Don't Misread the Situation

A lot of people in Hillary Clinton’s camp are seeing today’s pronouncement by James Comey, director of the FBI, as a victory. Don’t misread the situation. Comey used these words in his decision not to indict Hillary Clinton: “extremely careless.” Not exactly a quality you want in your next Commander-in-Chief. He added that she did not intend to violate laws, and made it clear that she had indeed done so. He compared the obstacles in the investigation: "It was like removing the frame from a huge jigsaw puzzle and then dumping all the pieces on the floor. ... We searched through all of it." Showing that the very last thing Sec. Clinton was trying to be was helpful, compliant or transparent. He described a series of obstacles, including a server that had its software wiped. That does not happen without intent to obfuscate. 110 of the emails searched contained classified information at the time, and eight were "top secret." Let us also remember that over half the emails sent were irretrievable, and their content cannot be known. So it is clear she endangered the security of our country. Party loyalists, naturally, are crowing loudly, as though their gal has been exonerated. She has not. They are bragging as though her honor has been restored. It has not. They are breathing a sigh of relief that the cloud has lifted from her campaign. It has not. Hillary Clinton is the least trusted, least liked, least favorably viewed major party candidate in history. Her campaigning mantra among her supporters is "she's not Donald Trump." That's the worst endorsement of a candidate ever, and that's her primary selling point. It may actually be her only selling point. She's still dishonest, she's still reckless, she's still disingenuous, she's still cunning, she's still ruthless. How are we supposed to hold our head up as a nation knowing that’s our President? Knowing that it took the unethical interference of the sitting President, his Attorney General, her husband (the former President), and countless others, to keep her from criminal charges. Naturally, Comey went out of his way to negate this assertion, to the degree of “doth protest too much.” Add to this the assertion that he’s sure Obama and Clinton aren’t talking about this in their meeting today, and that Attorney General Loretta Lynch claims Bill Clinton boarded her plane last week in Phoenix to talk about his grandchildren, and it takes a willing suspension of disbelief on the order of making a Road Runner cartoon seem realistic in order to convince yourself that there’s nothing shady going on. The only thing that changed about Hillary Clinton today is that she's going to get away with it, so she can say “sigh”, and her misguided flock get to breathe a big “baaaaa" of relief. Shame on America for allowing this. We’re not only condoning wrongdoing, we’re complicit in our own downfall as a democracy. This nation deserves whatever consequences may come from dismantling our integrity.