President
Yet with those long, thin fingers of his, you can imagine him as a cellist, maybe a pianist, or perhaps he'd be playing some mournful and mischievous notes on an oboe.
But the other day in an exclusive interview on
The presidential political scale, where futures are weighed.
And with Clinton's email scandal being investigated by the FBI and his own
He was asked by
"I've got to be careful because, as you know, there have been investigations, there are hearings,
"And I haven't been sorting through each and every aspect of this. Here's what I know:
And then later, asked again by Wallace, the president continued protecting
"I continue to believe that she has not jeopardized America's national security," said the president. "Now what I've also said is that -- and she has acknowledged -- that there's a carelessness, in terms of managing emails, that she has owned, and she recognizes."
Never intentionally. No jeopardy. Recognized carelessness. So just forget about it. Nothing to see here, people.
Naturally, the assumption is that the Clintons have this thing wired, that she's got it all rigged the
I could almost hear her laugh that
But that other laugh, Hillary's Queen Cersei laugh, the angry one of triumph and vindication, the laugh that tells you that revenge is coming up over the horizon and it calls your name.
All the president had to do was decline to comment. Officials do that all the time with pending investigations. But the president didn't decline. He talked. And he knows that every word a president says has profound weight.
So with Mr. Obama all but testifying for Clinton, saying what she did was unintentional, that it may have been careless but ultimately harmless, well, you don't need a be a mountain man to read those tracks in the snow.
Obviously the president feels pressure to defend his former secretary of state, who promises, if elected, that she'll fulfill his third term. If had he declined to comment, his silence may have been interpreted by some as throwing Hillary under the bus.
But if there is no FBI criminal information or no
Still, the president did guarantee that there would be no political interference from his end.
"I guarantee it," he said. "I guarantee that there is no political influence in any investigation conducted by the
And when he said "period," I couldn't help thinking I might just want to keep my doctor, period. That is, if I like my doctor, as someone once promised. Period.
"Nobody gets treated differently when it comes to the
Not even the Clintons?
I'd like to believe him, and believe, too, that the Clintons are not above the law. But the thing is, they are above the law.
They shouldn't be above the law. But get real. They were above it once, and if they're living at
Maybe they'll do us all a favor and just sit on the law, or use it as a footstool, as they look down upon America when the Clinton Restoration is complete.
They rolled that way in
And though the litany of their shame may be dimly remembered by many, it will all come rushing back when we're forced to parse their every word and we're told it all depends on what the definition of is, is.
Her server could have been hacked by foreign intelligence.
And if the president hasn't talked to anyone involved in the investigation, how then is he so certain that national security wasn't compromised?
She didn't carelessly violate federal law. It wasn't coincidental. It was intentional. There are no coincidences in this kind of politics.
It's like a thumb on the thumb plate of an oboe, or a president's thumb on the scale. You don't press it by accident.
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John Kass is a columnist for the Chicago Tribune who also hosts a radio show on WLS-AM.