Weiner-Leaks and Comey-Confsusion

It was announced ten days ago, by FBI Director James Comey, that more than 600,000 email had been found on a laptop computer shared by top Clinton-Aide Huma Abedin and her estranged husband Anthony Weiner, and that some of these messages just might shed some light on the controversy surrounding Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server – that some of these email might give the FBI cause to re-open its investigation of Hillary, which had heretofore been pronounced closed for lack of evidence. Comey’s vague statements never made it clear that they had anything at all that might hurt Clinton or her reputation, just that they might have something, and that it would take some time to find out for sure. After all, being as Weiner seems to get such a kick out of distributing pictures of his Anthony across the Internet, it is hard to imagine that there were IT people just waiting in line to see what might be in those messages. I hope they were wearing gloves.

Then, yesterday, Comey announced, in another, almost equally vague statement, that there was nothing in the emails to implicate Hillary Clinton.

Whew. I’m glad that is over. No harm done, right?

Except that for nine days many pundits and Trump supporters choose to treat Comey’s first announcement as proof of new evidence of Clinton. Who knows how many early voters in how many states might have been swayed by – absolutely nothing, except a vague sense of unease that seemed to suddenly envelope the Clinton Campaign, like a patch of low-lying fog.

James Comey and the FBI have not hurt Hillary Clinton’s reputation at all. They have done tremendous harm to the reputation of the FBI, and possibly other agencies of the Federal Government. And that is very sad, indeed.

This election is looking closer, day by day, and that is a frightening thought to anyone who realizes just how totally damaging a Trump presidency would be to this country.

We progressives have always considered one candidate to be superior to the other. In this space four years ago, I was very quick to point out what a terrible choice Mitt Romney would be for the presidency and how much better a choice was Obama. Mitt Romney was, at least, an honorable man, running in a race that pitted ideals against ideals. A President Romney would not have put the country into the peril that the election of the orange dumpster-fire of a Trump presidency threatens to do.

It needs to be noted that Mitt Romney, honorable man that he is, has not endorsed Trump, and neither has any of the five living former US presidents – of both parties, mind you.

So, I hope FBI Director James Comey’s ineptitude has not upset the balance of this election in any meaningful way.

I also hope that, if you have not already cast your vote, you will do so tomorrow, and that you will cast it for the imperfect candidate we have by the name Hillary Clinton, and not the horrendous disaster threatening to rain down on us, like a glowing orange lake of incompetent, misogynistic, xenophobic, bigoted, egomaniacal, volcanic lava that would be a Trump presidency.