Huffpo: Hillary Clinton's Email Problem Is Unsolvable

[RiverLover]

Hillary Clinton's Email Problem Is Unsolvable
3/10/15

...If we decide not to overthink things, we can all admit that there is something that's beyond dispute. Hillary Clinton, as secretary of state, is supposed to be subject to a certain level of oversight. While just about anyone sensible would admit that there are instances in which the head of our international diplomatic mission has to discuss matters that require secrecy, and that any top government official deserves some private space for frank criticism, private advice, and the opportunity to entertain controversial ideas, we are nevertheless entitled to the baseline assurance that what business can be conducted in the light of day is conducted in that matter, and that the actions of our elite officials will not be placed beyond scrutiny.

But it's hard to not overthink this, because a certain amount of overthinking was there from the start. Obviously, the simplest thing for Clinton to have done would have been to open and maintain some sort of "state.gov" email account and conduct State Department business in that domain. Had she done so, there wouldn't be an issue. In fact, had she done so and simultaneously had a personal email account on the side, this still wouldn't be an issue, because most people would find the notion that Hillary Clinton is not allowed to have a private email account to be insane. But by commingling the two -- government and personal -- Clinton opened the door to this criticism, because we can't be sure by what rules Clinton follows to guide her decisions to archive or delete emails. Does she follow State Department guidelines, or her own whims?

It is a thing that can't be known, and so, Hillary's email flap has become a problem that she can't solve, to anybody's satisfaction. This is true in the literal sense, because a lot of emails that were once in her "possession" have been deleted. But it's also true in a figurative sense. What is the ur-email she can provide, that once it is read, will assure everyone that full transparency has been achieved?...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/10/hillary-clinton-private-email_n_6843562.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

[Thinkingabout]

1. Oh, yea, maybe we could follow Bill Kristol's advice and run Warren, he can beat her.

[Stellar]

42. Especially if you're a lie lover.

[Thinkingabout]

43. Lie Lover?????

[Stellar]

44. ehh..that's the way I think of Bill Kristol...

not funny I guess. He tell a lot of them, I think,

[Thinkingabout]

45. Oh

[hrmjustin]

2. She still will run and likely win.

Despite this little email thing.

[MANative]

3. Linkins is full of shit.

Bottom line is this: People who hated Hillary before the email problem will still hate her and wouldn't have voted for her anyway. People who loved Hillary before the email discussion will think it's a nothing-burger and ignore it. People who are somewhere in the middle are likely people who pay little attention to politics and news anyway. And she's too well-known an entity for there to be many people who fall into this category. This will have long disappeared from the discussion by the time votes are cast, and they'll make their decisions on some other (probably idiotic) issue. In the long run, this won't be a deciding factor in any way, shape or form.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

6. Most folks are worried about their own lives. They couldn't give a rip about somebody's e-mails/NT

[MANative]

7. Exactly! This flap will change nothing. n/t

[DemocratSinceBirth]

11. Confirmation Bias

Those that already hated her will see this as justification for their hate. Those that like her will see her being maligned for what was at worst a minor indiscretion, and those in the middle will vote for the candidate they believe will make their lives better.

[OLDMADAM]

25. .. eh.. can someone please stop this ride, I would like to get off.. PLEASE!

It's like a Merry-Go-Round, that won't stop..

I don't know about anyone else, I am definitely getting a kind of Clinton fatigue.. The very mention of Bill bring a smile to my face, but so does the very old SNL reruns, but the sequels are just not the same.. And I'm sorry Hillary never brings back those warm and fuzzy, fond memories, and if I dwell on those memories I began to remember the other stuff that happened while the fun ride was happening, and that isn't something I want to recall..

I will vote for her if she is our choice, but with a bit of a cringe.. Thats just me..

[NYC_SKP]

4. If she runs, we lose. Four more years of yesterday's presser. Oh HELL No!

Actually, I worry that if she wins the primary she'll lose.

Many won't show up, others will vote third party, and the only grassroots support will come from small groups of older folks with not much else to do and people who are doing it out of fear of a Republican win.

I'm not going to work for her and in my winner take all state of California, she won't need my vote in the GE.

And, she sure as HELL won't get my vote in the primary.

No way on earth, I can't stand either Clinton.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

5. Your contempt for Secretary of State Clinton is only surpassed by my admiration for her./NT

[leftofcool]

9. And yet the new poll from yesterday shows that 86% of Dems support her and only 13% do not.

I guess you are one of the 13%.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

13. It must suck to have that much hate...

[NYC_SKP]

17. Yes, I am absolutely among her nonsupporting Democrats.

I remember her high poll numbers from 2007, too, and I know how that turned out.

