How big a deal is this Clinton emails story? Well, years ago when I was a front-page editor I had occasion to study the front pages of major papers across the country very carefully, and I concluded the NYT had THE most exquisite, nuanced sense of how important a story was, and how to play it. Most days, the NYT’s Web lede is confined to one column. Here’s how they played this (three columns, essentially).
I promised y’all an Open Thread, but decided on a VFP instead (if you care what the difference is, ask and I’ll explain down in the comments):
- FBI to review Clinton emails found on Weiner’s device (WashPost) — At this point, if you’re Hillary Clinton, the last thing you want to see — on every major news outlet’s lede story — is your name and “Weiner” in the same headline. Right now, the candidate’s wishing Anthony and Huma were still together so she could tell Huma to go slap him up ‘side the head.
- Stocks Rattled by Clinton Email Review (WSJ) — Yeah, I’ll bet.
- Recreation board refuses Haley’s request for sexual harassment report (The State) — This is a bit old now — it was in The State this morning. But… really? I love the sarcastic nod to transparency when the board came out of executive session to make this decision in a three-minute public session. Why’d they do this? Well, “Green and the five board members at the meeting refused comment and left the meeting without speaking to reporters.”
- U.N.: ISIS Is Using Tens Of Thousands Of Civilians As Human Shields In Mosul (NPR) — Yep, that sounds like something they’d do. Anyway, while Anthony “Look at My” Weiner is paralyzing the world’s greatest democracy, this is going on…
- Why do so few Americans vote? (BBC) — We are a never-ending source of fascination to our friends, the Brits. They just can’t get over our little quirks.
- 2nd District debate will be shown live on YouTube (The State) — That’s good to know. And the Series should be over by then, so I might even watch it. If I do, I’ll live-Tweet it…
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Can Haley just fire the Board, or does she need cause? Would failing to provide a requested document (for a reason as ridiculous as Trump’s not providing his tax returns because they are under audit) not suffice for “cause”?
Are we not a right-to-work state? Who needs cause?
I don’t think that would apply here…
Mostly a tongue-in-cheek comment.
1. As the new FBI “revelations” continue to unfold it’s beginning to appear that this isn’t going to amount to much other than to give Trump a few hours of gloating time. The e-mails in question were not sent by HRC and were not part of the e-mails deleted from her private server. Comey cannot leave this hanging beyond the weekend.
To me the most puzzling part of the whole thing is Huma Abedin having the incredibly poor judgment to let Anthony Weiner use her work laptop. Even though she presumably didn’t know he would use it to sext a 15 year old girl, his email history should have been sufficient warning for someone using a computer to communicate with the Secretary of State. On the other hand, she had the breathtakingly poor judgment to marry Anthony Weiner in the first place, so I guess there are no grounds to have expected sound judgment on this.
Current reporting indicates that the computer was Wiener’s, not Abedin’s. Whether she shared the documents in question with him or how they got on his computer is not clear at this point.
Comey has now come under fire in a strongly worded op-ed from the former director of public affairs at the FBI (2009 – 2011) for his handling of the matter:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/james-comey-fails-to-follow-justice-department-rules-yet-again/2016/10/29/3a2fad58-9ddd-11e6-b3c9-f662adaa0048_story.html
Ok, I’ll rephrase – “incredibly poor judgment to share any computer or account . . .”
There’s a whole lotta baseless speculating and assuming going on, without any substance to draw on.
My thought exactly, Lynn. When you started out saying that “the most puzzling part of the whole thing is Huma Abedin having the incredibly poor judgment to let Anthony Weiner…” I finished the sentence with “do ANYTHING, especially marry her…”
I’m just going by looks here, having never met either, but she’s always seemed like a sensible young woman, and he just radiates “CREEP!”
Which calls for a musical interlude. The lads from Abingdon won’t like this, because they hate that we all love this song, but it remains their most awesome:
She prolly didn’t know he was like that when she married him. Same as Hillary.
I think a lot of people make mistakes that way–people with otherwise decent judgment.
Bill I can understand. He’s a dog, but he’s got charm.
Weiner just seems like a creep all the way around…
Comey really stepped in it this time. He pissed Hillary Clinton off and you don’t mess with the Clintons. Better have his resignation in hand and turn it in the day before she is sworn in. His future in Washington is over, time to update his resume’.
Is there anyone on the Clinton team who demonstrates competence? Podesta got hacked because he clicked on a spam email link (oooh, such espionage by Russia). Huma appears to have learned well in her tenure with Hillary that you ignore the sexual escapades of your spouse if it means you’d have to give up your aspirations otherwise. I shudder to think what a Hillary cabinet would look like.
Meanwhile, Trump is traveling all over the country to battleground states while Hillary sends out former crack dealer Jay-Z and Katy Perry to campaign for her. If you find Donald Trump’s speech difficult to take, try and listen to a few Jay Z songs some time.
Has anyone else noticed a different tone in Hillary’s speeches? She’s gone from attacking to making excuses and trying to play innocent… badly. I believe she knows she’s caught and even if she wins the election that she may not be President very long. They’re now suggesting the 2-star General who killed himself last week may be tied to some of Hillary’s illegal dealings involving military hardware and foreign countries. Why else would a 2-star general kill himself 2 days before he was to receive his 3rd star?
“she’s caught”
Doing what, exactly? I have trouble keeping up with exactly what people think she’s done, beyond stupidly setting up that personal server. Which is something we know…
Are they called “songs,” or just “tracks?” I don’t know with hip-hop.
Will Katy wear what she wore on SNL that time?
Whenever anyone says “Katy Perry,” I think of one night when we were in London back at the end of 2010, having dinner at a restaurant on Finchley Road in the Swiss Cottage area. The folks running the place were — Mediterranean. Maybe Greek, maybe Middle Eastern; I forget. But we seemed to be the only people in the place who were not related to management. There was this table full of folks — 8 or so people, coming and going. Sometimes they’d get up and go talk to someone in the kitchen; sometimes the young men in the group would go outside for a smoke and a chat, leaving the women at the table to watch the kids.
Anyway, there was a good-sized flat-screen TV on the wall with the volume turned low, and there was this one boy, about 9 or 10, sitting slightly apart from the group, staring at it, while being ignored by the adults. And there’s this Katy Perry video on — you’ve no doubt seen it many times, and long ago started taking its mild short-of-R-rated nudity and mock confection breasts for granted — and the boy’s eyes are wide open, taking it all in.
And I’m thinking, here’s this kid from this Old World, traditional culture with his head pried wide open and Western consumerist hedonism getting poured into his brain by the truckload, while no one notices.
And I felt that I was at the nexus of something significant…