There’s a saying in politics, “when you’re explaining, you’re losing.” It’s applied a few ways, but it generally means that in situations in which politicians have to explain away a scandal or gaffe, as they’re explaining, their supporters become somewhat dismayed or begin to question the candidate, and potential supporters are turned off.
Hillary Clinton is explaining. And losing.
First, take Correct The Record. It is an outside group that works “in coordination with the Clinton campaign as a stand-alone super PAC.” Its stated purpose is to “defend Hillary Clinton from baseless attacks.”
Then there’s a part of the Clinton campaign’s website, accompanied by a Twitter account, called “The Briefing.” It does much of the same – attacking Clinton’s opponents and putting out information supporting Clinton against attacks.
No other campaign, that I’m aware of, has two attack dog arms. But then again, no other candidate has as many scandals.
Yesterday, Clinton’s campaign sent out an email, and posted the body of that email in a blog post authored by her Communications Director.
It begins:
You might hear some news over the next few days about Hillary Clinton’s emails. There’s a lot of misinformation, so bear with us; the truth matters on this.
The uncomfortable, defensive tone that leaves the reader uneasy continues through the post. It reads as though the campaign realizes how damning her scandals are – particularly the new updates in her email scandal – and wants to minimize the damage.
Campaigns are started to elect a candidate to office – not to minimize damage from scandals or work to reduce shortcomings. Sometimes that necessarily becomes the role of the campaign, and such a defensive role takes away from the campaign’s primary purpose.
As Hillary Clinton is campaigning, and explaining, her poll numbers and favorability numbers are dropping. Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders’s numbers are rising.
Only one of them has been explaining. And only one has been losing.
