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The North Wind

The North Wind

The North Wind

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Megan Voorhees
Megan Voorhees
Assistant News Editor

Hi! I’m Megan Voorhees and I’m the Assistant News Editor at The Northwind! I was first introduced to journalism my sophomore year of high school and I’ve been in love with the profession and writing...

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The North Wind is an independent student publication serving the Northern Michigan University community. It is partially funded by the Student Activity Fee. The North Wind digital paper is published daily during the fall and winter semesters except on university holidays and during exam weeks. The North Wind Board of Directors is composed of representatives of the student body, faculty, administration and area media.

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Hillary’s server issues undermine integrity, support

Earlier this week, Democratic presidential candidate  Hillary Clinton admitted in a public statement that using a private email server during her tenure as Secretary of State “clearly wasn’t the best choice,” a choice that is widely regarded as a breach of government policy and has provoked a federal investigation to determine if classified information could have been leaked from a server not protected by the government.LIBYA-CLINTON/

Clinton denies that the private email server was used to send or receive classified information, and on Aug. 11, 2015, Clinton agreed to turn over the server along with tens of thousands of emails to the government while insisting that none of the material sent contained classified information. However, the inspector general for the Intelligence Community found two out of 40 emails in a random sample of 30,000 contained “Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information,” specifically related to information obtained from spy satellites. The discovery of this information has resulted in a “security referral,” a message to alert authorities that classified information is not in the possession of the U.S. government. However, as of the time of this writing, no criminal charges have been filed, and anonymous officials stated in an interview with the Associated Press that this information wasn’t “especially sensitive” nor sent by Clinton herself.

There is absolutely no doubt that the use of a private email server is a disparaging political move. A Quinnipiac poll conducted shortly after Clinton’s “wasn’t the best choice” statement found that 61 percent of voters do not view her as honest or trustworthy, a record low. When asked to freely associate words with “Hillary Clinton,” the poll found that “liar” is the first word that comes to mind, including “dishonest” and “untrustworthy.”

Clinton still remains the strongest front-runner of the Democratic party by a significant margin—yet Bernie Sanders is rapidly rising in the polls and Vice President Joe Biden is expected to be a formidable opponent when he announces his candidacy in the coming weeks. A controversy such as this serves to level the playing field and to make the American voter question the merits of any politician, and I think this should be embraced.

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Her greatest political strengths are familiarity and name recognition – and don’t forget how excited Americans will be about electing a Democrat and a woman to the White House. These are all fantastic characteristics for a presidential candidate, but not a president. When you examine her qualifications, they are considerably lacking compared to Sanders and Biden.

The most emphasized issues of her campaign are gay rights, health care and climate chang—all extremely important issues. But the United States needs a candidate who will be able to push themselves further to reduce income inequality, recognize an abusing police culture, end the drug war and prohibit large corporations from influencing the loyalty of our congressmen, presidents and politicians.

My hope is that the American people will look at the issue and reconsider their options for a Democratic nominee.

Ultimately, though this “scandal” serves nothing more than to attack Clinton’s personality. In reality, the security of her private email server from hackers was likely far greater than the U.S. government—and evidence suggests that while federal servers have been hacked and leaked, Clinton’s server remained safe. However, it reflects poorly upon her personality—far more important for a candidate. The private email server represents a lack of transparency, unanswered questions and a desire for complete control over the privacy of her information. These characteristics are undeniably important to be successful and effective in politics, but not to be well-liked by the American people.

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