Buried in the thousands of Hillary Clinton emails so far released is a fascinating and significant insight to her mind, something so far apparently noticed only by Geoff Earle of the New York Post.  She has surrounded herself with courtiers who take every opportunity to compliment her on her looks:

When a photo of Clinton on her Blackberry started lighting up the Internet in April 2012, an aide forwarded it to Clinton chief of staff Cheryl Mills under the subject line, “Photo gone viral!”

Mills passed it along to Clinton, who wanted to know why it was so popular.

“You look cute,” responded Mills.

The photo in question is this one:

Now cuteness, like beauty, may be in the eye of the beholder, but this photo looks sinister.  The sunglasses, the black outfit, and the lie Hillary uttered about wanting to use only one device being the reason for her home-brew email server were the reasons this photo was passed around.

Did Hillary really believe her toadies?  Apparently, yes, because this sort of ass-kissing was far from rare:

Undersecretary Judith McHale wrote her boss in May 2012 that she had seen an article mentioning how good Clinton’s hair looked.

“Fun seeing the great press you are getting on all things sartorial and hair related! Who would have thunk it in this stage of our lives,” McHale said.

And when a magazine featured Clinton on the cover, press aide Philippe Reines described the photo as “spectacular.” Longtime aide Huma Abedin agreed, chiming in, “It’s gorgeous.”

Imagine that!  Subordinates competing with each other to compliment Hillary’s looks.

Some reality:

• Hillary is 68 years old, no spring chicken.
• She has never been a good-looking woman, from the era of teenage Coke-bottle glasses on.
• She has been spectacularly cheated on by her husband for decades, and everyone knows it.
• She has made changing her hairstyles a fetish.
• She spends vast amounts of money on custom-tailored clothing.
• She has recently gained so much weight that she has adopted tent-like garments that disguise her ballooning waist and hips, and largely discarded her trademark pantsuits.

All of these factors suggest deep insecurity and psychological stress.  She desperately wants to be admired for a quality that she conspicuously lacks.  And she has surrounded herself with advisers who will tell her what she wants to hear, not the truth.

This last point is the one the public needs to be concerned about.  Political leaders with staffs that tell them what they want to hear almost inevitably lead their nations to disaster.