Up For Grabs

It now appears that all three presidential candidates had someone peeping in their State Department passport files.

So who wants to run with this?

Let's leave aside the implications for the hot-button topic of excessive and/or warrantless data collection on the part of the federal government (and the legions of "if you're doing nothing wrong, you have nothing to worry about" apologists that discussion tends to bring out of the woodwork). The core issue, here, is one of privacy and the ever more frequent failings of those entities whom we entrust to protect ours.

It seems that every week or two, new stories emerge about individuals' personal information--financial, medical, etc.--being compromised en masse, to the tune of thousands or millions of people. While no damage appears to have been done to any of the candidates, the passport snooping story is emblematic of a problem faced by Americans from coast to coast. This is the perfect soapbox for someone to take the lead on a completely risk-free position with near-universal appeal.

We know it won't be St. McCain. He has far too great an affinity for the taste of George Bush's shoepolish to try and make political hay at the expense of El Presidente's State Department.

Hillary? She neither can afford, nor seems particularly willing to try and return to the high road and make gains on legitimate issues.

Barack...three words for you:

Yes.

You.

Can.