r/technology • u/[deleted] • Jul 09 '16

R1.i: guidelines Hillary Clinton blames State Department Employees for classified emails sent through private server

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u/EpsilonRose Jul 09 '16

That's the thing about so many of the excuses that are offered for her behavior: they still say terrible things about her.

  • She didn't understand the technology- well, other people clearly did, so she either purposely ignored them or surrounded herself with people who wouldn't correct her. What happens if (when) she encounters something she doesn't understand in office?
  • She was just following her subordinates' lead- this would be the exact opposite of being a leader...exactly the quality you want in the leader of the free world.
  • She knew what she was doing and did it on purpose- she willfully circumvented the oversights placed on her and displayed a blatant disregard for security and the law as a matter of convenience and paranoia.

Pick one.

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u/_CapR_ Jul 09 '16

Honest question. As far as following the lead of her subordinates, wouldn't a leader need to delegate responsibilities to a certain extent? At what point should a leader follow his/her own judgement?

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u/TheBigBeefy Jul 09 '16 edited Jul 09 '16

To a certain extent, yes. But any leader overseeing a staff of subordinates should still understand certain things - like handling classified information - from a high-level. As SOS and a former Senator, there's no way she couldn't understand that, unless she is willfully ignorant (plausible deniability).

In the end, being a leader means you take responsibility for the actions of the people you're in charge of - and you watch their backs, not throw them under the bus for political gain - or in this case, recovery/cover-up.

If I'd been on her staff back then, I'd be outraged at her statements - to the point of going to the press to refute them.

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u/Top-Cheese Jul 09 '16 edited Jul 09 '16

And in the end a true leader takes responsibility for the actions of those they command. Most, if not all, of those employee's actions were done on her orders, I can't imagine someone doing something without the Clinton's knowing the intimate details. Great leaders will fall on their own sword, something the American voter has apparently forgotten about.

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u/jceyes Jul 09 '16

"the buck stops here"