Twisting in the wind

James Taranto points out that there was (at least) one question that didn't get asked at yesterday's Hillary Clinton press conference:

Were emails about contributions to the Clinton Foundation—including from foreign governments—among the printed business emails or the destroyed personal ones?

...In her opening statement, she revealed that as she and her aides were selecting which emails to print out for the State Department archives, they deleted countless thousands of others:

...It’s quite possible that even the emails still exist; it’s unlikely that someone who claimed with a straight face that the server was secure because “it was on property guarded by the Secret Service” would have the technical savvy to erase the evidence irretrievably. Little wonder, then, that Mrs. Clinton insisted “the server will remain private.”

...One question that didn’t get asked but should have: Were emails about contributions to the Clinton Foundation—including from foreign governments—among the printed business emails or the destroyed personal ones?

And what about Obama? Is he going to be in trouble on this issue?

The Washington Examiner’s Brian Hughes thinks so; he has a piece titled “4 Reasons the Hillary Emails Are Hurting Obama”: “1. The White House story has shifted. . . . 2. Obama looks in the dark, again. . . . 3. Democrats are starting to panic. . . . 4. Obama is already stuck talking about Hillary.”

But Taranto is unconvinced.

If this were a Republican administration, the media doubtless would be clamoring to find out what the president knew and when he knew it. But it isn’t. Further, Mrs. Clinton is understood to be an independent operator and a senior enough figure that it almost seems unfair to hold her nominal former boss accountable for any misconduct on her part. And of course she is the one (presumably) running for president, not him.

Who is hurt by the White House’s erratic responses here? Mrs. Clinton. With their unpredictable comments, Obama and his aides signal that they don’t (to use a phrase he favors) “have her back,” providing an additional element of uncertainty for her to contend with as she attempts to bluff the scandal away.

If Mrs. Clinton is the Democratic presidential nominee next year, Obama will do his partisan duty and support her, just as she and her husband supported Obama in 2008 and 2012. But for now, it isn’t hard to imagine that Obama is enjoying the spectacle of his rival turned frenemy twisting in the wind.

Read more here.