Hold Her Accountable

By Ed Hoffman

As we move deeper into the 2016 presidential race, I’m constantly reminded of the 2012 comedy film “The Campaign.” Will Farrell, playing an ethics-challenged congressional candidate, makes the same speech at every campaign stop, changing the conclusion to suit the audience every time. It starts with, “Our nation’s security has never been stronger, because…”

• “Our troops and our veterans are this nation’s backbone.”
• “Farmers are our nation’s backbone.”
• “Schools is this nation’s backbone.” (Yes, that’s what he says.)
• “Audio installation specialists and window tinters are this nation’s backbone.”
• “Filipino tilt-a-whirl operators are this nation’s backbone.”

“And if you elect me to go to Washington, I’ll make sure they know it’s about America, Jesus and freedom!”

Sound familiar? It’s the perfect illustration of art imitating life. The Republican candidates may do this to a certain extent, I suppose – or do they? With most of them, it seems they are who they are. Isn’t that what people say they like about Donald Trump?

No one is a worse panderer than Hillary Clinton, who takes on a new accent every time she enters a new state and bounces back and forth between two or three different personas at any given time. Is she a hawkish whiz of foreign policy who carries three Blackberries and wears designer jewelry, or just a good-natured grandma in a simple pantsuit who has no idea how email works? That depends on who she’s talking to. Ms. Clinton seems to forget we have a 24/7 media that will broadcast her speaking in an embarrassing Southern twang to a North Carolina audience. She seems to think that the audiences she speaks to are dumb enough to buy it.

Last week, even her supporters in the media couldn’t deny that Ms. Clinton has some serious problems. When Fox’s Ed Henry grilled her on the allegation that she wiped her personal email server containing classified government emails, what did the supposed Smartest Woman in America say?

“What, like with a cloth?”

Is there anybody out there who thinks that someone who makes comments like that is smart enough to be the President? I don’t know much about computers, but I know you don’t wipe your server with a rag. And like most of you, I know that even if you delete emails, they’re still retrievable unless the server has been wiped (digitally, not physically).

Of course, some are arguing that Ms. Clinton was just trying to be cute by deflecting the question that way. That’s probably true, but unfortunately for her, Hillary Clinton is not her husband. He may be cool enough to get change for an ice cube, but she’s never been able to master that kind of presence. And it’s kind of hard to learn it when you’re embroiled in the fight of your life.

Ms. Clinton acts like this email scandal is a joke, and she can laugh all the way to her party’s nomination. I’m actually grateful for Bernie Sanders (and, the rumor is, Joe Biden) because they’re the only ones standing in her way. While General DavidPetraeus lost his security clearance and was essentially forced to resign for forwarding classified information to his biographer – who also happened to be his mistress, even though the Clintons lectured Americans years ago that we shouldn’t care about government sex scandals – Hillary Clinton is skating through this debacle like she has nothing to be afraid of. Is she immune because she’s a Democrat, or because she was Secretary of State? Neither reason is acceptable. She needs to be held accountable.

Ed Hoffman is host of The Main Event on AM590, which airs Saturday 9:30 AM- 10:30 AM and Sunday 4:00 PM- 5:00 PM. Follow him on Twitter @EdHoffman, and like him on Facebook by searching The Main Event 590.