1. There are far too many people with the power to classify information without oversight
2. There is a wealth of material that is overclassified (that is, at too high a level, eg Top Secret instead of merely Secret) or which should not be classified in the first place.
3. There are many examples of things classified after the fact to the point of silliness. When there are stories published in European publications that are then readily available to anyone with an internet connection, to have the US Government then classify that information here at home is not only silly, it is counterproductive.
4. There are many people in the intelligence community who like neither Obama nor the Clintons. It is worth noting that the 7 email chains now in question were NOT classified by the State Department after the fact, but by “other” agencies, most probably the CIA in most cases. Dollars to donuts the purpose of the after-the-fact classification is to hide embarrassment — which could include the failure to properly classify in the first place — or even activity that if disclosed would indicate illegal activity.
In this entire process I am disappointed by the silence of one person — Colin Powell. Evidence is that he had a private email server during his tenure as SecState. IF SO, does not he have an obligation to speak up? We know he is capable of breaking from Republican orthodoxy, as he did in supporting Obama.
Just a few random thoughts on a Saturday morning.
Oh, and when the Selzer poll comes out this evening, I doubt there will be anything about this issue impacting it. But what do I know?