description is currently challenging her or is even rumored to be challenging her.

Right now Democrats are stuck hoping that this email scandal blows over.  Barring that, we have to hope that the Democrats have someone lined up to enter the race (who isn't Biden). 

[Free Bird]

The fact is that without Hillary the Democrats don't really have a plan B.  Sanders and Biden are both unelectable, and O'Malley/Chafee/Webb aren't viable.

At this point, I would be willing to support an alternative to Clinton, should a serious and electable alternative emerge.  Unfortunately, nobody of that description is currently challenging her or is even rumored to be challenging her.

Right now Democrats are stuck hoping that this email scandal blows over.  Barring that, we have to hope that the Democrats have someone lined up to enter the race (who isn't Biden). 

And there lies the issue. But if you stick with such a corrupt individual, wouldn't that destroy the credibility of your party? Wouldn't it make more sense tactically to surrender 2016 and target gains in 2018 instead?

[Mehmentum]

The fact is that without Hillary the Democrats don't really have a plan B.  Sanders and Biden are both unelectable, and O'Malley/Chafee/Webb aren't viable.

At this point, I would be willing to support an alternative to Clinton, should a serious and electable alternative emerge.  Unfortunately, nobody of that description is currently challenging her or is even rumored to be challenging her.

Right now Democrats are stuck hoping that this email scandal blows over.  Barring that, we have to hope that the Democrats have someone lined up to enter the race (who isn't Biden).  

And there lies the issue. But if you stick with such a corrupt individual, wouldn't that destroy the credibility of your party? Wouldn't it make more sense tactically to surrender 2016 and target gains in 2018 instead?

There is no such thing as 'tactically' surrendering a presidential election.  Losing the presidency won't help us in 2018.  In fact, if the economy continues to grow, then Democrats would be in an incredibly bad position in 2018, fighting against both an incumbency advantage from the economy and low turnout.

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

IceSpear explained pretty well why conceding the 2016 presidential election is a bad idea for dems:

Setting themselves up for an even more GOP senate and congress!

This doesn't even make sense. Do you think it makes more sense for Democrats to throw the presidential election and potentially risk a right-wing majority on SCOTUS, repeal of most legislation passed during the Obama presidency, forfeiting all executive power, etc. for the sake of MAYBE winning Congress in 2018?

How much is hillary going to pass when the GOP supermajority going to come around?

First of all, I highly doubt there will be a GOP "supermajority" (either 66% or 60%) in the House or Senate even after 2018. Secondly, even if there was, it still makes no sense whatsoever to throw a presidential election and hand the GOP a trifecta on a silver platter for a MINIMUM of 2 years. Dems gain nothing in this scenario. There's only two possible Senate pickups for Dems in 2018, even in a massive wave. Assuming they win the presidential election, the GOP probably has 52 seats or more after 2016. So taking back the Senate is likely a nonstarter. The House is gerrymandered to hell, but in a wave Dems could take it back. But it's no sure thing that 2018 would be a Democratic wave even if the incumbent Republican is unpopular, particularly because of turnout issues which plague Democrats in midterms. So the stategery here is apparently to throw a presidential election, hand the GOP all the executive power, let them possibly replace Ginsburg and some of their own justices on the SCOTUS, let them repeal countless pieces of legislation passed since 2009, all for...an outside shot at taking the House? Uh, no thanks on that deal.

[Maxwell]

Isn't it amazing that Biden is thought to be the strong, establishment alternative. Have we all forgotten what a gaffe machine the man is?

Have we all forgotten how much he made Ryan his bitch?

That's the dilemma: he's too much of a goofball on the stump, but he's very strong when it comes to head to head debates and specifics.

[RJEvans]

I'm starting to think she might have to drop out. The emails are all we are talking about. Not the issues. We can't win if all we are talking about is emails for the next year.

[VPH]

https://youtu.be/kglhYXSiEos

[OSR stands with Israel]

If the GOP nominate Kasich if Clinton isnt the Dem nomination the GOP will win a landslide

[heatmaster]

dmmidmi maybe in your world nobody gives a sh% € about the scandal, but not everyone inhabits your world. There are those of us who actually don't give a s@#$ what you think.  We are more interested in ensuring that rule of law applies to everyone and not just the "little people". The hard facts are that is not the only reason,  most of all, almost everyone just don't like Hillary, her insufferable arrogance,  her dishonesty and patent disregard for the rules, is a Good enough to ensure her life is made as miserable as possible.  If she drops out, then we can ad another quality, "quitter". I hope she survives, as a brand in the political market place,  she is toxic and that is perfect for this Republican😊

[The Free North]

Its been 1 step forward and a f'ing car accident backward for Hillary since she entered politics.


And its too good to turn away. Cant wait to see the grand finale in the upcoming years for 'America's champion'.

[Torie]

I may as well throw this one on Hillary's potential funeral pyre. The punch line, as I suggested elsewhere, is that even if the DOJ is politicized, and it was (whether it still is as much, or whether Obama would still his neck out for Hillary, remains to be seen), the CIA and FBI investigations will box the DOJ in, and if there were serious security leaks, Congress one way or another is going to find out about it. Drip, drip, drip. And in the meantime, how will Hillary be able to face the press, when all it will be interested in, is hammering her about all her inconsistent statements about the emails?  It is just not good enough for her spokespeople to just tell her financial donors that Everything is GoinG to Be OK (EGGBOK). In fact many of them might begin to think that it is not going to be OK at all absent a major course correction, and she needs to come clean with everything, and soon, or they will cut bait before it is too late.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

This is starting to remind me of the countless "Is Obama DOOMED?" threads from 2008.

[eric82oslo]

Isn't it amazing that Biden is thought to be the strong, establishment alternative. Have we all forgotten what a gaffe machine the man is?

Biden has 0% chance in the general. He'd be dead as a fish in the Colorado river.