Now we have the same candidate, same people being polled, but HRC has even more baggage.

[leftofcool]

21. Fine by me. Like you said, she won't need your vote.

[onecaliberal]

8. It is also true that Colin Powell admitted doing the same thing.

Not to mention Bush and Cheney destroyed deleted millions of emails. Why is it that only Hillary is being held to account.

[leftofcool]

10. Because it is Hillary.

[NYC_SKP]

18. Are any of them thinking of running for president in this coming round?

[MANative]

22. Then there was Mitt, who deleted all of his official correspondence as Governor of MA

Still got the nomination, and still came darn close to unseating an incumbent President.

[NYC_SKP]

40. I expect that kind of shit from a Republican.

And it still doesn't make it OK for a US Cabinet Member to do that same thing.

What is her problem?

Out with her, I hope this is her undoing so that we can move on to a real Progressive.

[onecaliberal]

46. My point is that if you're going to tell this story

You need to mention all the people who've participated in said activity in the last administration.

[NYC_SKP]

12. This is a pattern, she's an egomaniac, she's disqualified. No Fucking Way.

Four more years of this. No.

If she was a true champion of working Americans, I could excuse it.

But this was calculated, this wasn't like somebody using their personal email part of the time.

This shit was stupid and strategic.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

14. "Four more years of this. No..."

We agree...

It's going to be ten more years of this.

[RiverLover]

15. Its very shady.

And stupid.

Bad combination. Especially for someone with presidential ambitions.

[Man from Pickens]

30. Preach it

not even sure why she is considered a serious candidate at all! Look at her job performance - the only things she is actually known for, besides the endless train of scandals, are complete disasters! The only things she is really good at are self-promotion and self-enrichment.

[NYC_SKP]

41. You said it. I don't understand the attraction she has for voters.

Her stands on womens' rights, for example, are shared by almost any potential candidate.

Her negatives are fucking huge compared to her positives, which are few and are all low hanging fruit for a mainstream Dem.

[Proud Public Servant]

16. The problem is not the emails

The problem is the sense of impunity. Hillary just can't help giving off the sense that the rules just don't apply to her, that explanations aren't owed, that decisions are not to be questioned. No, she didn't do anything wrong; yes, she's usually the smartest person the room. But if she thinks that "don't worry, stop asking questions, take my word for it" is a rhetorical position that wins people over, she's still not ready for prime time. That works for celebrities, and sometimes for business people (though not always; see here Leona Helmsley), but rarely for politicians seeking office.

[NYC_SKP]

19. "Just didn't want to carry two phones, tee hee hee". She's the FUCKING SECRETARY OF STATE!!!

Have one of your aides carry your phones.

I can't believe this shit of creating a server and domain just as you're being discussed by the Senate for confirmation so that you can have total control over all the data.

Fuck this shit.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

20. It was a pre-existing sever used by the 42nd president./NT

[MANative]

23. And guarded by the Secret Service, as I read somewhere last night. Think it was WaPo. n/t

[DemocratSinceBirth]

24. You are 100% correct./NT

[RiverLover]

26. "Fact check: Hillary Rodham Clinton and her emails"

Fact check: Hillary Rodham Clinton and her emails


.....

CLINTON: "It had numerous safeguards. It was on property guarded by the Secret Service. And there were no security breaches."

THE FACTS: While Clinton's server was physically guarded by the Secret Service, she provided no evidence it hadn't been compromised by hackers or foreign adversaries. She also didn't detail who administered the email system, if it received appropriate software security updates, or if it was monitored routinely for unauthorized access.

Clinton also didn't answer whether the homebrew computer system on her property had the same level of safeguards provided at professional data facilities, such as regulated temperatures, offsite backups, generators in case of power outages and fire-suppression systems. It was unclear what, if any, encryption software Clinton's server may have used to communicate with U.S. government email accounts.

Recent high-profile breaches, including at Sony Pictures Entertainment, have raised scrutiny on how well corporations and private individuals protect their computer networks from attack.

http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2015/03/fact_check_hillary_rodham_clin.html

[MANative]

27. All the recent breaches have just proved that NO email system is entirely secure.

I'd count that as true of all of the .gov systems, too.

It's clear you're a Warren supporter. I love her, too, but she's made it eminently clear she has no intention of running. If she changes her mind (which I doubt will happen), I'd strongly consider supporting her. For now, I'm with Hillary.

