The Quiet Ruthlessness of the Clinton Campaign

On Friday, it looked as if Hillary Clinton’s Presidential campaign might be in big trouble. James Comey, the director of the F.B.I., announced that the bureau had found new evidence that might be relevant to the investigation into her e-mails. The evidence, it was soon reported, had surfaced on a laptop belonging to Anthony Weiner, the disgraced former congressman and estranged husband of Huma Abedin, one of Clinton’s closest aides. But, within a few days, the campaign had managed to change the subject from what Comey might find that Clinton had done to what Comey himself had done by making such a dramatic announcement less than two weeks before the election. Somebody mobilized a small army of congressional allies, letter-signing and op-ed-writing former high officials, and Sunday-morning-talk-show guests, all of whom offered severe critiques of Comey. Harry Reid, the Senate Democratic leader, went so far as to accuse Comey of violating the Hatch Act, the federal law that prohibits some high-level officials from engaging in political activity.