What Bill Clinton's surprise meeting with Loretta Lynch means
It was a bad idea for Bill Clinton to travel over to Attorney General Loretta Lynch鈥檚 plane for a visit on the Phoenix tarmac on Thursday. Everybody involved seems to realize that now.
Mr. Clinton鈥檚 wife is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for possible mishandling of classified information via her private email server. Attorney General Lynch is America鈥檚 top law enforcement officer, the person at the top of the Justice bureaucracy that will decide whether or not to charge Hillary Clinton with a crime.
Hmmm. Did they really just talk about grandkids and golf, as Lynch says?
The larger question is whether the ensuing political uproar about this meeting will change anything of substance in the presidential campaign. Our guess is that it probably won鈥檛.
Yes, it likely made Mrs. Clinton鈥檚 email problem worse in political terms, as Washington Post pundit Chris Cillizza at The Fix blog. It鈥檚 given many voters cause to remember that Clinton鈥檚 trustworthiness numbers are pretty low to begin with.
If it鈥檚 not one thing with the Clintons, it鈥檚 another, goes the weary critical refrain. Do they not see when their actions appear to be conflict of interest, or outright suspicious? In that sense, the Lynch meeting is just one more event in a series that includes Hillary Clinton鈥檚 big bucks Wall Street speeches and Bill Clinton鈥檚 international fundraising for their foundation.
Six in 10 voters already believe Clinton has handled the email thing poorly, according to Mr. Cillizza.
鈥淭his whole mess created by Lynch and Bill Clinton will only make those numbers worse, further exposing Hillary Clinton鈥檚 biggest weakness in the eyes of the voters,鈥� he writes.
But Mrs. Clinton has the good fortune to be running against someone whose unfavorable ratings are even worse than hers. Partisan views 鈥� and vote preferences 鈥� are already pretty entrenched. It鈥檚 unlikely this news point in and of itself will have more than a temporary effect on horse race polls.
Far more important in potential effect will be the actual prosecution decision. We鈥檝e written in the past that legal analysts generally think there is little chance Clinton will be indicted. But that鈥檚 just speculation. The real world has a way of producing events that confound conventional wisdom. If Clinton is indicted after all, the 2016 race will turn upside down 鈥� again.
If she is not indicted, her supporters will profess to be unsurprised. An event they didn鈥檛 expect won鈥檛 be occurring.
鈥淟OL. Lynch non-story a reminder that many people fooled into thinking theres remotest chance FBI/USAttys will rec any charges agst Clinton,鈥� Josh Marshall, editor of left-leaning TPM, on Friday.
Meanwhile, some of her opponents will charge that she鈥檚 escaped prosecution due to cover-up. Oh sure, Lynch has now said she鈥檒l defer to the decision of her career prosecutors. But don鈥檛 you think they already know what she wants? That鈥檚 what critics will say. After all, she met with Bill Clinton in a private t锚te-脿-t锚te!
The Phoenix meeting 鈥渃reates a gift-wrapped excuse for Trump to challenge the outcome of the feds鈥� investigation if, as everyone expects, Hillary ends up not being indicted,鈥� Allahpundit at right-leaning Hot Air.
