Here’s a gem in Politico’s latest story on how the Hillary Clinton campaign is handling questions about her private e-mail server:
“I am having two problems,” she bluntly told the supporter at a social event. “On the one hand, I feel like I’m rolling out a lot of substantive programs on issues that people care about. We’re getting one day’s news coverage. But there’s nothing larger knitting it together. We’re not breaking through. . . . And my team needs to get their act together on the email response.”
Sure, Hillary. It’s the team’s fault. You’ve handled this one flawlessly, you’re just undermined by incompetent staff all around you. Never mind the fact that they’re following her strategy:
The wiry and wily John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chairman, thought right away that she needed to dump everything out in public as quickly as possible to avoid the deadly drip-drip-drip. “We need to throw the facts to the dogs, and let ’em chew on it,” Podesta told the candidate. But Clinton’s answer—and that of her lawyer David Kendall and her former State Department chief of staff Cheryl Mills—was a “no” when Podesta and other advisers asked for some details.
Having said that, it appears some of her long-time supporters are willing to acknowledge harsh truths:
“It sounds crazy, but I think she simply wasn’t equipped to deal with all this,” says one longtime ally who has been in regular contact with Clinton. “She’s never been a great candidate, OK? She needed time and campaigns don’t give you time. … She was blindsided, and I think only now, after all this crap, is she finally in the right headspace.”
She simply wasn’t equipped to deal with all this . . . so let’s make her commander-in-chief!