THE LATEST HILLARY CLINTON "ROLL-OUT" A NEW THREE-PRONG STRATEGY TO GET PAST THE E-MAILS ISSUE

TEAM CLINTON IS TELLING HILLARY’S CLOSEST INSIDERS, SUPPORTERS AND FRIENDS IN THE MEDIA THAT IT IS ROLLING-OUT A NEW E-MAIL STRATEGY  —  A THREE-PRONG APPROACH, WHICH IGNORES HILLARY'S PROBLEM E-MAILS AND HER PRIVATE SERVER

CLINTON STRATEGY IS POINTED TOWARD THE OCTOBER 22nd BENGHAZI HEARINGS  —   ONCE THAT EVENT PASSES BOTH E-MAILS & BENGHAZI WILL QUICKLY BECOME OLD NEWS  —  AT LEAST,  THAT'S THE CLINTON TEAM'S THINKING

EARLY ATTEMPTS AT CLINTON’S “NEW STRATEGY” ARE QUICKLY REBUFFED 

THE DAILY CALLER ARTICLE  —  CRITICAL AND MORALISTIC

According to a report in the “Daily Caller” —   “The Hillary Clinton presidential campaign is developing a three-pronged strategy to help the Democrat recover from the growing controversy surrounding her emails and her private server. But none of the pieces of that multi-part pushback plan [...] appear to involve the Democrat actually explaining why she used a private server, when she wiped it clean, and why she did so....  Clinton is making even her most loyal supporters nervous over her response to the scandal. Not only has she had to back-pedal on several of her claims — about having turned over all of her work-related emails and about handling classified information — she’s also made two jokes dismissing the the ongoing investigation....”
( See “Clinton’s New Three-Pronged Strategy To Respond To Email Scandal Doesn’t Even Address Emails, Server” by Chuck Ross, 8/21/2015, The Daily Caller [http://dailycaller.com/2015/08/21/clintons-new-three-pronged-strategy-to-respond-to-email-scandal-doesnt-even-address-emails-server/]).

THE HUFFINGTON POST COVERAGE OF THE MATERIAL WAS MORE TRANSACTIONAL AND WONKY THAN THE DAILY CALLER’S MORALISTIC SCOLDING

The basic information in the Daily Caller report, cited above, originated in the Huffington Post, whose underlying article had taken an entirely different tack.

The Huff-Po article by Sam Stein noted that  —   “....  For the past few months, Clinton has been unable to shake criticism over her email habits as secretary of state. Her self-admitted regret over operating solely from a private account was compounded by ethical questions about the arrangement and revelations about its vulnerabilities. An awkward press conference here, reports of confidential information exposure there, and voila: A seemingly shoo-in Democratic nominee has lost a fair bit of her luster over the course of a summer....   On the periphery of the campaign, the faint lines of anxiety are getting bolder. Clinton confidantes, mostly speaking anonymously for fear of alienating the candidate, described the entire episode as ‘self-destructive’ and ‘baffling.’ The few willing to attach their names to the quotes are only slightly more filtered. ‘It’s tone deaf,’ said former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, referring to the campaign’s decision this week to dismiss the email controversy with a quip about SnapChat. ‘Can you imagine making a joke about this in the middle of it all?’...” (See “The Clinton Campaign Is In 'The Barrel.' They Have A Plan To Get Out.” by Sam Stein. 8/21/15, The Huffington Post [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-clinton-campaign-is-in-the-barrel-they-have-a-plan-to-get-out_55d76df0e4b08cd3359c0858?2ihpvi]).

Stein goes on with this description of the calmer insiders: “....  A few steps in from the periphery, the mood is calmer. Aides and advisers argue that the saga is overblown. They say it's the product of confusion over byzantine classification processes; a campaign where she's targeted by all 16 Republicans and several Democrats; and the sui generis nature of being a Clinton. More than one compared the email scandal to Whitewater, the real estate controversy that plagued the Clintons in the early '90s and led to large legal bills but not lasting political damage....  ‘I wish this hadn’t happened,’ said one longtime adviser, ‘but it goes with Clinton Inc.’...”

To get in front of [expected bad E-mail headlines in the future], the Clinton campaign is plotting a three-pronged pushback strategy. The first, described by communications director Jennifer Palmieri in an interview with The Huffington Post, is an end-of-summer effort to educate the public on the classification process for national security material. The second, coming when Congress returns from recess, is to aggressively pivot to policy announcements, from economic and women's issues to President Barack Obama's Iran deal, which will receive a vote in September. The last is to ‘go on offense’ on Clinton's record as secretary of state, which the campaign sees as the ultimate target of her Republican critics....”

