Understanding Hillary’s entitlement

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Clinton refuses to say if private server was wiped clean

Hillary Clinton speaks on email scandal during campaign event in Las Vegas

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Buzz Cut:
• Understanding Hillary’s entitlement
• Let ‘em talk!
• GOP Sixteeners face education exam
• Trump hits the hall amid ‘birthright’ uproar
• Pssst….

UNDERSTANDING HILLARY’S ENTITLEMENT
The press and public are apparently in need of a history lesson to understand why Hillary Clinton feels entitled to do as she does.

Clinton’s catastrophic press conference in Nevada on Thursday, her eye-rolling dismissal of Black Lives Matter protesters and her flippant but still mirthless jokes about the scandals that have overtaken her candidacy reflect a candidate who doesn’t get that her audience doesn’t understand.

So here’s a primer for those who don’t know why Clinton is behaving as she does.

Clinton is currently as disliked as she has ever been, at least according to the CNN poll out today. She clocks in with 53 percent unfavorability, and two points worse than that among registered voters. She’s underwater by 9 points. She is more disliked than at any prior point in 23 years of polling, including during her 2008 defeat, except one. She currently matches her score from March 2001 amid the scandals surrounding the issuance of pardons to donors and friends at the end of her husband’s administration.

And, as it happens, Clinton’s answers to the current scandals about unseemly buckraking and secret servers are substantially the same as they were upon her departure from the White House: What Ken Starr and Newt Gingrich put the Clinton’s through made her do it.

People too young to recall rotary phones or ashtrays in offices might not remember those guys, but when Clinton made her first stumble of her current candidacy, it was because of them. She was “dead broke” because of the legal bills incurred defending her and her husband on a variety of charges, including the successful fight against removal from office and the unsuccessful fight against disbarment.

The Clintons, then, were entitled to rake in the dough from Denise Rich back then or Vladimir Putin’s inner circle in the current iteration.

Putting secret material at risk on a homebrew email server? That too is because of Starr and the Republicans. The Clintons, having been hounded so relentlessly by their persecutors, came to love secrecy too much. But can you blame them?

It turns out that, yes, you can.

These dangerous indulgences were nurtured over the years by the same clutch of friends, supplicants and favor seekers who will wreathe the Clintons as they spend the week in the Hamptons. These are people who believe that because of the cruelties of the late 1990s, the Clintons are owed a return engagement at the White House.

But as she interacts with reality, albeit in limited doses, she is finding that others don’t remember (or care) how deserving she is when it comes to breaking the rules and sometimes ask insistent questions – we’re looking at you Ed Henry – about things which she has already said she did not want to talk.

On her way to defeat in 2008, Clinton found a degree of engagement and vigor to which voters responded, albeit too little, too late. Her tenacity and ambition were authentic and letting it show created some kind of a connection. Her neediness broke through brittle entitlement.

How bad will it have to get this time before Clinton gives in to the clarifying panic that drove her in the later phases of 2008? Maybe not so long now…

How bad is it? Clinton is going left of Obama on global warming - AP: “Hillary Rodham Clinton is voicing opposition to President Barack Obama’s authorization for oil drilling in the Alaska Arctic and his delays on Keystone XL, in some of the clearest signs of the Democratic front-runner distancing herself from the president.  Having agreed with him on most issues so far in her 2016 race, Clinton edged to Obama's left on climate change on Tuesday. In the course of a few hours, she announced her disapproval of his move to allow Royal Dutch Shell to drill in the Arctic Ocean and her impatience for a decision on the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. Clinton argued on Twitter that the Arctic is a unique treasure and ‘not worth the risk of drilling.’ Then as she took questions from reporters later in Nevada, she said the U.S. should be focusing on cleaner sources of renewable energy, rather than risking ‘potential catastrophes’ in the search for more oil.”

Let ‘em talk! - Kirsten Powers rips her party for “circling the wagons” to protect Clinton from debates: “At some point, perhaps party officials will realize she’s a terrible candidate who needs sharpening before battling the GOP nominee. It’s sad that self-interest might be the only motivator for Democratic Party officials to behave in a more democratic manner, but if that’s the only way, we’ll take it.”

WITH YOUR SECOND CUP OF COFFEE…
As President Obama and his family’s vacation putters on in tony Martha’s Vineyard, you might be wondering how he stacks up compared to his predecessors for vacation-taking. Funny you should ask. Time has the answers on who took the longest – four months! – and who took the most – 879 days – and who went away the most frequently.

