The Latest Clinton Campaign Emails Released By Wikileaks Are More Embarrassing Than Damaging

Comic book fans are familiar with the idea of the multiverse: alternate worlds very similar to ours but different enough for plots to come and go without affecting long-term story arcs.

Well, on the Earth-3 where Hillary Clinton is running for president against a traditional, disciplined Republican — and not a Donald Trump, who has declared civil war on other Republican leaders — WikiLeaks’ decision to post Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s private emails would be a major, major news story right now.

Podesta reported Tuesday that the FBI is looking into Russia’s role in providing the trove to WikiLeaks, and he said the Trump campaign had foreknowledge of the release.

To be fair, the WikiLeaks revelations got enough attention to factor into Sunday’s presidential debate. But as Trump has picked fights with House Speaker Paul Ryan and 2008 Republican nominee John McCain, the details emerging from Podesta’s emails have been relegated to the news cycle’s back burner.

That’s good news for Clinton. Because as reporters and political operatives are combing through the thousands of documents, they’re finding evidence of several long-running critiques of Clinton and her campaign.

Among the emails we’re reading today: evidence suggesting a top Democratic National Committee official fed Clinton an answer to a question to be posed at an upcoming town hall forum; evidence that a Clinton campaign staffer was communicating with people at the Department of Justice about Clinton’s much scrutinized emails; and pointed commentary concerning Catholics and evangelical Christians.

Most of the emails are banal: mass mailings, newsletters and the like.

One email making the rounds from this most recent release focuses on some helpful cooking tips from Podesta, who is known in Washington as an accomplished cook.

Responding to a note about why risotto recipes call for slowly adding stock to the rice rather than all at once, Podesta dropped this culinary knowledge.

Patience plays a big part in getting that risotto just right.

More From NPR: