I'm going to talk a bit about Hillary Clinton and the Democrats a bit but before I get into that, what is the deal with this whole Taylor Swift/Kim and Kayne feud thing? How badly are things going for Taylor when you go from being America's Sweetheart to losing Twitter feuds with the Kardashians? I mean, Taylor has real musical talent and actually does things like sing, play instruments and write songs. Meanwhile, Kanye knows how to glower and shout things into a microphone and Kim knows how to have big boobs. Yet, from what I can tell, Taylor's rep is taking a bit of a hit in the media.
Which, in a way, brings us to Hillary Clinton.
Clinton has actual government experience as First Lady, a US Senator from New York and Secretary of State. And she's in a struggle with a businessman of questionable business experience whose main quality is yelling random angry things into whatever immediately available microphone he can find. How can this blowhard Annoying Orange actually be in contention with a woman of considerable skill and experience?
Because a lot of people just don't like that woman. Hillary Clinton's negatives are very high. Some of that is attributable to some real issues with Clinton's persona and character. The rest of it can be connected to a constant drumbeat of hostility and anger from her opponents.
Nowhere was that more on display than at last week's Republican convention where Clinton's name was invoked in rage fueled harangues directed to an arena packed with people screaming that Clinton should be locked up for her "crimes".
For the record, Clinton has never been indicted, tried or convicted of any illegal activity.
The GOP convention went too far into "angry mob" territory during the week long train wreck that played out in Cleveland last week. It is a party that is still fractured and divided and the best face forward it could provide was one of anger and hate which Donald Trump did nothing to dispel.
This week in Philadelphia, its the Democrats turn for their convention and Hillary Clinton was ready to hit the ground running.
Still holding leads in key states, Clinton rolled out her VP choice with Tim Kaine, a rather boring choice for an election but someone with a proven track record for getting things done as well as winning elections. A safe, solid choice with no behind the scenes drama which puts Clinton in a good light.
The protracted battle with Bernie Sanders was a thing of the past as Bernie was in her corner and slowly but surely some of Bernie's supporters were coming to accept Clinton as the nominee. (Other Bernie followers would've been at home in Cleveland last week.)
Coming off of a week of gloom and doom from the Republicans, the Democrats were poised to have a party based on hope and optimism. It's gonna be the bestest Democratic convention EVER!
What could possibly go wrong?
Hacked emails reveal the Democratic National Committee working to shut down Bernie Sanders?
What the fuck? Emails and Hillary Clinton?! AGAIN?!?!
Democrats do have an irritating tendency towards snatching defeat from the jaws of victory and it struck again over the weekend as the story unfurled that the DNC had been hacked (again!) and this time, the hack revealed internal emails that apppear to support the long-held suspicions of some Bernie Sanders supporters that the DNC was working against him.
I should clarify that this email scandal is not directly tied to Hillary Clinton. There are no emails to or from the candidate involved in this hack. However, as we have seen, actual direct corollary evidence linking Clinton to anything is not needed to add another ding to her rep. A lot of Hillary haters are going to hear the words "Clinton", "email" and "scandal" and we're off to the races.
So what exactly are we dealing with in these DNC emails?
One email from May shows CFO Brad Marshall suggesting that they use religion against a certain possible atheist with a Jewish heritage. (Marshall has apologized for these comments in a Facebook post.)
Another email shows national press secretary Mark Paustenpach, "wondering if there’s a good Bernie narrative for a story, which is that Bernie never ever had his act together, that his campaign was a mess.”
An email from committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz notes that it’s “silly” to speculate about Sanders ever being president.
Deputy communications director Eric Walker mocked Buzzfeed for writing that the DNC had bad cybersecurity per another leaked email from the hacked DNC computers. (Uh oh!)
Nearly 20,000 emails sent and received by Democratic National Committee staff members were released Friday by Wikileaks.
DNC Secretary Stephanie Rawlings-Blake denied any suggestion that Clinton's camp was treated more favorably by the committee:
"My expectation is beyond your opinion about a candidate, that you act evenly. All of the officers took a pledge of neutrality and I honored that, and I take that very seriously. I know that the chair will hold those employees accountable if they're found to have acted outside of that neutrality and even-handedness."
Republican nominee Donald Trump, however, said the emails were proof of the Democrats' "rigged" system, resurfacing an attack he's leveled against the party before.
"Leaked e-mails of DNC show plans to destroy Bernie Sanders. Mock his heritage and much more. On-line from Wikileakes, really vicious. RIGGED," Trump tweeted Saturday morning.
Beyond the revelation of internal strife over Bernie Sanders' campaign, the leak is in and of itself damaging to the DNC. In June, hackers stole opposition research on Donald Trump from the DNC's servers. The fact that the DNC has been hacked again goes not look good for the Democrats and gives the Republicans another talking point in their campaign against Hillary and the Democratic Party.
But what does this do to the Democrats internally? Well, a lot of that depends on Bernie Sanders who commented on the matter Sunday morning. He called for Debbie Wasserman Schultz to resign as DNC chairperson.
This is a demand that Sanders has made before but with no success. This time with the information from the email leak, Wasserman Schultz's position is far less secure.
But Sanders dismissed calls for him to challenge Clinton at the convention as the Democratic nominee. Defeating Donald Trump was his main focus, Sander said, adding he was pleased with movement on certain issues when it came to the party platform.
Sanders even praised Clinton’s vice presidential pick, Sen. Tim Kaine. Although Kaine is more conservative than Sanders, the Vermont senator noted, “On his worst, worst, worst day, Tim Kaine is 100 times better than Donald Trump will ever be."
So if the Republican convention last week was Hate Fest 2016, will the Democrats counter with Love Fest 2016? Probably not. The DNC email hack is going to be a shadow over these proceedings and the Sanders fanatics are going be fired up once more because of what's in those emails despite the swift action to replace the DNC chair barely a day before the convention.
And let's face it, if the RNC was less behind Trump and more against Clinton, then the DNC is a mirror reflection of that. Still, if the convention goes smoothly and the Democrats can try to muster up a collective smile in support of the Clinton/Kaine team, maybe we can get something akin to, I don't know, maybe Toleration Fest 2016.
Speaking of Clinton/Kaine, the folks at Full Frontal With Samantha Bee had some fun with Clinton/Kaine publicity ideas.
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And that's what I've got for this post. Coming up on I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You:
Another post TODAY as I muse on how I spent a very summertime type of day.
Tomorrow we take a look at the latest impact of HB2 on the North Carolina economy (I live here so it's kind of important to me).
Wednesday is Comic Book Day and I share some thoughts about the new animated movie based on The Killing Joke.
Thursday is a new installment of The Pixar Project as the family Pixar re-watch brings us up to The Incredibles.
Friday and Saturday bring us back to politics as I reflect on Bernie Sanders in one post and offer a review of the week's Democratic National Convention in the other.
And Sunday is of course Doctor Who day.
Whew!
So thanks for dropping by. Until next time, remember to be good to one another.
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