Your Serve

Leaked information from Clinton campaign keeps pouring in. The leaks, all from the e-mail account of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and supposedly provided to WikiLeaks by the Russians, cover everything from the denigration of Catholics to the underhanded tactics against Bernie Sanders - nothing about Martin O'Malley? nah, even Hillary's campaign staffers didn't know who he is - but the most explosive leak may have been the report that a deputy secretary at the State Department, Undersecretary of State Patrick Kennedy (not the former Rhode island congressman of the Kennedy family), may have tried to get the FBI to de-classify the contents of one e-mail from Hillary's own private server. 

In exchange, the State Department said that it would help the FBI get agents assigned to dangerous areas overseas.  (Wait - the FBI has agents assigned overseas?)  One individual said there was pressure from another FBI official regarding the request.  

The FBI is denying that there was a quid pro quo - Latin for "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" - involved, but it doesn't look good for Hillary.  Her camp says that the e-mails that have been released have neither been authenticated nor disproved.  Well, her staffers should either authenticate them or disprove them, and then they should let the chips fall where they may.

They may not have to do any of that, because Donald Trump is shooting himself in the foot.  He's going around mocking the sexual harassment charges against him, and he's also saying that the voting system in These States is rigged.  His charge of voter fraud make him look so ridiculous, petulant, and unpresidential that he even has fellow Republicans - known for voter-fraud paranoia of their own - denying the system is rigged.  Trump even said the Republican nomination process was rigged.  Yeah, Donald?  Well, I guess that explains why you're the Republican presidential nominee!

Then again, there may be a method to Donald's madness.  He said the GOP nomination process was rigged and thus encouraged primary voters to show up and secure his nomination.  He may be trying the same strategy to overtake Hillary in the general election, though he fails to understand that the general election campaign is completely different from the nomination campaign.    

I still think he has a chance, though, if only because the polls showing Hillary ahead don't take into account any of the voters who registered to vote for Trump in the primaries and plan to vote for him in November - but did not vote in 2012.  Presidential election polls are based on registered voters from the previous election.  I am not saying that Trump will win.  I only note that he can.   

As for Hillary's e-mails . . . I expect another leak, a couple of leaked e-mails in which Hillary staffers ask about Martin O'Malley, "Wasn't he the company clerk on 'M*A*S*H'?"  "Wasn't he the eighth President of the United States?" :-p