So the former Secretary of State says she kept just one personal email account because it was “convenient,” didn’t worry about security because the account was on a highly secure server set up originally for her husband, and turned over every “official” email she was asked to turn over when she was asked. She did not, however, keep the emails she deemed “personal.”
Now if Clinton had done what everybody–including her–agrees she should have done and kept separate accounts, she’d still be making this distinction between personal and official email and not keeping for former, so it’s unclear why we should be any more suspicious of that decision now. I suppose some sort of Watergate-esque examination of the emails she did turn over–which presumably half the Republican interns in Washington will be conducting right away– could create some sort of suspicious gaps in communications that point towards deletions. But again, that could have been the case no matter which protocol she used.
So inevitably, we’re back to the second-order questions of “management style” and “secrecy” and “bad advice” she did or didn’t display, and we’ll be hearing that for weeks. But unless some smoking gun appears out of nowhere, this just doesn’t feel like the kind of “scandal” that will have a serious impact on her political standing. Basically, anyone who thinks this is some sort of “game-changer” almost certainly has, as I’ve been arguing all along, ulterior motives for taking down HRC a peg or two, and/or getting another Democrat or two into the race.
But get your air filters out to deal with the spin over the next few days.
