With the 2016 campaign season still in Primary mode (at least for the Democrats), the stink factor is growing onerous and odorous the closer we get to June. None of the 3 remaining major candidates are clean, which would normally suppress voter turnout. That is unlikely to be the case this time around. Let's take a look at the mess, shall we?

TRUMP
The Donald, T-Rump, Drumpf... he's one of those types who thinks all publicity is good, and feels he can turn the worst publicity into a plus for his campaign. Sadly, among his supporters that seems to be true. He appeals to the types who appreciate a showy WWF-style smackdown, so Trump getting ugly gets them all riled up and excited.

Unfortunately for him, he cannot bypass actual laws and get away with it. He has delayed releasing his tax information because - as he puts it - he is being audited and doesn't want to release them until that is complete. If that's true, perhaps he's concerned about sharp-eyed tax experts finding things that the IRS missed. More likely, he knows that he's in deep shit with New York State, and doesn't want to give the news media any more ammunition:

Yeah - that should go over really well with the Tea Party types who complain that they pay too much in taxes when they find out Mr. Moneybags is cheating on his taxes so that they have to make up the difference.


SANDERS
Sanders has a supporters problem. Most of them are simply Democrats who will vote for whomever the Dem nominee is in November. There is a small VERY vocal minority, however, who have tarred the candidate's campaign with some ugly Trump tactics. The Nevada Democratic conference turned into a near-riot when Sanders delegates were disqualified for not being Democrats. They were replaced with other Sanders delegates who were Dems, but that didn't stop the crowd from disrupting the proceedings. To make matters worse, some of these "good progressives" took to calling the Nevada SoS and leaving threatening messages on her voicemail - not to mention the decidedly not-female-friendly verbiage they used. It also doesn't help when the candidate himself refuses to discuss all the ugliness. If his campaign was smart, they would have gotten on top of this quickly and defused it. Instead - his silence is tacit approval.

(Perhaps we can all sit around a campfire together and sing Kumbaya and rally around a common cause.)


CLINTON
Over the years, it seems as though Clinton has been made of Teflon. Ever since the Bill Clinton presidency in the early 90s, Republicans, other assorted right-wingers, and even some Dems have tried to throw shit at her and see what sticks. From Whitewater to Benghazi to Emails, nothing has. In particular, the Benghazi "investigation" fiasco has been confirmed to be a blatant witch hunt, which has wasted hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars, all for a political purpose which was ultimately self-defeating for the Republicans.

Despite her apparent Teflon coating, it is Clinton herself who seems to self-inflict the most damage, by letting her inner lawyer slip out. She seems to be channeling Bill "depends on what the meaning of 'is' is" during his Blue Dress Days by calling the FBI investigation into her emails a "security inquiry":

Sure it's just semantics, but it adds an oily sheen that adds to the overall feeling that she is not trustworthy.

It also doesn't help that she and supposedly-neutral DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz are trying to claim that "investigators have not told her that she or any of her staff members are targets of the investigation".

The investigation will likely conclude that no laws were broken, but how she is trying to soft-sell this is likely doing her more damage among people who might be inclined to vote for her than the investigation itself (right-wingers wouldn't be voting for her either way).

Keep the fans blowing and the shovels at the ready - there's still plenty of campaign season ahead of us.