Hillary and Huma

The first article I read this week is by Jacquelyn Martin, titled "Is Huma Abedin Hillary Clinton's Secret Weapon or Her Next Big Problem?" from Vanity Fair. It looked at Huma Abedin, Hillary Clinton's aide, and whether or not her role in the White House during the Clinton era poses a problem to Hillary's current campaign. It has been said that Abedin is as close to Hillary as a shadow, and that she is like a second daughter or a sister. Abedin is married to Anthony Weiner, a former congressman embroiled in a 2011 scandal regarding explicit texts. Scandals like this are old hat for the Clinton family, and much like Hillary, Huma stayed married to Anthony Weiner. Her family has also had rumored ties to Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda, and Michelle Bachman wrote a letter to the State Department citing Abedin as someone with connections to the Muslim Brotherhood who had infiltrated the government, although John McCain took to the Senate floor to denounce these claims. Abedin also received financial aid from the Clintons after the scandal involving her husband broke, and there are other questions about her money and salary: is her status as a special government employee (S.G.E.) blurring the line between the public and private sector? Did she submit inaccurate hours for time she didn't actually work? There are concerns that allegations of conflicts of interest and misrepresentation for someone so close to Clinton will become a liability for her looking forward in her campaign. People already attack Clinton for being anti-woman or something silly after staying with Bill Clinton after the Lewinsky Scandal, and people will only start digging deeper for dirt as Hillary is more likely to win the Democratic primary, and then the general election if she is up against Trump. Personally, I'm fascinated by Huma Abedin, and I can't wait to see how this plays out.

The second article is from the New York Times, titled "2 Front Runners, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, Find Their Words Can Be Weapons." In this article, Amy Chozick and Alan Rappeport give an overview of the week in politics. Clinton struggled to connect with white, working-class voters in Cleveland after some accidentally disparaging remarks about the coal industry. She has been focused on Cleveland, because of the majority black and democratic population could sway the vote. Unlike Bernie Sanders, she has been successful among African American voters. Sanders claims that he has been focusing on "blue-collar, older male voters" impacted by trade deals. There is concern that Clinton supporters will vote for Kasich in the Ohio elections simply to vote against Trump. Most Clinton supporters, however, are resigned to Trump becoming the Republican candidate. I think the idea that Ohio democrats would entertain the idea of voting for Kasich is interesting, because I was under the impression that they really disliked him. I think this article is also very interesting because it's coming at this from a very biased, anti-Trump angle and, from what I can read into it, very pro-Hillary. From what I can see, this is only further proof that the nominees will boil down to Hillary and Trump.