I suppose that, statistically speaking, this was bound to happen sooner or later. What will several cable news networks covering Clinton on a fairly regular basis, it seems inevitable that sooner or later one of them would put the words “too honest” and “Hillary Clinton” into the same sentence non-ironically.

The honor, in this case, goes to CNN’s Alisyn Camerota, who was interviewing the doddering Bob Graham about coal mining in this case:

Camerota: In last night’s town hall, where Hillary Clinton talked about the future of coal miners, and some people felt that she might have been a little too honest, so let’s play that moment and get your response.

[clip plays]

 

Camerota: So, you know, there’s this old political expression that a gaffe is when a politician actually tells the truth, so was it right for her to say, “We’re going to put a lot of coal miners out of business”?

[Graham dodders through a stultifying answer]

Camerota: I mean, you know, it’s just that her opponents, um, certainly the Republicans could seize upon that and play that over and over in their attack ads, “You know, we’re going to put a lot of coal miners out of business,” in fact, Rand Paul…

Expect this sort of thing to become a regular feature as the campaign moves into the general election phase. The problem with Hillary Clinton, the media will assure us, is not that she’s the most fundamentally dishonest politician not named Donald Trump to come down the pike in years, it’s that she’s a little too honest for her own good. Credit for the chutzpah to try to turn a weakness into strength.