The Year in Blame Shifting
How to dodge responsibility, whether you're a candidate or a cop.
Hillary Clinton blames FBI Director James Comey for her humiliating loss in last month's presidential election. If only Comey had not reminded voters about her sloppy email practices as secretary of state a week before the election, Clinton thinks, she would be taking the oath of office on January 20 instead of Donald Trump.
That argument overlooks Clinton's role in triggering an FBI investigation by flouting State Department rules and lying about it, not to mention her remarkable weakness as a candidate. But while Clinton's self-exonerating explanation for her defeat was one of the year's most striking attempts to dodge responsibility, it was far from a rarity among elected officials and other government types. Jacob Sullum highlights the year's worst attempts to pass the political buck.