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POLL CHECK
Real Clear Politics Averages
Obama Job Approval: Approve – 44.2 percent//Disapprove – 50 percent
Directions of Country: Right Direction – 28.4 percent//Wrong Track – 62.6 percent

GOP SIXTEENERS FACE EDUCATION EXAM
Republicans love to talk about education – it is traditionally the one “soft” subject at which the party has excelled. But the test they face today in New Hampshire will be no easy exam. Jeb Bush, Carly Fiorina and Govs. Scott Walker, John Kasich, Chris Christie and Bobby Jindal each get 45 minutes to present their vision at the New Hampshire Education Summit, an event sponsored by the education news website The Seventy Four, and the American Federation for Children. The candidates’ views on hot button issues like Common Core standards and charter schools vary widely and are sure to touch a nerve, particularly with the live free or die state’s independent-minded voters. The summit will be live streamed here.

Trump hits the hall amid ‘birthright’ uproar - GOP frontrunner Donald Trump holds his first town hall meeting as a candidate today. While Trump has lots of practice being questioned by reporters, this is the first time he’ll face questions from voters. Trump’s immigration plan has put the issue front and center this week and has drawn quick and divided reaction from rivals. Trump’s claim that courts will strike down citizenship for those born in the United States to illegal immigrants may have some familiar echoes to longtime Trump watchers.

[Big in the 603 - At the same time Trump’s event, Jeb Bush will hold a town hall meeting of his own about 20 miles away. WaPo points out that six GOP candidates will hold competing town hall events within the same area code today.]

Carson draws big crowd out West – The State Press: “An estimated 10,000 people attended the event: one of the largest crowds [Ben Carson] has garnered throughout his campaign…Carson confronted the importance of fiscal responsibility, honing down on illegal immigration and eliminating big government during his speech… Carson said we not only need to control the Southern border to prevent further illegal immigration, but every border of the country, adding that illegal immigrants are coming from all over the world –– not just Mexico.”

[Carson tours the Arizona-Mexico border today, where he’ll briefed by local law enforcement officials and talk to reporters about border security.]

Carson to EPA: clean-up, pay up - On his way to Phoenix, Carson stopped in Colorado where he slammed the EPA over its response to the King Gold mine spill of toxins by one of the agency’s own contractors. The Hill: [Carson] said the EPA should pay for clean-up costs the same way it would levy fines against private-sector polluters. ‘I suggest that these reparations be paid from fines collected by EPA, and not by additional tax dollars from the general fund,’ he said. ‘The EPA must face the same consequences and same accountability as they require of each of us.’”

Where’s Marco? - Orlando Sun-Sentinel: “Rubio’s slow-go campaign strategy is puzzling party operatives in Iowa and New Hampshire, states where voters are used to candidates showering them with attention early and often….Rubio’s return to [Iowa] this week marks his first stop in the caucus battleground in a month. The Florida senator hasn’t traveled to New Hampshire, home to the first-in-the-nation primary, since July 4, though he is expected to return before the end of August…Tuesday, Rubio told reporters his Senate duties and fundraising absorb chunks of his time. But he also suggested it was too early for voters to worry, saying he would be in Iowa often, ‘especially as we get closer to the caucuses.’”

Campaign Daybook:
Sen. Ted Cruz is meeting and greeting in Jackson, Wyo.
Rick Perry takes to the soapbox at the Iowa State Fair.

Walker to focus on three-P strategy - WaPo: “In a conference call, one-on-one conversations and at a Tuesday lunch, the Wisconsin governor and favorite of anti-union conservatives told backers that his campaign is shifting to a more aggressive posture and will seek to tap into the anti-establishment fervor fueling the rise of Donald Trump and other outsider candidates....Walker said the campaign will strive to do better in three areas: ‘protest, passion and policy.’”

POWER PLAY:  Walker’s breakout gambit, in 60 seconds
What potential game-changing issue isn’t really being discussed by the Republican field and why is Scott Walker running with it? Chris Stirewalt maps out the whys and wherefores of the Wisconsin governor’s strategy, in 60 seconds. WATCH HERE.

PSSST….
AP: “Police in western Germany are looking for thieves who broke into a store selling alcohol and stole the caps off 1,200 bottles of beer - presumably to collect points for a prize contest - yet left the suds themselves untouched. Essen police said Tuesday the thieves broke into the shop in Muelheim an der Ruhr overnight Sunday and stole the caps from the popular Koenig Pilsner. They kept those with points toward prizes like Bose speakers or a Black & Decker cordless drill, left dozens of ‘good luck try again’ caps on the ground and didn't drink a single beer. Given the number of caps removed, police say they assume that more than one person was involved in the operation. So far they have no suspects.”

AND NOW, A WORD FROM CHARLES…
“I’m waiting for [Hillary Clinton] to say ‘at this point, what difference does it make’ which is her standard answer.  Look, when you think of this, it really enters the world of farce.  It's as if the answer to the punchline of a joke. The answer to it is ‘in a closet, in a bathroom, in a loft in Denver.’ And the question is: ‘Where are the highest secrets of the State Department kept?’ And that’s actually what happened.” – Charles Krauthammer on “Special Report with Bret Baier” Watch here.

Chris Stirewalt is digital politics editor for Fox News. Want FOX News First in your inbox every day? Sign up here.