# Hillary supporters or fencesitters: Do you care about her email "problem"? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 4, 2015, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-supporters-or-fencesitters-do-you-care-about-her-email-problem/714150 "2015-03-04T00:07:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-supporters-or-fencesitters-do-you-care-about-her-email-problem/714150/21 "2015-03-04T15:01:38Z")
I’m so tired of the Republicans flinging shit in every directiont that I hardly listen to them anymore. As others have said, they screamed wolf enough times. I will never vote for a Republican, anyway, not as long as they have the strong arm of the Religious Right behind them. Email scandal? Sure, she should have known better, but come on, why don’t they just start screaming about Benghazi or some other manufactured outrage again? Not that I am overly fond of the Dems, either, but we are all in a bad situation. I actually don’t want to vote for a Clinton or a Bush. Somebody new, this is not a dynasty, please. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-supporters-or-fencesitters-do-you-care-about-her-email-problem/714150/22 "2015-03-04T15:11:38Z")
> [@Lee\_Q](#): > > There’s a news story in the current cycle about Hillary Clinton apparently only using her private email, not gov’t email, while Sec. of State. Her camp says she did nothing illegal or improper (not an exact quote). Meanwhile some are aghast, going so far as to say she put the country at risk. > > We know that there were let’s just say some email issues in the Bush admin, too. Such things are not unheard of or even rare, however else we might characterize them. > > My question is mainly for those who are essentially supporters of Hillary Clinton and/or those who have been open to the possibility of voting for her, should she run and secure the nomination. Does this affect how you feel about supporting her? > > I presume anyone else is delighted by this turn of events, so I don’t really need to ask them how they feel about it. 😃 I am an opponent of Mrs. Clinton, and very likely won’t vote for her. I will likely vote Republican (although I make room for the possibility that the GOP will field a candidate so awful that I will vote for Clinton after all). Your presumption is that I’m delighted by this turn of events. But I posted [a thread in GD](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=750725) ten hours before you started this thread, in which I said: > [@Hilary Clinton and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Personal E-mail Account](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hilary-clinton-and-the-terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad-personal-e-mail-account/714092/1): > > Of course, some of those with an axe to grind against Secretary Clinton are now piously announcing their great concern for transparent retention of e-mail records. > . > . > . > To the extent it’s a violation, it’s one of NARA policy, and purely technical in nature. She used a personal account but sent mail to the [state.gov](http://state.gov) accounts of her staff, where that e-mail was properly retained as a record. > > This is manufactured outrage. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-supporters-or-fencesitters-do-you-care-about-her-email-problem/714150/23 "2015-03-04T15:15:13Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > It’s not a problem. There was no law covering emails in executive offices when Hillary was Secretary of State. Yes, there was. 44 USC § 3101 et seq. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-supporters-or-fencesitters-do-you-care-about-her-email-problem/714150/24 "2015-03-04T15:22:56Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > But yea, as long as there wasn’t a law requiring her to use the gov’t email system, I don’t really have a problem with it. There wasn’t. There was NARA “guidance,” which creates policy (not law) that forbid her approach. However, her conduct is still defensible: the LAW says that the head of each Federal agency shall make and preserve records containing adequate and proper documentation of the organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, and essential transactions of the agency and designed to furnish the information necessary to protect the legal and financial rights of the Government and of persons directly affected by the agency’s activities. In other words, the head of the agency is responsible for determining how best to implement the requirements of the law. As Secretary of State, Mrs. Clinton did just that. Her conduct was consistent with the law as it then existed. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-supporters-or-fencesitters-do-you-care-about-her-email-problem/714150/25 "2015-03-04T16:45:54Z")
I kind of hope this is a MAJOR problem for her, so much so that she decides to not pursue running. While I’d vote for her (and did so in 2008 against that new-comer Barack guy), I think this is yet another sign that she’s so polarizing that if she got elected president, the next four to eight years of her term would be even worse gridlock than Obama’s. If she does drop out for this reason or some other, I hope the Democrats can find somebody a bit more palatable to offer. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-supporters-or-fencesitters-do-you-care-about-her-email-problem/714150/26 "2015-03-04T16:51:03Z")
It matters. To use a personal email for business is just plain stupid. As an employee, what happens if your account is hacked or compromised? Yeah - it can happen to any account, government or not. But at least through the “official” account someone (some third party) can very quickly judge what was lost. I was under a rule of “work from the work account ONLY” rule 15 years ago for good reason. ---
