(cnn)for those who hoped that the coming presidential election would usher in the dawn of a new, more inspiring politics, this past week has been deeply discouraging in two key moments, leaders from both sides of the aisle have acted like the bourbons of france, who famously remembered nothing and forgot nothing from battles of their past the first and substantively more important moment was the sending of that letter by republican senators to the iranian regime the second, and perhaps more important politically telling moment, was hillary clinton's handling of her emails the two cases are oddly related in both instances, the principals started with legitimate concerns but have wound up making things worse in both cases, the principals have also created divisive issues that will deepen polarization through the campaign and probably into the next presidency both have diminished the chances for breaking out of today's ugly politics republicans in congress have reason to press hard with their views as negotiations with iran enter the home stretch they, like many others    including a sizable number of democrats, the current israeli government, and friendly arab nations    fear the obama administration will cut a weak, leaky deal that will allow iran to come perilously close to having nuclear weapons just as importantly, republicans believe, with cause, that as he negotiates, president barack obama has tried to sideline congress in general and them in particular who can blame them for arguing that if the president insists any agreement needs only executive approval    not approval by congress    then the next chief executive should not be legally bound by its provisions? their basic concerns were not unreasonable thus, if they had sent exactly the same letter to the president, they would have caused a stir but would have been seen as within the norms of politics and statecraft instead, they made the mistake    a wicked one    of sending it to the terrorist leaders of iran, leaving a clear impression they were out to sabotage both the deal and the president we have had renegade members of congress try to interfere with presidential negotiations in the past    remember sen jesse helms?    but never 47 members of the united states senate tossing a hand grenade into delicate, life or death negotiations conducted by seven major nations and led by the united states ayatollah khamenei made clear this week that he may use the republican letter as a pretext for rejecting any deal where do we go then? will talks collapse? will an iranian rush toward the bomb set off a nuclear arms race, starting in saudi arabia, which is already taking preliminary steps? will the united states then be compelled to use military force against iran? who knows for sure? what we do know is that iran is now almost certain to become a central issue in the 2016 presidential campaign and that the republican nominee will be under relentless pressure from the right to adopt a hard, unyielding line one can just imagine a number of gop candidates pledging that if elected, they will abolish obamacare on day 1 and an iranian agreement on day 2 this is hardly a way to restore steady, bipartisan foreign policies, as we so badly need and why have republicans forgotten so soon the damage done from voters thinking the last gop president was too hard line and reckless? on the other side of the aisle, hillary clinton had absolutely legitimate concerns about the security of emails she might send as secretary of state as one who spent a year and a half at the clinton white house and state department, i could see first hand how they    more than any president since nixon    were hounded by enemies and reporters trying to ferret out secrets to cause trouble or win a prize it is small wonder that both clintons still have scar tissue hillary clinton's mistakes did not start with creating an email protection system no, they started when she and her team failed to coordinate up front with the state department system and record all official exchanges within the government system on a prompt, air tight basis that did not break laws but it did run afoul of government procedures and, when revealed, naturally gave rise to suspicions about what she might be hiding in her press conference, she did accomplish her obvious mission: she began cutting legs off the story in essence, she said one half of her emails (the official ones) are now safely with the state department and, at her request, will gradually be made public the other half (who knows what's in there?) have been deleted and she is keeping the server in effect, she says, they are gone  and gone forever, beyond congressional subpoena, foia requests, and even hackers what fresh revelations can the press now pursue? not many and how can republicans browbeat her in hearings without looking like bullies? hard to do in short, the story may soon die you just have to trust me, she says clever but the very fact that instead of inviting a neutral, trusted party like lee hamilton to review all the emails, she chose to cut off the story by destroying the evidence comes with a price: she has freshly renewed public doubts whether she plays straight or by her own rules loyal democrats will continue to invest their faith in her, but for many others, the controversy leaves a lingering sense of unease and polarization deepens she was always going to face a rough campaign, but now she will begin with clouds already gathering more to the point, they will obscure her very real strengths as a leader around the world, many women look upon her with heartfelt admiration from her years of promoting their empowerment and she has also has a strong case to make that she and her husband know something about job creation: 229 million were created in the eight clinton years, more than in any other presidency since world war ii (reagan was second at 161 million; there have been some 64 million in the first six obama years) in short, she is worse off than she was before this controversy broke    and so are american politics bill clinton likes to say that politics is always about tomorrow    and he is right but candidates also need to remember and learn from yesterday after this last week, they might start by reading a wonderful book by historian barbara tuchman published some 30 years ago: 'the march of folly: from troy to vietnam' there she argues that leaders often start out trying to do the right thing but take a wrong path, stubbornly stick with it despite all evidence and eventually wreck tuchman calls their refusal to learn from experience 'wooden headedness' we have seen too much wooden headedness these past days
david gergen iran clinton
david gergen: iran almost certain to become big issue in 2016 campaign . clinton's mistakes did not start with creating email protection system, he says 