Donald Trump's presidential campaign has hit a "pretty big bump" with the FBI clearing Hillary Clinton of any criminal wrongdoing surrounding her use of a private email server for classified government business, says Fred Barnes, executive editor of
The Weekly Standard.
"True, there are still plenty of Clinton scandals for Trump to exploit … But the media is minimally interested," Barnes writes in a column published Wednesday.
"Clinton's private email happens to be the only scandal the mainstream media has covered intensely and on a daily basis. Now it's gone.
"Will reporters and commentators shift their focus to the Clinton Foundation, a target-rich environment for investigative reporters if there ever was one? I doubt it. They're more likely to move, crowd-like, to reporting on some Trump peccadillo."
Still, Barnes says, there are issues that could give Trump the edge to defeat Clinton: terrorism and the "feeble fight to contain it" by President Barack Obama and Clinton; the economy; and Clinton's "corruption."
"The corruption issue has always been the weakest of the three, but it's the juiciest for Trump to talk about. His new economic plan, soon to be announced, and a detailed strategy for combating terrorism will have to carry the day," Barnes says.
Barnes is the co-author with Morton Kondracke of
"Jack Kemp: The Bleeding-Heart Conservative Who Changed America," published by Sentinel.
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