President Obama does not work for you or us *anymore*, he is free to work for those he choses to

[Kentonio]

57. If there's nothing to hide, then she should have put them out there as soon as it became an issue.

That kind of secrecy just ends up turning a minor thing into a big talking point. It's not at all like Obama's birth certificate, that was a ridiculous nonsense than no self respecting person should have paid a moments heed to. I'm actually still annoyed that he did end up releasing it, I really wish he'd just told those birther assholes to go fuck themselves.

Highly paid speeches to big business when you're about to run for a job where you'll have direct influence over policies that effect those companies is a very different thing though. The optics of doing it are already bad, and then refusing to allow anyone to know what was said is just ridiculous. Even if there is literally nothing in the slightest bit controversial, then hiding it just leads people to think there must be something controversial because otherwise why would you hide it? Especially when just the cycle before we'd had releases of hidden footage of Romney giving private speeches and talking shit about half the country. That stuff stays in people's minds, and as soon as they hear 'private speeches' they're likely to make that mental link.

I didn't accuse Hillary of being corrupt, but its not enough to not be corrupt, you have to be seen to be above suspicion and to set the highest possible standard. She hurt her campaign badly with the speech thing, and I really wish her advisors had had the common sense to get in front of it and make it a non-issue. We can't hand Republicans free ammunition like that, its damaging and deeply self-defeating. In 2020 we need to be flawless.