A Big Mistake By Mrs. Clinton

The Weekly Standard pointed out in an article that Hillary Clinton has not commented in any way on the terrorist attack and massacre at French magazine Charlie Hebdo.  For a woman who wants to be president, this is a big mistake.  If Mrs. Clinton wants to stay silent on issues like Congress delaying certain regulations on Wall Street under the Dodd-Frank law, that would be something else.  After all, most Americans are not aware of the legislation and there is really not much of a change from the law other than giving the banks a chance to divest themselves of certain assets in a more orderly and less rushed manner.  Nevertheless, Hillary managed to issue a strong statement on that bill on Friday.  The attack on Charlie Hebdo, however, is both and assault on free speech and freedom of the press as well as a heartless and brutal act of terrorism by the Islamic crazies who threaten us all.  Everyone in America who pays even slight attention to the news knows about the attack, and there are essentially no people who do not condemn it.  Nevertheless, it is the attack on Charlie Hebdo about which Hillary has stayed silent.

The article in the Weekly Standard offers the opinion that the Clinton silence is the result of her previous poor record of defending freedom of speech.  They offer the example of Clinton falsely blaming the Benghazi terror attack on a youtube video and then getting the film's maker arrested even though his film was actually unrelated to the attack.

Hillary's silence is a major unforced error by a woman whose trademark for the last year seems to be major unforced error.  Does she really have no opinion on the terror attack?  Does she really think it is best to remain silent?  It is not going to have much of an effect, if any, on the 2016 race, but it is part of a cumulative gathering of mistakes that will weigh down Hillary's efforts to appear as something other than the cold, calculating political robot that she actually is.