THE CLINTON CAMPAIGN EXPECTS THAT IT WILL ALL COME DOWN TO HILLARY CLINTON’S QUESTIONING BY THE HOUSE SELECT COMMITTEE ON BENGHAZI

The Stein-HuffPo article says that —   “....   In attempting to soothe jittery Democrats, aides have begun highlighting Oct. 22 as a moment that could bring clarity -- if not some finality -- to the email story. Clinton will head to Capitol Hill that day for testimony before the House committee investigating the 2011 consulate attack in Benghazi. And the presumption that she'll do well under questioning is matched only by the conviction that House Republicans will grow over-eager under the camera lights....  ‘It will be the best day of the campaign,’ said Steve Elmendorf, a longtime Democratic operative, lobbyist and Clinton confidante. ‘They will overreach. That's what they do.’...”

E-MAILS & BENGHAZI NOT SEEN AS AN EXISTENTIAL THREAT BY CLINTON INSIDERS

According to Sam Stein, “....  Clinton's team doesn't see these issues, even collectively, as amounting to an existential threat. Instead, it is adopting the mantra that election strategy can't be dictated by surrounding theatrics....  In this mindset, the campaign is joined by veterans of successful presidential runs of the past. David Axelrod, who alongside Plouffe helped Obama get elected, described what they called life in the barrel: the all-consuming moment in every campaign that is more noise than crisis point....  Clinton, Axelrod added, needed to take a long view. ‘You can't get wrapped up in the meme of the moment but you can’t ignore it either,’ he concluded. ‘I think she is in a very strong position, and my guess is there isn’t a candidate around who wouldn’t change places with her right now with whatever freight she is carrying.’ ”

THE DAILY CALLER ARTICLE, CITED ABOVE, ALSO DESCRIBED TWO OF FRIDAY’S E-MAIL-RELATED  ITEMS AS PREVIEWS OF HILLARY’S TEAMS NEWEST TACTICS ON THE E-MAILS FRONT — BOTH TURNED OUT TO BE CONTROVERSIAL AND RECEIVED QUICK PUSHBACK 

According to the Chuck Ross article in the “Daily Caller”  —   “....  As an apparent preview of her plan to educate the public about how classified information is handled by the federal government, Clinton sent a tweet Friday morning lamenting the federal government’s ‘ridiculous classification rules,’ which she said are ‘the real problem.’...   Later in the day, Clinton’s campaign press secretary Brian Fallon posted a video in which he responded to some of the claims circulating about Clinton’s handling of classified information....”

Both Clinton Team forays were quickly rebuffed by events in the form of pushback.  Hillary’s tweet was pounced-upon by the U.S. Intelligence Community and the U.S. Military; and Brian Fallon’s video was critiqued and rebutted by Fox News’ Catherine Herridge.

HILLARY TWEETS THAT IT’S “THE RULES” THAT ARE THE PROBLEM — NOT HER E-MAILS OR SERVER  —   THE MILITARY & INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY QUICKLY LASH BACK AT HILLARY’S TWEET

According to another report in the “Daily Caller” [not the one cited above], “Former intelligence and military officials were swift to reply Friday to Hillary Clinton’s contention that government over-classification of materials are “the real problem,” not her use of an unsecured private email server to conduct official business during her four years as secretary of state....    ‘Our ridiculous classification rules’ are ‘the real problem,’ she tweeted this morning, quoting a former Justice Department official....  Senior military and intelligence officials immediately fired back....  ‘It’s not up to her to decide what level it’s classified at. It’s up to her to obey the law, and clearly she did not.’...” (See “Intel, Military Officials Fire Back At Hillary’s Over-Classification Tweet” by  Richard Pollock,  8/21/15, The Daily Caller [http://dailycaller.com/2015/08/21/intel-military-fire-back-at-hillarys-over-classification-tweet/]).

CATHERIN HERRIDGE & FOX NEWS SAY THEIR WORK WAS MISUSED AND DISHONESTLY PRESENTED BY BRIAN FALLON’S E-MAIL PRESENTATION 

Last night Catherine Herridge appeared with Martha MacCallum and discussed how Brian Fallon had mis-portrayed a report that Ms Herridge had done on Fox News. In addition, the newswoman pointed out that markings -- “NOT CLASSIFIED” –  on certain E-mails, used as examples by Mr. Fallon, were not on the original documents, but had been added when they were released to the congressional committee that had requested them. The marking “NOT CLASSIFIED” had nothing to do with the documents’ original classification status.