Opinions have jelled

New Wikileaks?   New Trump Accusers?   It doesn't matter.

So What?

Every day there is some new set of announcements from WikiLeaks.   They have become a blur.   Donna Brazille maybe got some sort of heads up on a debate question.   John Pedesta did something that someone said was shady.  Campaign people made suggestions to each other and to Hillary.  Bill and Chelsea Clinton met with people in Morocco soliciting a gift to the Clinton Foundation soon before Hillary announced for president.

The people announcing these stories on page one, and introducing them as "shocking new revelations!" are the usual suspects in the conservative press:  Fox, Breitbart, Drudge, The Daily Caller, the Wall Street Journal.   The leaks are headlined as scandal, which means that the revelations are framed as misbehavior.    Is politics itself scandalous?

The notion that office holders and donors and friends and political allies help each other out is not surprising to me.  Assistance is offered, little debts and courtesies are accumulated.   This is how humans co-exist.

The local US Congressman Greg Walden (a Republican in leadership responsible for electing Republican candidates) is running TV ads right now showing a veteran thanking Walden for going to bat for him, and has up another ad saying that he helps veterans.  This means that he used his influence to move them up in attention and priority in the VA system.  This isn't considered bad.  It is considered commendable, although in practical terms it means that the veterans Walden helped got to skip in front of veterans who Walden (or some other congressman) did not step in to help within the priorities of the VA.   Click here   He goes to bat for special people: veterans

I am not condemning his involvement in the priorities of the VA, although in fact I would resent being in a long line at Social Security or the DMV if I had to watch my congressman escort someone from the back of the line to a space in front of me.  The people moved further back in priority do not normally see their disadvantage.  The people helped do see it.   Welcome to politics and Congressional Office "case work."   Politicians help people who have appealing stories and situations.  This includes campaign donors. 

TV ad: "Greg Walden stepped in to help"

I am not shocked by Bill and Hillary Clinton doing politics.  That is what it is.   That is what every human does. Favors, courtesies, assistance, gratitude, debt, repayment, acknowledgement, solid short and long term relationships.

Humans do favors for one another, including preferred access to tell their story.  This is "the personal touch".   This is "going to bat."   This is politics.   Remember, the opposite of this is not "good government"; it is "faceless bureaucracy". 

I expect political people to be political, which means put an overlay of humanity and personality and cultural nuance onto what would otherwise be coldly objective and mechanical.  We have a variety of names for this: social graces, courtesies, being situationally aware and poised.  Rules are bent or ignored or exceptions made or selectively enforced to make the world work better.  (Police do not pull over as a "speeder" people driving 5 miles an hour above the speed limit if they are in the flow of traffic.)  

Politics and the multitude of little favors and rewards and requests take place constantly but they are typically out of sight of the people harmed.   No Congressman would waltz a person publicly in front of others, jumping the line.   This is done behind doors.  The WikiLeak discussions were never intended to be public.   But since the emails were hacked and are being revealed, the public is seeing politics being done.   It looks unlovely to the partisans who favor the other candidate.  Fortunately for Hillary WikiLeaks revelations are exposed primarily in sources that may be credible but are overtly partisan and relentlessly critical of her.  This diminishes their impact because their audience is self-selected, both in and out.  

Moreover, the revelations are overwhelming in number.   One or two "scandals" I can absorb.  Three or four leaks a day enter a fog of:  I just don't care and I cannot absorb it.  Hillary is probably guilty of being a politician.  So what?  No big deal."

Meanwhile, Trump supporters have gotten the message.  Trump is a Hugh Hefner-like playboy womanizer who likes the company of beautiful women, which is why he has married three of them and has had intimate time with many more.  Mainstream news outlets report these.   They seem not to move the polls any further.  I am inferring that Trump supporters just don't care and they conclude: There is too much to absorb.  Trump is probably guilty of being a rich playboy womanizing businessman. We knew that.  So what?  No big deal.

So What?

WikiLeaks and abused women occupy the media but I think have no real effect on voters.

The issue is the direction of the country.   Trump has a message of draining the swamp reform, of encouraging job growth through trade protection, and defending the country by keeping out undesirable people, so vote for him to return to American greatness.  Hillary has a message that even if one thinks there are some good things about Trump's message--and she does not-- Trump himself is simply too undisciplined to be trusted as president, so vote for her.

There are still a lot of undecided and wavering voters.   The race will not be decided on the basis of new leaks or new women.  It will be decided on the basis of whether Trump can make his message clearly without muddling it so badly with distractions that Trump ends up proving Hillary's point, not his own.
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Wait!   There is more:  a podcast.   Thad Guyer and I discuss the poll data and whether or not Trump is self destructing. (I think he is.)  I assert that he is stepping all over his message.  Thad has strong views on the USC/LA Times poll, which show Trump ahead.   Yes, ahead.   I get angry about Trump's Gettysburg Address. Thad makes the observation that there are some good things to come out of this long, long campaign.      Click Here for the Podcast