Keller @ Large: Want To Be President? Follow The Rules
BOSTON (CBS) - By her own account, Hillary Clinton made a serious mistake by using her personal email to conduct government business when she was Secretary of State.
If she ever jeopardized state secrets by doing so, she's in big trouble. But while we await an FBI finding on that, an audit by the State Department's Inspector General raises a question about Clinton that should be asked of her or any potential president by every voter - does she think the rules don't apply to her?
Two separate times, State Department staff expressed concern that she was not complying with clear federal rules about email record-keeping. Her aides ordered the staffers to drop the subject. And despite Clinton's claim that she and her people have nothing to hide, some of her top staffers refused to cooperate with the audit.
The presidency confers great power on the person who holds the office. With power comes responsibility and accountability, and the most basic aspect of both those obligations is that you obey the law and the rules, not bend or ignore them to suit your whim or agenda.
Luckily for Clinton, she is running against someone notorious for preferring to make his own rules and disregarding the truth. But that doesn't excuse her from the need to come clean and persuade the voters that she has learned her lesson and will not repeat this behavior if elected.
We get it; politicians are human, and humans make mistakes. But if Clinton, Donald Trump or anyone else wants to wield the awesome power of the presidency, they need to understand that following the rules is the price of admission.