2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: I don't fucking care how much they paid her. [View all]Empowerer
(3,900 posts)I don't want a Commander-in-Chief - or a candidate, for that matter - to give off-the-cuff promises when they don't have all of the information.
I know that in this, 24-hour, news-in-an-instance media world we're in now, people may get impatient when they don't get an answer in 10 seconds. But responsible, mature leaders don't make promises in answer to questions tossed at them by a reporter in a debate unless and until they know they can keep it.
And because it is very likely that Hillary did not know while she was standing there in that moment, 1) whether there are transcripts; 2) who has them; 3) if she does not control them, can she make someone release them and, if so, what is the process and timing for doing that, she would have been a fool to say, "Yes, SURE!" and then have to walk it back the next day if she had spoken too soon.
This is not a life-or-death matter and nothing is going to change if you don't see those transcripts in the next hour. In fact, I doubt that most of the people who are screaming the loudest for them even knew there may be any transcripts until Thursday night - and now, suddenly, they cannot function unless they have them and have them now.
This is much ado about nothing. While we certainly want our Commanders-in-Chief to be decisive and prompt, we also don't need any more shoot-from-the-hip, "I'm gonna say what I think no matter what the consequences and then fix it later if it blows up in our faces" presidencies. I want my president to take the time to "look into" things before they make commitments.
"'Because I like to know what I'm talking about before I speak.' - President Obama, in response to a reporter's question about why he didn't condemn AIG bonuses immediately upon learning that they had been awarded.