Comey can’t make charges that aren’t warranted exist. At least not while maintaining any credibility.
He could easily be a partisan douchebag. He couldn’t make a genuine case against HRC, so he held a press conference badmouthing her for half an hour instead. Now, he tosses this misleading letter. Both are consistent.
Hardly. Other legal experts have also pointed out that others have been charged for less. He could certainly plausibly have charged her. She’d probably not be found guilty, but by then it’s too late.
If Comey wants to get away with being political in a totally legal way, he can just respond to these nonsense this way: “Anyone who would suggest that I’d play politics with an investigation is unfit to hold elective office.”
As a matter of fact, the right should be banging that drum for the next 10 days. Let’s make this election a referendum on James Comey and see who comes out ahead.
He should definitely do that. Then we could have ten days of clips of the right, including Donald Trump, complaining how Comey’s original findings were evidence of him being in the bag for Hillary.
You could do that, but who spoke stupid last is always what people pay attention to. At least the GOP wasn’t calling for Comey’s prosecution or removal.
Or, if Comey wants to be extra subtle he could say “I’d welcome an investigation and I will cooperate fully, as will anyone else in the FBI.”
Then the Republicans contrast Comey’s transparency with Clinton’s obstruction of any and all inquiries against her, including the rather pedestrian FOIA request that led the State Dept to discover that they didn’t have any of her emails three years after she left office.
Which experts? I hear a lot of horseshit on the RW media, but precious few experts.
If he has any integrity, he’s not going to charge an innocent woman. He can have integrity and be a partisan twat.
I’m not sure what you think that would do, it’s self-serving.
I’d rather it be a referendum on HRC.
You’ll lose that one too. The only way Clinton wins is if it’s a referendum on Donald Trump. Donald Trump seems to be the forgotten man in the last 48 hours of news coverage. He always gains in the polls when he’s not the story.
Clinton +2.4 as of this morning.
Unless he got so much stick from Republicans by not charging her, he had to do something to mitigate that. Who knows what the GOP has on him.
Who knows what’s in Clinton’s “private” emails? There’s speculation and then there’s wild imaginings. It’s possible that Comey was pressured internally to do something like this. Right wing sources say he was tired of all the resignation notices he was getting. That’s actually plausible. Republicans having dirt on him less so.
I think I found a flaw in your argument.
Unfortunately for Trump, even having an FBI stooge on the payroll won’t change the electoral map. There is no way for him to win PA. NC is out of reach. Take these off the table and it’s hard to draw a map to 270 for him.
I think when all is said and done (and much much more will be said, than done) this is it. The Hillary landslide won’t happen, but she’ll squeak in with 320 Electoral Votes, or thereabouts.
And I think Comey’s motives can be taken at face value. These emails came to light, and he decided to go full open kimono: investigate, and tell everybody they’re investigating, and timing be damned.
If the Clinton campaign has any more cards up its sleeve, now would be the time to play them.
I suspect Obama will fire Comey before Inauguration Day to save Hillary from the political fallout of doing so (or from having to find ways to work around him).
Oh, they both are, but are remarkably skilled at findings ways to be differently so.
Newsweek is reporting that Donald Trump’s Companies Destroyed Emails in Defiance of Court Orders. Let’s see if the media goes on about this for days (they won’t). Admittedly, this doesn’t have any potential national security implications, but it’s says something about how he does business and his lack of respect for the law.
I would not bet my house on that.
North Carolina, according to 538, may be less than two points apart. That is not out of reach by even the most optimistic stretch of the imagination.
It depends what happens this week, and, of course, Clinton does not need to win North Carolina to win the election. Since Virginia and Colorado are apparently now Democratic states, Pennsylvania alone would do:
That is a VERY reassuring map. I’m really hard pressed to find a blue state where Trump has a chance of flipping. On the other hand, I see no problem imagining Hillary carrying FL, NC, and NV.
Firing Comey would scream ‘corruption.’ Someone would make Watergate comparisons.
No, it would be pointless for reasons already discussed. He should maintain a dignified distance, as should Hillary. Never let them see you sweat. Be restrained and circumspect.
‘Course, Lizzy Warren, Joe Biden and Bernie are under no such restrictions. Just sayin’, is all.
If you skim quickly, “Lizzy Warren, Joe Biden” looks a lot like “Lizzy Borden”. Made me do a double take 
Makes me wonder who’s going to do the hatchet-job to whom?
Trump’s chance rely on white men in states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin coming out in big numbers. It’s not impossible, though it’s not likely. Flip one of those states on my map (a map that already assumes Trump has lost all the other battleground states) and he wins. Maybe New Hampshire surprises us, which ties it 269-269, which means Trump wins (most states House delegations are controlled by the GOP, and still would be in this scenario.)
Of course, a 269-269 tie also raises the plausible and extremely entertaining possibility that a GOP delegate who can’t stomach the dirty old prick will cast a vote for Clinton, thus resulting in one of the most gorilla-panic-shit-fit-inducing news cycles in the history of the world.
Clinton is unquestionably winning, and at least 10-15 percent of the votes were cast before this past weekend and the FBI announcement. Trump needs either an amazing last week comeback or a polling error. I think, honestly, a polling error is more likely. If the polling screens have incorrectly failed to account for a lurch towards angry white men rushing out to vote for an angry white guy, Trump can win. How likely that is, I frankly have no idea. It could be a one in twenty shot, a one in two shot, one in a thousand, I cant say. But the fact that it might be a plausible thing makes it much likelier than an actual comeback, which at this stage is exceedingly unlikely no matter what weird shit the FBI comes out with.
Early polling results give us no clear picture. In some states the clues point Democratic, in some Republican.