Formal definitions of the word “politics” focus on high-minded concepts like “affairs of state” and “governance” and “diplomacy.” None call it a game, but that’s exactly what the presidential campaign is these days.
It’s a game to duck scrutiny and divert attention. It’s a game to tell half-truths and define what’s normal. And, last week, it was a game to see which candidate could be the first to call the other a bigot.
The game also involved The New York Times stooping to a new low. Its warped decisions about what qualifies as news suggests there are no limits to how far the paper will go to elect Hillary Clinton and bury Donald Trump.
Clinton needs all the help she can get. The week started with her in yet another sinkhole of corruption and lies over her e-mails, family foundation and even top aide Huma Abedin.
Nixonian in her stonewalling and Clintonesque in her deception, Clinton claims transparency even as she boards up the windows and triple-locks the doors. Among other things, we learned she used BleachBit on her personal server, a digital scrubber that boasts it “tirelessly guards your privacy,” to make sure even the FBI couldn’t see what she didn’t want it to see.
Her unbridled chutzpah was predictable, but so was Trump’s inadvertently helping her, as he did by creating new confusion over his immigration policies. His decision to soften his deportation plan was inevitable, but amateurish execution took the spotlight off Clinton and put it back on himself.
The end result was that Clinton turned what should have been a big advantage for Trump into a modest one for herself. It was more proof that the race isn’t about the issues, the past, the future or even the facts.
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