"How Republicans saved Hillary Clinton. Again."--WaPo

[KoKo]

How Republicans saved Hillary Clinton. Again.

Washington Post

For months, Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign labored listlessly under a cloud of doubt after revelations that she had a private e-mail server during her time as secretary of state.

Then Republicans, as they so often do, overreached on their Clinton attacks and handed the Democratic front-runner a message and momentum that she had struggled mightily to build on her own.

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Then there was the hearing last week — more than two years in the making (Clinton last testified before Congress on Benghazi in January 2013) — that flopped mightily for Republicans. Eleven hours worth of questions left the GOP looking small and Clinton looking calm, cool and collected. Even Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, admitted in the hearing’s wake, “I don’t know that [Clinton] testified that much differently today than she has the previous time she testified.”

For longtime Clinton watchers — and I count myself in that category — the pattern was remarkably familiar. Republicans, handed a potent issue (and the controversy over Clinton’s private e-mail server is one), try to knock the Clintons out and instead swing, miss and fall on their collective face.

Think back to the late 1990s, when, after admitting to an extramarital affair with a White House intern, Bill Clinton found himself more popular than ever — particularly among Democrats — after congressional Republicans tried to impeach him despite the public’s skepticism about whether such a punishment was warranted.

Eerie similarities echo between that moment and this one for Republicans in Congress. Unquestionably, the revelation that Clinton exclusively used a private e-mail address and server while she was the nation’s top diplomat had damaged her front-running campaign for the Democratic nomination. Her lead over Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) had shrunk, and large majorities of the public said she was neither honest nor trustworthy.

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But the Clintons have always been at their best when under fire from the other side; Hillary Clinton, in particular, is a better counter-puncher than a first-strike player.

For some reason, Republicans have never learned that lesson. Over the past month, they have pulled off a trick that Clinton never could seem to do herself: They have turned her into a sympathetic and more appealing figure for Democrats and lots of independents — whom she will need in a general election.

More at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/resurgent-clinton-campaign-owes-a-small-debt-of-gratitude-to-republicans/2015/10/25/b5a1013e-7b20-11e5-beba-927fd8634498_story.html?tid=pm_politics_pop_b

[Uncle Joe]

1. That begs the question, why would Republicans do that?

Thanks for the thread, KoKo.

[DJ13]

6. If you had a choice between a candidate you've spent 20 years gathering data on

(Hillary), or a potential candidate you never spent any time on because he wasnt supposed to be this close (Bernie), wouldnt you make sure that 20 years of files could be used if you had the chance?

Now add to that the point that both party's represent the same income class and they've created a cant lose scenario for their donors.

[Myrina]

14. Different departments of the same corporation. Both report to the same CEO.

As an analogy, of course.

[Uncle Joe]

4. Wrestling Secrets Exposed (Part 1)

[Gothmog]

3. Howdy Gowdy is so weak that he clearly helped Hillary Clinton

[canoeist52]

5. Almost as if this was planned

Both working together in this theater, to keep us from asking the real questions about our involvement in the Middle East... such as what is our purpose there and who profits from selling who, arms?

The two parties seemed to work together in this, to grant her immunity from a real inquiry into the Middle East resource wars and where the profit from them is going. She got the Pity-Party and the arms dealers got to keep their gravy-train cash cow flowing.

[Metric System]

7. Do you need more tinfoil?

[oasis]

12. Gowdy sacrifices his career to stop Bernie. It makes sense to me.

[KoKo]

9. Those of us who worked and voted for Clinton and lived through that time....

might wonder, for sure.

At the time...Clinton was OUR Hope and Change.. Just saying. How did that turn out?

I guess it's for the Historians to decide many years from now.

[canoeist52]

13. I voted for and defended Bill Clinton in the 90's, but we have the internet now.

We can look stuff up fairly easily. We don't have to buy our candidates at face value. We can "check under the hood".
Less chance of being fooled this time around. We're breaking ground here, and don't know how this new wave of knowledge will affect the future political world. Until the open internet is gone, this is how the new politics is done.

And the only legislation that benefited working people, to come out of the Clinton administration, was the Family and Medical Leave Act. And even that could have been so much better written. I ready for more than business as usual.

[Metric System]

8. Hillary saved herself with her command of the facts and grace under pressure. I KNEW it was Cillizza

before I clicked on the link.

[mcar]

11. I knew it too Metric

Cillizza is a Hillary hating tool.

[dsc]

10. written by a reporter who literally got fired from a job for calling her a bitch

no really, it happened.