Even on a day when the political press is focused on the GOP clash in Cleveland, Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton can’t get a break.
Exhibit A: New York Post story quoting a federal official calling the probe into her private email server “criminal.” Said the Post, “The DOJ [Department of Justice] and FBI can conduct civil investigations in very limited circumstances,” but that’s not what this is, the source stressed. “In this case, a security violation would lead to criminal charges. Maybe DOJ is trying to protect her campaign.”
Exhibit B: A story from Yahoo! Politics comparing Clinton to Richard Nixon and ‘dissing her sincerity in an ad about her mom. “Siri sounds more spontaneous when she’s finding me a gas station,” penned columnist Matt Bai.
Hillary Clinton. AP Photo
His column focused on a potential Clinton-Joe Biden matchup, but turned to her campaign’s internal problems.
Yahoo!s Matt Bai compares Clinton to character Tracy Flick in “Election.”
Noting polls where Americans don’t trust the former first lady, Bai wrote, “Clinton’s argument is, at its core, like Richard Nixon’s in 1968: You’re not hiring a friend or a babysitter. You just have to believe that I get what’s wrong, and I’m the only one with the competence to fix it.”
But as he dug deeper, he found other issues, like her sincerity.
“Clinton’s first TV ad, released this week, tried to humanize her a bit by having her talk straight to camera about her mother. She looks great, and it’s an inspiring story. But Siri sounds more spontaneous when she’s finding me a gas station,” he wrote.
Then there’s the trust issue, Bai wrote:
…whatever his trust issues, Bill Clinton was inescapably, maddeningly likable. That’s just a fact, and it makes up for a lot of sins with some sizable segment of voters.
Hillary’s trust issues, on the other hand, are grounded in substance. You can say that Benghazi or the email servers are manufactured scandals, but it’s not like that 55 percent of voters who don’t believe what she says are talking about her skills as a grandmother.
And Hillary just doesn’t have Bill’s roguish, down-home charm. She’s more like Tracy Flick in “Election.” In a good way, I mean.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
