WASHINGTON – Both presidential nomination contests having been scrambled by recent events – the FBI taking control of Hillary Clinton’s private email server and a raucous, roiling GOP debate – the third edition of the Racing Form is herewith rushed into print.
Legal disclaimer: This column is for betting purposes only. What follows is analysis – scrubbed, as thoroughly as a Clinton server, of advocacy. (Unless I simply can’t resist.)
Hillary Clinton: Ever since her disastrous book-launch performance, I’ve thought her both (1) a weak candidate and (2) the inevitable Democratic nominee.
No longer. She has fallen from her 95-percent barring-an-act-of-God perch. The email imbroglio has already badly damaged her credibility. But now that she’s lost control of the server, there is potential for further, conceivably fatal, damage. It hinges largely on how successful she was in erasing the 32,000 emails she unilaterally deemed private.
Whatever happens, she will stay in the race. Clintons never quit. But if more top-secret information is found, if she did destroy work-related emails and if her numbers continue their steady decline, the party might decide it simply can’t afford to continue carrying her baggage.