Clinton DNC leak, Trump, Paul, and "muddy water"

As some of you might have noticed in between debates about what Trump said 12 years ago, Wikileaks has released more emails from the DNC hack, and there are some gems in there.I was going to do a kinda superpost on them, but I've instead decided to break the posts up a bit, as they all deserve some individual attention. First up, Trump as a favored opponent, Rand Paul as one of the feared opponents, and something I haven't seen get much play in the media compared to the comments on Trump and Paul, that being the strategy on dealing with Clinton scandals and allegations, not by defending or denying, but by deflecting and "muddying the water"

There are two ways to approach the strategies mentioned above. The first is to use the field as a whole to inflict damage on itself similar to what happened to Mitt Romney in 2012. The variety of candidates is a positive here, and many of the lesser known can serve as a cudgel to move the more established candidates further to the right.In this scenario, we don’t want to marginalize the more extreme candidates, but make them more “Pied Piper” candidates who actually represent the mainstream of the Republican Party. Pied Piper candidates include, but aren’t limited to: 

•Ted Cruz 

•Donald Trump 

•Ben Carson 

We need to be elevating the Pied Piper candidates so that they are leaders of the pack and tell the press to them seriously.

The same email also mentions how Rand Paul was a feared opponent (I'm not saying I told you so but....) What I found interesting about this particular email that I haven't seen much play on in the press was the following:

As we all know, the right wing attack machine has been building its opposition research on Hillary Clinton for decades. The RNC et al has been telegraphing they are ready to attack and do so with reckless abandon. One way we can respond to these attacks is to show how they boomerang onto the Republican presidential field. The goal, then, is to have a dossier on the GOP candidates on the likely attacks HRC will face. Based on attacks that have already occurred, the areas they are highlighting: 

•Transparency & disclosure 

•Donors & associations 

•Management & business dealings 

In this regard, any information on scandals or ethical lapses on the GOP candidates would serve well. We won’t be picky

Couple of things, remember, this is an email from 2015. Now, here's what I noticed. There isn't mention here about talking about lack of conviction or denying any allegations or scandals. No, the plan is to use the toddler "look what they are doing" approach. The Clinton campaign was planning to make this a nasty, muddy campaign in 2015. Now, call me an idealist, but if you already know, before the opponent is even clear, that you are going to be fighting dirty, if you already know that "the other side" is going to bring up scandals, allegations of wrongdoing, and so forth....and your defense is not to defend your actions, not to seek truth, but to find your your opponents dirty laundry to air that distracts from your own.

Now, call me crazy, but if you are accused of something, or implicated in a wrongdoing, you defend yourself, defend your actions or your innocence. In 2015 the Clinton campaign knew that the listed things above were an issue. Rather than saying "gosh, lets work on being more transparent" they decided to deflect. Rather than saying "there is no wrongdoing regarding our donors and associations, and here's the proof" they said "we need to deflect" To me...that's pretty telling. So she's never been convicted, OJ wasn't either....Explain to me, if there was no wrongdoing in the three areas, highlighted not by me, but by the Clinton campaign, in 2015, wouldn't they be better off showing how very wrong the GOP is? "These attacks are baseless, and here's the proof of the truth". No, instead, deflect and distract, the tactics of swindlers and con artists. I guess if your water is dirty better hope the other side's is too? Related, perhaps another reason they wanted Trump, I mean, he just makes it easy.