[jeff47]

32. If they break the .gov systems, then it isn't her fault. If they broke her system, then it is. (nt)

[DemocratSinceBirth]

28. Well

"Clinton also didn't answer whether the homebrew computer system on her property had the same level of safeguards provided at professional data facilities, such as regulated temperatures."

Maybe she kept it on her porch.

[former9thward]

29. "Used by the 42nd president"

That's funny. Bill said he has sent only two emails in his entire life and does not email now.

[Man from Pickens]

31. that excuse already imploded

Bill doesn't send emails

also, the "no classified information" claim blew up as well

As usual, when Hillary explains herself, it gets worse, not better.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

33. There is evidence that the server and the domain names were there long before HRC became SOS

But Mr. Pickens, you keep chasing those scandals, and I will continue to work with my state Democratic party to ensure Juan In Montebello continues to get his Medi Cal due to the expansion of the Affordable Care Act which made it available to single indigent adults, Nathaniel in Oakland continues to get his Social Security check in a unprivatized system, and Jammal in Riverside can find a job upon graduating from college so he doesn't have to join the military for lack of better choices and be fodder in a old man's war.

[jeff47]

35. "Long before" being the week before her confirmation hearings.

clintonemail.com was registered the week before her confirmation hearings.

The server was set up before that, and clintonemail.com added to it.

If you'd like an actual demonstration why this was a bad idea, you can go to http://clintonmail.com . Notice that there's no 'e' before 'mail'. And notice while they didn't bother setting up a web site, the domain exists. It's called typosquatting. Someone set up the domain while she was SoS. It's a great way to capture any emails when someone makes a typo in the address, and dropping the 'e' is a very easy typo to make.

When you're a government official, you aren't playing in the "Nigerian prince" league. You have large teams of extremely skilled people trying to get into your email. Think of everything the NSA can do, and remember Russia and China have the same abilities.

Choosing to host her own email was a bad idea. The handling of the non-scandal afterwards has been much worse.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

36. I'm not an archivist. My concerns are more plebeian.

If a voter chooses not to vote for Secretary of State Clinton because of her e-mail usage there is nothing I can say to dissuade him or her from doing so.

[jeff47]

38. And this isn't about being an archivist, this is about security.

And whomever she had set up the server flubbed the security badly.

She's SoS. Set up clintonemail.state.gov. You can't typosquat a .gov address, because only the US Government gets to hand those out.

Or much more importantly, you're going to be facing attacks from really damn good attackers. You don't defend against a physical invasion with mall security guards. They aren't up to the job. You don't defend your government-scale computer systems with the computer equivalent of mall security guards because they aren't up to the job.

But both of those would require a time machine to correct at this point. How about since the non-scandal broke?

She keeps resurrecting the story. Most recently by knocking the Iran letter story off the front page. That is massive ineptitude, and that ineptitude is how this non-scandal may cost her votes.

Team Clinton: It's time to shut the fuck up.

[Man from Pickens]

37. you've diverged from reality here

Anyone can check and see the domain name was established the day of her Senate confirmation hearing.

You've got a choice, which is follow the Hillary camp down the rabbit-hole of excusing the inexcusable, with all the attendant falsehoods that accompany it; or alternatively, sticking to the reality of the situation which is downright ugly and regards issues much more serious than her personal ambitions and the impact this event may have on them.

[jeff47]

34. My main complaint is the ineptitude.

Clinton's been hounded by Republicans for decades. Why the hell did she not think they would come after her for this? The Republicans literally searched her underwear drawer while she was First Lady, you think they're gonna go "oh, email? That's fine".

But no time machine, so she can't go back and undo the stupidity. How'd she handle the shitstorm? Poorly.

First, she let it percolate without a response. Then as it was dying down, she gave a non-response about State making those emails public - hey, the problem was the accusation you didn't turn something over to State. So she brought the story back to the front page without addressing the actual complaint. Either keep going with saying nothing, say you didn't break any laws, or offer to turn everything over to a neutral party.

Then the Iran letter issue is dominating the news, and she decides to hold a press conference. Again bringing the email story back to the front page, and pushing the Republicans off the front page.

The argument for Clinton comes down to experience - she's supposed to know what she's doing. This incident does not reflect knowing what she is doing. She is doing an utterly terrible job handling this non-controversy.

[NYC_SKP]

39. It's a fatal character flaw, invincibility and being above the others, she thinks she's special.

I can't believe the apologists who point out that other people used their gmail once in a while or some such.

Nobody else set up a unique domain on a server in a private residence.

This is some serious shit and she casts it off as a matter of convenience.

Out with her. Out!