James Comey now tops Vladimir Putin and Julian Assange as the Hillary-harmer-in-chief, but the truth is Hillary Clinton’s once strong lead in the presidential race started shrinking before the Friday afternoon massacre, as the former secretary of state’s jaw-dropping misdeeds had caught up with her via Assange’s stinging WikiLeaks email dumps. No matter how unorthodox the conduct of FBI Director Comey, should Clinton lose to Donald Trump on Nov. 8, it’s her own fault.
News that the FBI is re-opening the investigation into Clinton’s handling of classified information on an unsecured private server is a potentially fatal blow to her hopes of winning the White House. Comey’s decision to inform Congress of the new chapter in the probe 11 days before the election has made him the target of Democrats furious that the FBI broke protocol by first speaking publicly about an ongoing investigation, and secondly by influencing an election in its final stretch. It’s likely that Democrats will spend the remaining days of the campaign running against Comey instead of Trump, but it’s hard to see backlash against the FBI director buoying her.
Clinton fatigue — a 1990s syndrome — is back and voters aren’t inclined to give Clinton much benefit of the doubt. Pollster Peter Hart conducted a focus group of undecided voters in North Carolina last week for the Annenberg Public Policy Center. Participants there summed it up: Not only did many describe her as a liar but almost universally, when asked her reason for running, said it was for “power” or to satisfy personal ambition.
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