CLINTON A FLAWED CANDIDATE

The Clinton campaign for President is faltering. Bernie Sanders is drawing huge crowds to her sewing circle sized meetings. Bernie is beating her by substantial margins in New Hampshire polls. Undeclared candidate VP Joe Biden tops her in match up polls against various Republican candidates. Recent national polls suggest that 61% of the electorate view her as untrustworthy. The poor management of her most recent email scandal and her campaign response to the revelations bring into question her judgment and her suitability for the Presidency.

In the past, as a much traveled but do nothing, Secretary of State Mrs. Clinton exhibited poor judgement when she devised a plan to use a private email and home based server. She compounded that mistake with additional judgmental errors while first ignoring then mismanaging the political fall out when this matter came to public knowledge. In addition, she is burdened with a mass of past controversies and scandals. Why pull down her Party, loose the election and drag the nation through a messy and unsuccessful candidacy? Perhaps it is time for Mrs. Clinton to step aside for another candidate, while there is still time. In this instance she can finally out-perform her husband, former President Clinton, who should have stepped down for the good of the nation from office in favor of his competent and upstanding VP, Al Gore, when the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke. A Nixon-like departure would have saved the nation the trauma of the Presidential impeachment and the bitterness of the ensuing years. Mrs Clinton should retire her campaign now and throw her support to another viable candidate perhaps, Joe Biden, or Elizabeth Warren before it too late.

Yesterday (August 26) the political odd couple Mary Matalin and James Carville appeared on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" to review the progress made in New Orleans in the last decade since Katrina. During the segment Carville a former Clinton political advisor was queried about Mrs. Clinton's email scandal. Carville a super loyal Clintonista snarled back a characteristic, rapid-fire defensive reply to the effect that "there are no scandals...all the scandals are manufactured by the Republicans".

Loyalty like that is commendable. But is it honest, or does it only serve the Clinton insiders, their advisors, and ignores the welfare of the nation? Whether the "scandals" are manufactured by her enemies or are ( as I believe) mostly self-generated makes no real difference in how a candidate or office holder must operate. Regardless of the source of the scandals...her need to respond, forces Mrs. Clinton to consume energy and effort on issues which take her from the business of the people or the campaign into a defense mode. Both make her a less effective leader. They are distractions from her campaign. It is almost certain given the Clinton's penchant for impropriety, sleazy self serving business deals, etc. one can be sure there will be more messy scandals were the Clintons to reenter the White House. The fact that Mrs Clinton is again mired in scandal or controversy just underscores again the awful Clinton years, when the nation and the government was too often distracted and side tracked by Clinton scandals. Real or manufactured we all had to wade through scandals like Whitewater, a suicide, numerous bimbo eruptions, rental for profit of the Lincoln bedroom, stripping valuables from the White House, and more. Then while Clinton was Secretary of State..more scandals followed her. There was the Clinton Slush Fund, Bill's speaking fees, and "pay for play" " donations" and speaking fees for access to Hillary as Secretary of State, questionable "donations" in the millions of dollars to the "Clinton Foundation" by foreign agents and ally nations, Hilary's speaking fees, Chelsea's speaking fees, claims of being bankrupt, and the general appearance of impropriety and slippery behavior, etc., etc., etc.

But let us move beyond the scandals problem to the exhibition of poor judgement by this candidate for high office. A campaign often reveals how a man or woman will manage the levers of power when they govern. Since Hillary Clinton launched her campaign she has been plagued by questions which relate to her ability to make sound decisions. The revelations concerning her private email account brought out the need for clear unvarnished explanations. She was unable to state or clarify an honest purpose for her behavior. Her first mistake was to claim that her reason for this illegality and anomalous behavior was only for "convenience". She made the bogus claim that she simply didn't want to carry two instruments. Other revelations soon followed. She exhibited poor judgement in formulating the secret plan to use a private account, and then compounded that mistake by housing her private server in the unsecured basement of her Chappaqua home. She added to those errors by clinging to her private and government emails for two years, compromising their security and status as official government documents. And adding to those woes she finally set her staff (who knows what kind of security clearance they had) to separate out her "personal emails" from the "government's emails". Finally she made the worst mistake of all by having the server wiped clean. She stalled and stonewalled until faced with an FBI investigation and court order to hand over the server. The composite of errors here all add up to monumental poor judgment. This is the same person who would like to have us believe that she is the most qualified candidate to lead a highly militarized and industrialized nation of nearly 350 million people...as she exhibits continuing judgment flaws in managing her campaign.

Democrats must face the facts...Clinton is a flawed candidate who if nominate probably can not win. If elected she would not be able to govern. Oh the Clintons will prosper in office.....the rest of us will not fare so well.