On the Bloomberg TV show he co-hosts, John Heilemann—asked today to quantify on a scale of "1-to-Godzilla" how "dumb" politically it was of Hillary Clinton to use personal email—answered "Godzilla with Mothra riding on his back dumb." Heilemann also revealed having reached out to former Hillary aides and that "to a person" they responded that the situation is a political "disaster."
Mark Halperin claimed that, substantively, Hillary might have "a leg to stand on" but that politically her decision to use personal email was "moronic."
No one would call Heilemann or Halperin conservative-friendly hacks. For them to depict Hillary's problem as so serious is a significant bellwether. How'd you like to be the aide meeting with Hillary today who had originally advised her to go the private email route?
MARK HALPERIN: John, on a scale of 1-to-Godzilla, how politically dumb was it of Hillary Clinton to use her personal e-mail address while presiding at Foggy Bottom?JOHN HEILEMANN: It's like Godzilla with Mothra riding on his back dumb, I think. When this story broke last night I sent a bunch of email out to people who have worked for Secretary Clinton in the past asking what they thought and to a person they said it's a disaster politically for her. She needs to do something really dramatic, much more dramatic than what they have done today, releasing a bunch of her personal e-mails, putting them into the archive immediately, or that this could drag out for a really long time and be really bad for her.
MARK HALPERIN: Look, I think that real voters are not going to care about this any time soon, if ever. But for elites, it's bad. It demoralizes, as you suggested, Democrats because it divides them between those who are blindly loyal to the Clintons no matter what and those who say if she is going to run and win and govern effectively if she wins, she's got to change doing things that make her look entitled.
She's got a leg to stand on. Look, Jay Carney said at a White House briefing several years ago while she was Secretary of State it is our policy not to use personal e-mails. But except for that quote, I think she's got a good argument. The way she handled it might have been okay substantively, might, but it was politically moronic.
HEILEMANN: It feeds the narrative of the Clintons only play by their own rules.
