Hillary Clinton's campaign for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination may continue to say, as it did Thursday, that investigations into the finances of her family's foundation are a "coordinated attack strategy," but that smokescreen will only last so long.
The former secretary of state is not Barack Obama, whose inexperience was not examined by the media in his 2008 run for the presidency. Though the media has fawned over her and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, the Clintons have never made any secret of their dislike of the media.
And Clinton has a record, the Clinton Foundation is obligated to report its donations, and the public has a right to know if, as being alleged in various reports, undisclosed donations to the foundation are linked to the sale of U.S. uranium production to a Russian government agency, if the family wealth is tied to the foundation's donor network and whether the foundation misreported tens of millions of dollars from foreign governments.
Some of the allegations are tied to the soon-to-be published book "Clinton Cash," but, since the author of the book is at work on a similar investigation of Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush, he cannot be fobbed off as a member of the "vast right-wing conspiracy" on which she tried to blame her husband's troubles during his presidency.
In short, many of the serious allegations concern gifts by foreign governments to the foundation and whether they had some influence on policy while she was secretary of state.
Clinton continues to remain closed-lipped on all things scandal, but the American people deserve answers from a woman many consider the odds-on favorite to occupy the White House in 2017.