Imagine you're David Brock, James Carville or Lanny Davis. Stop: no! Can't do that to our Newsbusters readers. Let's just picture someone in the Hillary camp—even Herself. He/she's settled in front of the tube this morning, Grande, two-pump Vanilla, Non-Fat, Extra Hot Latte in hand, and tuned to fave show: Morning Joe.
Suddenly, from an array of people, you hear these phrases: "in jail for five to ten years"; "Clinton fatigue especially among Democratic primary voters"; "perjury charges"; "I'm still not certain she's going to be a candidate"; and "more and more people in the inside [saying] they don't think -- they're not so sure she's going to run." What the? You double check just to make sure you haven't—God forbid—dialed Fox News. But no, it's MSNBC!
Yes, that was the collective wisdom of the Morning Joe panel in today's opening-segment discussion of the Hillary email matter, although Joe Scarborough and Willie Geist expressed the personal opinion that, problems notwithstanding, Hillary would run.
Readers are invited to paint the scenario of what it's like inside Hillaryland on this St. Patrick's Day. People turning green?
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Apparently a lot of people in government are asking about that separation letter, because you make guarantees when you sign these separation letters, Dorian, that you are turning over material and, as he [an intelligence-community friend of Joe's] said, I'm not saying it, I don't believe it's going to happen, but he said if I signed the separation paper making guarantees and I had a server at home I promise you I would be in jail for five to ten years.
DORIAN WARREN: Andt his goes to what I think is the bigger issue of this story which is now week two of this story and that is, one set of rules for the Clintons, another set of rules for everyone else. It's not that there might be something about the e-mail controversy itself that's going to blow up. I think it is the accumulation of all of these events, the charter flights, the e-mail, that leads to Clinton fatigue and especially among Democratic primary voters. There's this broader sense of fatigue with whatever the scandal might be, whatever the details may be, there is a sense of Clinton fatigue I think among Democrats.
WILLIE GEIST: For people watching at home, the form is called OF-109, OF dash 109, and as you point out, it opens up Secretary Clinton to perjury charges—potentially—because if she did release classified information two years after agreeing that she would separate and not release it, then she's in trouble.
. . .
DAVID IGNATIUS: And as each of these new little mini-scandals comes along, it raises, I think, that core issue. She's going to have to come out and deal with it if she's goes to be a candidate. I have to say, I'm still, I'm still not certain she's going to be a candidate.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: So Willie, I heard this last night. I was talking to -- it's very interesting. I mean, just sort of my political instinct tells me she's going to run, because she's running against, for the most part, no credible big challengers. So she's going to win. But I'm hearing more and more people in the inside, and maybe they're just on the inside, but saying what David's saying, is they don't think -- they're not so sure she's going to run. That this is going to continue to brew up and then another scandal and then another scandal. I still think she's going to run. I mean, when you have 57% of Americans saying they would be proud to have somebody as their president, that's a higher number than anybody else out there.
GEIST: And especially within the Democratic party, her numbers are still huge. But you have to imagine not just from the American people but from her. Don't you think at some level she's sitting, watching this, and saying, do I really want to go through this through the next decade? I think the answer is yes but it's tough.
