The Danger of Overreaching

First Read: “Benghazi also provides a lesson to Democrats as they try to make political hay out of Christie’s bridge scandal: don’t overreach. The top conclusion about Benghazi was that there was an absence of leadership coming from the State Department, and that’s bad enough of a story for Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration. But Republicans and conservatives have hurt their cause by trying to make the story more than that — a conspiracy or a cover-up. And so instead of simply letting the facts tell a bad story about Clinton and calling into question her leadership abilities, too many of her detractors have claimed a more sinister storyline. And when that storyline is debunked, it’s made the original bad story look less harmful in the public. (Then again, Clinton antagonists have overreached with both Bill and Hillary for years, only to see the public respond the same way.) Christie’s folks are hoping that, at some point, his Democratic detractors over reach; it would actually help him weather this storm and even rally some skeptical Republicans to his side.”