Wikileaks could have a lasting impact on Hillary Clinton

Hillary may be up in the polls but the steady drip of leaked documents from John Podesta’s email account have done damage to her image among some progressives. Politico’s story about the reaction by the left doesn’t quite live up to it’s headline (“WikiLeaks poisons Hillary’s relationship with left”) but it does contain some juicy quotes.

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Some of the left’s most influential voices and groups are taking offense at the way they and their causes were discussed behind their backs by Clinton and some of her closest advisers in the emails, which swipe liberal heroes and causes as “puritanical,” “pompous”, “naive”, “radical” and “dumb,” calling some “freaks,” who need to “get a life.”…

Liberal groups and activists are assembling opposition research-style dossiers of the most dismissive comments in the WikiLeaks emails about icons of their movement like Clinton’s Democratic primary rival Bernie Sanders, and their stances on trade, Wall Street reform, energy and climate change. And some liberal activists are vowing to use the email fodder to oppose Clinton policy proposals or appointments deemed insufficiently progressive.

“We were already kind of suspicious of where Hillary’s instincts were, but now we see that she is who we thought she was,” said one influential liberal Democratic operative. “The honeymoon is going to be tight and small and maybe nonexistent,” the operative said.

A bit later in the article, union leader RoseAnn DeMoro says the emails depict Clinton’s top aides as “a pretty imperial bunch. Vindictive.” But the story ends with some progressives who see cause for hope in some of the things expressed in the emails, including expressions of respect for Elizabeth Warren.

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Some of the quotes that turned up in the emails seem like they could be genuinely difficult to overcome. For instance, having both John Podesta and Neera Tanden refer to Media Matters’ David Brock as an “unhinged narcissist.” Also the email in which it was revealed that Hillary felt some of the people in the environmental movement (those advocating an end to all fossil fuel usage) needed to “get a life.” We haven’t seen much backlash over that yet but if Hillary wins those words could hound her for the next four years.

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