The lesson of the Chelsea Manning commutation: You can embarrass Obama's country, but not his party

There is no question that in both cases, a crime was committed. But Manning compromised U.S. national security, placed the lives of members of the armed services and intelligence community and their assets at risk, and damaged the war effort against terrorism and violent extremism. By contrast, the DNC hack did not reveal classified information, no one’s life was threatened because of it, and it can’t be proved to have changed a single vote in the U.S. election.

Most of the revelations were Inside-the-Beltway political stuff of no interest to the average voter. For those of us who followed the DNC leaks closely, the daily anticipation of what might be revealed was more compelling than what ultimately turned up.

Because Manning was granted clemency, shouldn’t the DNC hacker, whoever he or she is, be let off as well? Otherwise, the message seems to be that actual espionage against the United States for causes Obama seems to favor is just fine, but embarrassing the president’s party and his handpicked successor is a high crime against democracy.