Hillary Clinton is a scandalous candidate for president of the United States. Most people acknowledge this, at least judging by her plummeting poll numbers. A raft of stories gives the distinct impression that she and her husband have been running an elaborate pay-to-play operation. Donations to the Clinton Foundation may have produced favorable State Department policies dealing with Russia-owned U.S. uranium deposits, Haitian relief efforts, and foreign banking interests. Her use of a personal email server while at the State Department, moreover, strongly suggests she has something to hide.

Yet she is still on track to win the Democratic nomination next year. That would be a unique achievement, twice over. She would be the first woman to win a major party nomination—and no major party nominee has ever misused his public authority more egregiously than she seems to have.