I keep reading people wondering how Ed Whelan and his co-crazies -- this was not a one-man job -- could have imagined this stuff would work. But crazy conspiracy theories *have* worked for the right, over and over again 1/
The long harassment of the Clintons over crazy stuff -- failed land deals, Vince Foster etc -- arguably put George W Bush in the White House; it certainly made Kavanaugh's career 2/
Benghazi plus emails definitely put Trump in the WH -- largely because so much of the mainstream media ran with it, making emails the biggest issue in campaign coverage. And of course Trump is a birther 3/
So experience has taught these people that crazy conspiracy theories work, or at least do no harm to their cause or careers. Why should they have expected this time to be any different? 4/
Their haplessness now reminds me of the security people in Westworld who keep shouting "Freeze all motor functions!" at murderous hosts. They just seem stunned that the stuff that used to work isn't, at least for now 5/
