September 3, 2016, Nothing to it
Such is the conclusion of the invariably sober Kevin Drum concerning the latest FBI revelations associated with "Hillary's damned emails." He does a thorough review, and concludes that it is as close to an exoneration of HRC and her handling of her emails as one will see anywhere. And yet, she is just such a terrible campaigner, that she just can't spit out words similar to:
"Look, I readily admit that 'best practices' were not followed, and in hindsight, certainly should have been, but there is a huge chasm between not handling your electronic communications in the most perfect state of the art way and impropriety let alone, criminality, and the FBI and Justice and State Departments have so concluded, in their conclusion that there was no basis for prosecution. To quote the Republicans following the 2000 election of George W. Bush: GET OVER IT."
Nonetheless... her "untrustworthy" ratings remain high... and the Donald, despite not paying his own campaign staff, is improving in the polls.
To be fair, yes, I believe the Presidential election is pretty much a kabuki for the rubes... nothing much will change for the better or otherwise depending on which of the two vetted by the Central Committee major party candidates ends up winning the presidency... nonetheless, in the "character" department, Mr. Trump is just in a league (of awfulness) by himself... so, I'd like to pretend, more or less, that this sort of thing matters, because it helps me sleep better.
Anyway... where does this all take us? Darned if I know. There is, of course, research on the proposition that when belief and facts collide... bet on beliefs... A deeper discussion of this phenomenon, in the realm of the political is contained in my own interview with George Lakoff.
I will just say that in my recent foray in the last couple of days through the swing states of Ohio and Pennsylvania (ok... OH, as PA was almost entirely on interstates)... we saw perhaps half a dozen Trump signs and not a single one for Hillary... a shocking lack of enthusiasm all around, this close to an election and I must say, pretty unprecedented in my recent experience. It seems that, to their credit, a slice of the American public has come to the conclusion that with this "election"... there might just be... nothing to it.
Update (9/4/16): Even the right-wing Telegraph reminds us that Calling Trump Names Won't Stop Him Becoming U.S. President. Just sayin'.