OUR HILLARY, SO READY FOR OFFICE – AT 10:53 A.M. ET:  Byron York, in the Washington Examiner, explores how Hillary is already acting as if she were president.  In her mind, she is. 

Anyone who has covered a presidential campaign at the primary stage noticed something different about Hillary Clinton's news conference in Concord, New Hampshire Monday.

With reporters standing behind a barrier rail, the conference began not with Clinton but with press aide Nick Merrill, who had a list of journalists who would be recognized. "OK folks, we're going to start, take a few questions, with Dan Tuohy, Union Leader," Merrill began. After Clinton responded to Tuohy's question, Merrill jumped in again, recognizing Anne Gearan of the Washington Post. And then Merrill inquired: "Where's James Pindell? You have a question, James?" And so it went.

The normal way for a campaign to work, certainly at this early stage of the campaign, would be for the candidate to come out and say, "I'm going to take some questions" and then take some questions. While a press aide would likely be standing nearby, there would be no middleman, and no list of reporters who would and would not be allowed to ask a question. Even the President of the United States, who does work off a list at formal news conferences, calls on reporters himself, without an aide standing beside him to announce who will be allowed to speak.

The Clinton system is just one small way in which the former secretary of state is conducting her campaign as if she is already the president. At the same time, though, it left some members of the press with the impression that her campaign is still in the training stage, that Clinton is not yet ready for an unscripted exchange of information with the press. It's an ironic turn for a candidate who has argued since 2007 that she is so experienced that she would be ready to serve as commander-in-chief from the very first day of her term in office.

COMMENT:  What strikes me about Clinton is the blatancy of her incompetence.  She comes off as an amateur, and doesn't seem to know, or care.  She makes the same mistakes over and over.  Mayor of a small town, maybe.  President of the United States – not quite.

June 17, 2015