Hillary Clinton is perhaps unfairly being targeted for using a private email account as a government employee. Or, as some conservatives might believe, she indeed broke the law. Nonetheless, this is only the beginning in a long series of potential scandals that the former Secretary of State will have to endure on the road to the White House. With each scandal, whether it's the Republican infatuation with Benghazi (that conveniently ignores their lack of oversight on 9/11) or an even older issue like Whitewater, the GOP has their sights set on destroying any chance of another Clinton presidency.
However, there's an alternative to constantly defending Hillary Clinton from real or fabricated accusations and controversies. Her name is Senator Elizabeth Warren. She's the answer not only to 'Emailgate,' but also to any other potential firestorms surrounding Team Hillary in the next two years.
Warren is a fresh, new, and vibrant politician whose integrity has never been questioned. She's a greater force in the Democratic Party than Barack Obama was two years before he became president and Democrats everywhere respect her focus on middle class issues, as well as her economic prowess. If you vote Elizabeth Warren in 2016, you'll know that Jeb Bush won't have a treasure chest of political arrows to throw at this member of the Senate banking, housing, and urban affairs committees.
Most importantly, Elizabeth Warren can be the foil to any GOP dart board with Hillary Clinton's face; Senator Warren doesn't have a Benghazi or Whitewater in her past. The Massachusetts Senator also doesn't have a potentially grave offense linked to emails. According to a POLITICO article titled Clinton private email violated 'clear-cut' State Dept. rules, the former New York Senator might have broken serious protocol:
The State Department has had a policy in place since 2005 to warn officials against routine use of personal email accounts for government work, a regulation in force during Hillary Clinton's tenure as secretary of state that appears to be at odds with her reliance on a private email for agency business, POLITICO has learned...
But the 2005 policy was described as one of several "clear cut" directives...
It's unclear how such a system, run off an Internet domain apparently purchased by the Clinton family, could have won approval if the department's policies were as the inspector general's report describes them.
Is this the end of the world for Hillary Clinton's presidential hopes? Probably not, but soon questions will surface about how "her private email system was set up" and all the other pitfalls of using a private email at a government job. No, she wasn't writing sweet nothings to Vladimir Putin or selling kilos of white powder in her personal emails, but GOP pundits are known for hyperbole.
Every single aspect of this latest scandal will be dissected by Fox News and conservative radio, and we'll even hear about 'Emailgate' two years from now. From a technological standpoint, a personal email service is inherently different from a government email account, which means that the potential accusations are endless. For example, The Atlantic has an article titled The State Secrets in Chappaqua explaining several technological obstacles faced by Hillary Clinton:
Adding a new conspiratorial flourish was the revelation that the service was registered to someone named Eric Hoteham, a name, which the AP noted, "does not appear in public-records databases, campaign-contribution records or Internet background searches." This curious detail was quickly pounced upon by conservative commentators on social media...
"The mechanics matter a lot," John Wonderlich of the Sunlight Foundation said about Clinton's homebrew server on Wednesday. "The difference is that she created her own infrastructure that she privatized entirely and put under her own personal control."
Now, Democratic strategists must also turn into IT consultants in order to defend Clinton from more sophisticated political attacks focused upon her "homebrew server." No doubt, conservatives "quickly pounced upon" these technological peculiarities.
Conversely, while Hillary Clinton is defending herself, Elizabeth Warren is building a legacy based on economic wisdom and genuine concern for middle class issues. As a result, Warren's words go viral often and her eloquence is appreciated by social media. A Time article titled How Elizabeth Warren Turns Boilerplate Viral explains how Warren is able to achieve something most politicians and celebrities can't accomplish without spending millions on PR:
In one week, the video has gone viral, grabbing more than 2 million views and picking up more than 50,000 shares on Facebook. And it's not unusual for the Massachusetts Democrat, either. Three of her most-watched speeches on YouTube have more than a million views, while another seven have more than 100,000 views...
Lynn Itagaki, an English professor at Ohio State University, says that Warren is a "great translator" with a "plain-spoken manner" who can help sway the mass public on complicated material, especially through a vehicle--Facebook--that has a built-in audience ready for one of Warren's favorite topics, tackling student debt.
From student debt and middle class issues to preventing another stock market collapse, Warren's words are bolstered by action. She's able to get more views on YouTube than many celebrities because her advocacy resonates with the average American.
Hillary Clinton commands a global stage, but her words might go viral for a different reason.
Thus, Democrats have a choice; take the road less travelled or the road that leads to scandal. We can ride on Hillary's train going through GOP land mines full of controversy or embark on an honest voyage fueled by Warren's economic expertise and genuine concern for Americans. Simply read the following words by Robert Frost and decide for yourself how Democrats should travel in 2016:
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference
If the "road less traveled by" means Hillary Clinton, then enroll in an information technology course. You'll need the knowledge when Rush Limbaugh demands to see Clinton's computer servers. However, if you vote Elizabeth Warren in 2016, all you'll need is knowledge about the desires of middle class Americans. Unlike Clinton, Biden, and others, Elizabeth Warren in 2016 won't allow the GOP to pull out the hundreds of political arrows from their quiver. That reason alone should make Warren a serious contender to become the first female president of the United States.