Who cares?

Just when we thought we had seen it all in this presidential election, along comes something else. This something is the announcement last Friday, eleven days before Election Day, that the FBI, under the leadership of director James Comey, was reopening its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails, reportedly focusing on “hundreds of thousands” of Clinton-related emails involving former Congressman Anthony Weiner, apparent sexting aficionado, and his estranged wife and close Clinton aide, Huma Abedin.

This brings me to my headline. Often, a headline that includes a question is more rhetorical than anything else. Not this time. I really want to know: Who does care?

Well, one woman certainly does. She shared with the media that she was on her way to participate in early voting when the news of the investigation broke. She stopped in her tracks. She said she needed to hear more before placing that vote.

Polling has indicated that some people are unmoved by this new development and that their vote on Nov. 8 will not be affected just because Clinton is under investigation. This does not mean, however, that all those people were going to vote for Clinton. Some may have already planned to vote for Donald Trump and will still do so. Then, some may have planned to vote for Clinton and will still do so, regardless of this investigation—and other scandals synonymous with the Clintons, whose apparent pay-to-play penchants have been further revealed by almost-daily WikiLeaks email dumps.

Another poll, however, showed that 30 percent of voters said that the second look into these emails makes them less likely to vote for Clinton.

While cynics, as Rush Limbaugh called them, are convinced that Comey’s decision is meant only to distract from the WikiLeaks revelations that have begun to cause problems for Clinton, others maintain that this has to be serious for him to make the decision this close to an election, since he previously declared that “no reasonable prosecutor” would indict Clinton. The timing, of course, is not lost on Comey. We don’t have the details of what precisely prompted this development, and we likely will not have them prior to the election, but opinions run rampant.

No matter director Comey’s actions, he really cannot win. Democrats who praised him when he originally reached the decision they wanted to hear — to close the Clinton case — are now blasting him. To be fair, Republicans are no better. They loved Comey prior to his original decision, saying that he was nonpartisan and would do the right thing, then criticized him after his decision didn’t reflect their wishes — or, frankly, common sense. Of course, as of last Friday, they love him yet again. This just shows how fickle people are, but it is par for the course for this presidential race, a race unlike anything anyone has ever seen and — if we’re good and eat all our vegetables — will ever see again.

So how has Clinton herself responded to Comey’s announcement? At a rally Saturday, the former secretary of state complained that this is going down so close to the election, calling such a move “unprecedented” and “deeply troubling.” It appears she thinks the law should not be followed and people should not be investigated when trying to win an election. This demonstrates the Clinton mindset — the special privilege to which they feel entitled: “You cannot investigate me; I’m running for office, and it’s eleven days before Election Day.” So should someone not be arrested on, say, Christmas because, well, it’s Christmas, and that abide-by-the law stuff would put a damper on the family gift-opening tradition?

As for Clinton’s complaint that holding her accountable close to an election is “unprecedented” and “deeply troubling,” I say her repeated actions — throughout the years—are what’s “deeply troubling.”

We’ve heard both the this-is-all-a-distraction take and the this-is-huge take. What about your take? What do you believe is at the heart of the reopened FBI investigation? Will it affect the outcome of the election? Do you personally care about what is behind this probe? I’d love to hear from you. Please email your thoughts to aross@semissourian.com or leave a comment online.

Adrienne Ross is an author, speaker, columnist, editor, educator and Southeast Missourian editorial board member. Reach her at aross@semissourian.com.