Daily Beast asks, ‘What are the chances Hillary can live up to Obama’s scandal-free example?’

Daily Beast asks, ‘What are the chances Hillary can live up to Obama’s scandal-free example?’

Inquiring minds want to know. Can Hillary Clinton — who is already embroiled in scandals regarding (1) her private email server, (2) the very conspicuous lies she told in re Benghazi, and (3) Clinton Foundation donors, to name a few — live up (down?) to Barack Obama’s squeaky clean ethics as president?

The sad thing is that The Daily Beast’s Michael Tomasky, having lived through the same eight years as the rest of us, finds this a credible question to ask. He even allows for the likelihood that non-worshipers at the altar of Obama will be skeptical:

Now I know that sentence is a real knee-slapper to conservatives, some of whom swear that the only reason Eric Holder and Obama aren’t wearing jumpsuits is the existence of the liberal media.

Then, ironically, he goes on to assure us that that’s exactly the case, or at least a proximate factor:

Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?

But for the rest of us, the explanation is simpler. It seems to have been — as these things go in 21st century America — a surprisingly clean administration.

Tomasky apparently received — and believed — the memo that “not a smidgen of corruption” has clouded the Obama years.

So, the IRS shares thousands of taxpayer documents with the White House? No smidgen there. And speaking of Eric Holder, who can forget the scandal-free “Operation Fast and Furious” or Obama’s Justice Department prying into the phone records of Associated Press reporters to find out about a leak?

Tomasky does adnit to “a few distressing flares shot out of the penumbras of the executive branch — the VA, most notably.” But then he adds reassuringly that “there’s been nothing directly involving the White House.” Says who? Since when does the Veterans Administration not operate under aegis of the executive branch?

Tomasky has company in his blind admiration for Obama and his spotless record. New York Times “conservative” columnist David Brooks wrote in June of 2015 of Obama’s “amazingly scandal-free administration.”

Yes, there have been detractors on the left. Investigative journalist Bob Woodward told Chris Wallace of Fox News Channel in 2014 that something was sorely amiss in the Justice Department’s reluctance to pursue criminal charges against the former head of the exempt organizations division of the IRS, Lois Lerner.

As for Tomasky’s claim about “the rest of us,” he should look over his shoulder. In September 2015, a Gallup survey found that 75% of Americans believe there is widespread government corruption. Tomasky and his ilk are in the extreme minority.

Howard Portnoy

Howard Portnoy

Howard Portnoy has written for The Blaze, HotAir, NewsBusters, Weasel Zippers, Conservative Firing Line, RedCounty, and New York’s Daily News. He has one published novel, Hot Rain, (G. P. Putnam’s Sons), and has been a guest on Radio Vice Online with Jim Vicevich, The Alana Burke Show, Smart Life with Dr. Gina, and The George Espenlaub Show.

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