GOP should not view Clinton email controversy as game-changer

Hilllary Clinton is certainly far from out-of-the-woods in trying to explain away her bizarre protocol of conducting U.S. foreign policy, as secretary of state, on a private email server.
Clearly, private sector corporate executives and middle management folks dealing with substantially less serious matters would never be excused for such behavior. And the former first lady's refusal to engage in full transparency emerges as a problem -- just as she is apparently about to declare her presidential candidacy -- among both Republican and Democratic officials.

At the same time, Dennis Lennox, a Michigan GOP activist, issues a warning for fellow Republicans who smell blood in the water as yet another Clinton (Bill and Hillary) transgression becomes another Washington obsession. If the GOP overplays its hand, it could alienate suburban, Republican-leaning soccer moms who would love to see a woman finally take her place in the Oval Office.
In his column this week for The (Mount Pleasant) Morning Sun, Lennox offers these observations on the Teflon aspects of the well-oiled Clinton political machinery:

"This is politically dangerous territory ... If (Hillary) Clinton and Obama didn’t pay an electoral price when the American ambassador to Libya was murdered in the weeks leading up to the 2012 presidential election then it is pretty difficult to imagine the latest scandal involving Clinton’s use of email determining what happens in an election some 20 months from now.

"Helping Clinton the most is her sex.

"It won’t be the main plot of her impending presidential campaign, but her being a woman, a mother and a grandmother is certainly going to be the chief subplot with endless subtle and not-so-subtle pandering to her core constituency.

"This is how the historic nature of Barack Obama’s candidacy resulted in record turnout among black voters. Most intriguingly, the prospect of electing the country’s first female president may be more of a motivating factor, as academic literature indicates women see their sex as a greater barrier than race when it comes to shattering the proverbial glass ceiling."