**Author:** ![stillownedbysetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/41988e/32.png) [@stillownedbysetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stillownedbysetters)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-supporters-or-fencesitters-do-you-care-about-her-email-problem/714150/27 "2015-03-04T16:53:19Z")
Total non-event. Republicans grasping at straws. Was it ill advised to use personal email? Sure. But if she was never assigned a government email as SOS, what else was she supposed to do? (That’s presuming she indeed was not assigned such an email) She’s apparently produced the emails for scrutiny, so unless there is something damning in them, this should end the matter. It probably won’t, but it should. ---
**Author:** ![RickG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rickg/32/5174_2.png) [@RickG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickG)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-supporters-or-fencesitters-do-you-care-about-her-email-problem/714150/28 "2015-03-04T16:54:12Z")
I vote on policy, not personality. I am in sufficient disagreement with the policy objectives of the GOP, as currently constituted, that I will vote for whomever the Democratic Party nominates. This is especially true when there is absolutely no realistic chance that the Republicans lose control of the House until after the next census, and only a moderate chance that they lose the Senate in 2016. So, yeah, if she’s the nominee, I’ll vote for Clinton. I’ll even donate to her general election campaign. I might support Warren or Sanders in the primaries, though. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-supporters-or-fencesitters-do-you-care-about-her-email-problem/714150/29 "2015-03-04T17:04:01Z")
I wouldn’t call myself an HRC “supporter”. I’d likely vote for her over any of the Republican candidates, and I think she would be an OK president. I just wish we could get past the Clintons and onto some new blood. I see her as very smart, extremely political (more than I prefer), but not too likely to get us into any crazy wars. It’s that last thing I worry about the most, and I don’t trust any in the GOP field, even if Hillary might be more hawkish than many Democrats. I’d prefer a more principled Democrat like the former Senator Russ Feingold, even if I might not agree with all of his policies. ---
**Author:** ![Fool\_in\_the\_Rain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8491ac/32.png) [@Fool\_in\_the\_Rain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fool_in_the_Rain)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-supporters-or-fencesitters-do-you-care-about-her-email-problem/714150/30 "2015-03-04T17:08:48Z")
> [@China\_Guy](#): > > If you work in corporate America, you sure as hell do NOT use private email for corporate business. I expect the same for government employees. There are government retention of email laws and requirements on the books for private sector. I personally don’t have any good dirt, but am required by the US government to retain email IIRC for 7 years. How in the hell can anyone think the Secretary of State wouldn’t need to have an email trail? > > Sarah Palin got castigated as Gov of Alaska for using private email accounts to avoid scrutiny. Rightfully so. > > It is simply not acceptable for any government leader to use private email exclusively for government work. Use private email for private business. I’ll forgive some grey area or occasionally forgetting, but jesus h Christ, private email generally is not secure, there is no “paper trail.” > > I’m non party affiliated, but the chance of me voting republican for president is the slim side of none. That said, this is a negative for Hillary although I’d be surprised if it has legs. I was going to post something like this. It is a negative, she should be using government email for government work, but in the scheme of things, it’s a minor thing. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-supporters-or-fencesitters-do-you-care-about-her-email-problem/714150/31 "2015-03-04T17:21:15Z")
I don’t care about what she did and it doesn’t affect my full support for her. I blame the GOP for coarsening the political partisanship to this level. In another time and place I would have cared, but seeing as how every GOP candidate would essentially be evil, there is nothing Hillary can realistically do that would make me lose support for her ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-supporters-or-fencesitters-do-you-care-about-her-email-problem/714150/32 "2015-03-04T18:04:33Z")
> [@JohnGalt](#): > > she’s so polarizing that if she got elected president, the next four to eight years of her term would be even worse gridlock than Obama’s. If she does drop out for this reason or some other, I hope the Democrats can find somebody a bit more palatable to offer. Who is \*really \*doing the polarizing, please? And what Democrat would \*not \*be the target of it? If we’re going to be responsible citizens, we can’t reward it or even bend to it, can we? ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-supporters-or-fencesitters-do-you-care-about-her-email-problem/714150/33 "2015-03-04T18:07:31Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Who is \*really \*doing the polarizing, please? And what Democrat would \*not \*be the target of it? > > If we’re going to be responsible citizens, we can’t reward it or even bend to it, can we? Agreed. The Republicans have acted like complete children during these last two campaigns. They literally brought the government to a halt because they couldn’t play nicely in the sandbox. I don’t think any Dem candidate will do for them. I think they think it’s “their turn”. Oh, for a third party candidate that might actually have a chance! ETA: Changed republicans to Republicans because I really do mean the GOP. