The president of the United States has to deal with crises; it's part of the job. Things happen and America has to respond. Sometimes, the public does not even know about the problem; most times we do. The president, however, has two basic tasks: he or she has to recognize that something is indeed a crisis that requires immediate attention, and then a strategy to overcome the problem has to be chosen. The ability of a candidate to discern problems and select solutions is a prerequisite for America's leader.
These requirements come to mind as we watch the response from Hillary Clinton and her team to the steadily growing crisis regarding the Clinton Foundation and the hundreds of millions of dollars in what appears to be a slush fund for Hillary and Bill. Hillary Clinton has handled this mess so poorly that her response, by itself, may disqualify her from being president. Think about it. Did Hillary recognize the problem? She certainly should have seen it, but she just ignored the issue (much in the same way she ignored the email issue for so long.) At this point, Hillary has said nothing of substance about the mess at the Clinton Foundation. She has withdrawn from answering questions from the press. She won't even put herself in a position where she might get a question about the Clinton Foundation from the public. To be fair, it is most likely that this is a tactic for dealing with the problem rather than a failure to recognize the issue. If so, it is a terrible choice by Mrs. Clinton for trying to overcome the issue. Hillary's other "response" to the crisis has been to unleash her attack dogs like David Brock to attribute the news about the foundation to right wing conspiracy theorists. Instead of responding to the facts about the foundation, Hillary is having her surrogates attack the source and its bona fides. Again, this is a terrible choice of tactics. When the attacks on the source began, Hillary already knew that liberal media giants like the New York Times, the Washington Post and Newsweek were publishing their own investigative stories about the Clinton Foundation mess. That alone means that the Clinton attack on right wing conspirators is laughable. But the only other response has been silence, and that is just not good.
Hillary has shown that she does not deal well with crises. This time, the crisis is just political. If she were president, the crisis might be existential. The nation simply cannot rely on her judgment. There is too much at stake.
These requirements come to mind as we watch the response from Hillary Clinton and her team to the steadily growing crisis regarding the Clinton Foundation and the hundreds of millions of dollars in what appears to be a slush fund for Hillary and Bill. Hillary Clinton has handled this mess so poorly that her response, by itself, may disqualify her from being president. Think about it. Did Hillary recognize the problem? She certainly should have seen it, but she just ignored the issue (much in the same way she ignored the email issue for so long.) At this point, Hillary has said nothing of substance about the mess at the Clinton Foundation. She has withdrawn from answering questions from the press. She won't even put herself in a position where she might get a question about the Clinton Foundation from the public. To be fair, it is most likely that this is a tactic for dealing with the problem rather than a failure to recognize the issue. If so, it is a terrible choice by Mrs. Clinton for trying to overcome the issue. Hillary's other "response" to the crisis has been to unleash her attack dogs like David Brock to attribute the news about the foundation to right wing conspiracy theorists. Instead of responding to the facts about the foundation, Hillary is having her surrogates attack the source and its bona fides. Again, this is a terrible choice of tactics. When the attacks on the source began, Hillary already knew that liberal media giants like the New York Times, the Washington Post and Newsweek were publishing their own investigative stories about the Clinton Foundation mess. That alone means that the Clinton attack on right wing conspirators is laughable. But the only other response has been silence, and that is just not good.
Hillary has shown that she does not deal well with crises. This time, the crisis is just political. If she were president, the crisis might be existential. The nation simply cannot rely on her judgment. There is too much at stake.
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