I find it very hard to believe

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. It may be disturbing, but it's not hard to understand at all.

There are a lot of folks who have already decided they support HRC. Having made that decision, anything that would go against it must, of a necessity, for them to minimize cognitive dissonance, be a creation of 'the Right', a 'distraction', a 'lie', etc etc. Rather than simply taking 'Hillary' out of the equation and asking themselves how they would feel about a Republican Secretary of State doing the same thing, they twist themselves into pretzels by actually pointing out that Republican SoS's have done similar things, and thus, therefore, it's somehow ok that she does it too. It's not about fixing what people in government have done and are doing that is wrong, it's about defending HRC, because if they don't, they have to admit they might be wrong to support her.

I can't remember who said it, but to paraphrase, if you focus on people, rather than on policies or actions, you find yourself defending things that those people have done that you wouldn't have defended if someone else had done them, or attacking them for things they did they you have cheered others for doing.