Historic Hillary Clinton moment tainted by new scandal

And you thought the Republican National Convention got off to a bumpy start.

In the end, Donald Trump’s promise to reduce crime, terrorism and immigration in America eclipsed his wife’s plagiarism and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s nonendorsement last week, giving Trump an expected post-convention bump in the polls. Now Hillary Clinton has an unforeseen hurdle of her own to clear during the Democratic National Convention, stemming from the last thing on Earth she probably saw coming: another email scandal.

After months of complaints from Trump and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders about a rigged political system that favors people in power like the Clintons, talk of just such a conspiracy dominated the Democratic National Convention on Day One.

On top of Clinton’s own controversial use of a private email server when she was secretary of state, WikiLeaks went public Friday with about 20,000 emails from Democratic National Committee leaders showing they worked against Sanders to secure Clinton the nomination instead of remaining neutral..

With that, the party seemed suddenly to have an uphill climb to unity.

The revelations in the email — among them that DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz called Sanders’ campaign manager a “damn liar” and that Sanders’ faith should be questioned and used against him during the primaries — mean Sanders supporters might be less inclined to support or vote for Clinton and that Trump has a new line of attack to use against her.

They also mean more uncertainty for independents and undecided voters.

As this election of two historically disliked candidates continues, let’s see how Clinton handles this controversy.

We think Trump is a fickle, dangerous demagogue who wrongly wants to close off America from the world, but we have reservations about Clinton’s approach to foreign policy, for one example, and her trustworthiness, for another.

— The San Diego Union-Tribune