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-supporters-or-fencesitters-do-you-care-about-her-email-problem/714150/34 "2015-03-04T18:17:33Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > My initial reaction is that it was a dumb thing to do, possibly with impure motives, and certainly giving ammunition to her adversaries. I’m not broken up over it, and I would still vote for her over any of the Republican nominees I can foresee. This > [@](#): > > Unless she really impresses me in the next 12 months, I doubt I’ll support her in the primaries. Not this. She was my choice in '08. I don’t expect her to be free of impure motives very often. I think she’s a deal-maker and a manipulator and a policy planner. I like her overall politics pretty well. I think she’ll be more effective than Obama, who has not leveraged his strengths and has been shut down by the Republicans. I’m ready for an impure dirty-fighting Democrat and she might be the one to fit the bill. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-supporters-or-fencesitters-do-you-care-about-her-email-problem/714150/35 "2015-03-04T18:35:56Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > I am an opponent of Mrs. Clinton, and very likely won’t vote for her. I will likely vote Republican (although I make room for the possibility that the GOP will field a candidate so awful that I will vote for Clinton after all). > > Your presumption is that I’m delighted by this turn of events. > > But I posted [a thread in GD](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=750725) ten hours before you started this thread, in which I said: Just out of curiosity, have you ever voted D for president? If so, for whom? Dukakis? Back to the question at hand, I will vote for any D over any R for president. There are things I like and things I don’t about Hillary. She’s too close to Wall Street and isn’t liberal enough. But she’s a fighter and she isn’t going to come into office with any dreams of post-partisanship like Obama did. She knows enough to know she’s in a fight. The email thing is not a big issue. I think she is in the wrong, personally. I’m sure State has a big IT professional staff who take pride in keeping email communications secure and properly archived. I just don’t think it’s right to bypass the system and assume that you can make something as secure on your own. ---
**Author:** ![NVME702-redux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a183cd/32.png) [@NVME702-redux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NVME702-redux)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-supporters-or-fencesitters-do-you-care-about-her-email-problem/714150/36 "2015-03-04T18:37:33Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > I’m a supporter, and I don’t give a damn. > > The Republicans have been screaming nonsense about her for so many years – Vince Foster, anyone? – that if, just perhaps, they actually have something real here, it’s too damn late. They’ve cried wolf a thousand times. Now, a wolf has appeared? Too bad; they should have shown responsibility from the first. > > Far as I’m concerned, it’s all fabricated outrage. It’s just throwing crap at the wall, hoping it will stick. The only place it’s sticking is to their own hands. > > Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi. All of this! ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-supporters-or-fencesitters-do-you-care-about-her-email-problem/714150/37 "2015-03-04T18:42:06Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > I’m a supporter, and I don’t give a damn. > > The Republicans have been screaming nonsense about her for so many years – Vince Foster, anyone? – that if, just perhaps, they actually have something real here, it’s too damn late. They’ve cried wolf a thousand times. Now, a wolf has appeared? Too bad; they should have shown responsibility from the first. > > Far as I’m concerned, it’s all fabricated outrage. It’s just throwing crap at the wall, hoping it will stick. The only place it’s sticking is to their own hands. > > Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi. I support this message and wish to subscribe to your newsletter. After so many lying cries of “wolf!”- not only do we stop caring but \*we actually applaud the wolf when he shows up. \* ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-supporters-or-fencesitters-do-you-care-about-her-email-problem/714150/38 "2015-03-04T19:22:10Z")
It shows poor judgment, but a quick visit to teh Google (which they apparently don’t have at _The New York Times_) shows that it doesn’t violate the laws and regulations as they existed at the time. Verdict: A minor downcheck, not enough to matter unless the GOP somehow manages to field a non-“HELL-NO!” candidate this time around. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-supporters-or-fencesitters-do-you-care-about-her-email-problem/714150/39 "2015-03-04T19:30:19Z")
I guess I qualify as a fencesitter. I’d like to see a credible challenge to Clinton in the primaries, but I expect she’ll win the nomination and will certainly support her against whichever crazy, amoral tool of oligarchs that the GOP nominates. ‘Unforced error’ would be about the kindest thing I’d say about it. And I don’t like it when the rules only seem to apply to lesser mortals, but not the big shots like Hillary Clinton or David Petraeus. But in the larger scheme of things, this is pretty small potatoes. People’s lives are on the line in a Supreme Court case that was argued today. People’s lives are on the line in the decisions we make to intervene, or not, in other countries’ problems. Nobody’s life is on the line because Clinton kept her government emails in a personal account. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-supporters-or-fencesitters-do-you-care-about-her-email-problem/714150/40 "2015-03-04T19:42:00Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Just out of curiosity, have you ever voted D for president? If so, for whom? Dukakis? Yup. Obama over McCain in 2008. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-supporters-or-fencesitters-do-you-care-about-her-email-problem/714150.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-supporters-or-fencesitters-do-you-care-about-her-email-problem/714150.md?page=3)