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'Bad Optics?' Whose Optics? The Media Needs to Do Its Homework and Focus on The Important Stuff

August 29, 2016


By Joe Rothstein
Editor, EINNews.com

Charity Watch is an organization that does what its name suggests. It monitors charitable organizations for scams and grades them for governance and transparency. To be considered a “Top Charity,” an organization must spend no more than 25 percent on administration or fund-raising.

Guess who gets an “A” from Charity Watch for meeting that criteria. The Clinton Foundation.

Guess who gets very good but lower grades of A- or B+. A long list of worthy organizations such as the the Nature Conservancy, the Wilderness Society, the American Red Cross, Human Rights Watch, Oxfam, Project Hope and the Anti-Defamation League, among others.

So when you read that when Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State a number of foreign governments, high worth individuals and major corporations donated big to the Clinton Foundation that’s just part of the story. The Associated Press chose to cast it as an insidious conflict of interest. Political commentators jumped on the information as further evidence that you can’t trust the Clintons. Even writers sympathetic to the Clintons said the “optics” made her look bad.

“Optics?” They look bad only if you are too lazy to dig further than the headline.

The Clinton Foundation spends about a half-billion dollars a year putting together and managing collaborative do-good partnerships between businesses, NGOs, governments, communities and individuals around the world. Some examples:

--An alliance with the American Heart Association to support health and wellness programs in U.S. schools. More than 30,000 schools so far.

--Agribusiness training for farmers in Malawi, Rwanda and Tanzania to get higher yields and more market access.

--With Brookings and 50 other organizations a massive effort to improve educational opportunities for 15 million girls living in countries where their access to schools would otherwise be limited.

--Extensive collaborative work in South America to create new enterprises and financial opportunity in poverty areas along with agricultural distribution systems, entrepreneur training and new business investments.

--Around the world, the Clinton Foundation is working to mitigate climate change by planting new forests and limiting deforestation, helping homeowners with energy efficiency and extending the reach of sustainable energy.

It’s a long list. If you check it out at clintonfoundation.org you may be surprised at all the good there after hearing so much bad. You also are likely to be surprised at all the transparency. All the financial statements are there, updated quarterly. All the tax returns are there. A list of contributors and cooperating organizations--all there. That’s why Charity Watch’s rigorous research grades the Clinton Foundation as an “A” organization.

Okay, you may say. But what about all the times the Clinton Foundation worked through Hillary Clinton’s State Department to get donors seats at White House events and other hard-to-get-into appointments. The latest email dump shows that connection.

And if you had seen an email dump from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the AFL-CIO, major DC-based law firms, governors, big city mayors and others with influence you likely would have found exactly the same kind of pleas to accommodate key leaders, clients, donors, relatives, ambassadors and others.

See and being seen, access to policy makers and celebrities, and the whole inside Washington game is as old as Washington itself. Not just Washington. The game is played out on a different scale in state capitols, Hollywood, Wall Street, football luxury boxes and summer vacation retreats of the rich and famous.

But with the Clintons it’s seen as bad “optics.”

“Bad optics” is what you say when there’s no evidence of anything worse. But what does it really mean? And why should it be seen, as most of the media characterized the release of the latest Clinton emails, as another reason to distrust her, playing directly into a media-created where-there’s-smoke-there-must-be-fire image?

Want to find fault with Hillary Clinton? There’s much to work with. She’s not the orator we’re used to with President Obama. She’s not loose and easy with crowds, like Biden. You may not agree with her political positions if your tastes run more to Sanders and Warren. You may not like the idea that two Clintons make an uncomfortable dynasty. You may question her judgement, or even the ethics of pulling down big speaking fees. You may wish for someone younger. You may even be a bit anxious that the commander in chief will be a woman.

But the fact that the Clinton Foundation raised a lot of money for its good works while she was secretary of state should not be a disqualifier or even a concern. Neither should her use of a personal email account or Benghazi or the fact that she once fell and hit her head. All this has been investigated and opposition researched to death without finding anything more there than meets the eye.

A contest for president should be a test of character, qualifications and policy. On all counts Hillary Clinton wins. Joe Biden said years ago “Don’t compare me with the almighty, compare me with the alternative.”

Good advice in general. A critical distinction this presidential election year.

(Joe Rothstein can be contacted at joe@einnews.com. His new White House thriller, “The Latina President…and The Conspiracy to Destroy Her” is available on Amazon).



Joe Rothstein is a political strategist and media producer who worked in more than 200 campaigns for political office and political causes. He also has served as editor of the Anchorage Daily News and as an adjunct professor at George Washington University's Graduate School of Political Management. He has a master's degree in journalism from UCLA. Mr. Rothstein is the author of award-winning political thrillers, The Latina President and the Conspiracy to Destroy Her, The Salvation Project, and The Moment of Menace. For more information, please visit his website at https://www.joerothstein.net/.