Reisman: Hillary 'For Sale' prank goes viral

Gary Murphy's inspiration for political satire came to him while driving through the streets of Chappaqua, where he is a neighbor of Bill and Hillary Clinton.

He had just heard Hillary's press conference about her ad hoc policy of using her private email account for both personal and diplomatic business— and he was bugged by her defensive tone and lack of candor.

The former secretary of state said at the conference that she had deleted 30,000 email files she deemed off limits to the public because they had nothing to do with the affairs of state, but involved personal stuff. Furthermore, she wasn't going to allow access to her private server in case anybody, God forbid, doubted her honesty.

"I felt very unsatisfied," Murphy told me. "It was just so controlled. She didn't even answer the softball questions."

So Murphy got an idea. He stopped by a local hardware store, plunked down three bucks and change and bought a sign. Under the words, "For Sale," he announced in black and red ink the availability of a used email server with a "clean hard drive." He wrote in the Clintons' address, 15 Old House Lane, and "See Bill."

Then he attached the sign to an Old House Lane street pole, planted a computer hard drive in the soot-covered snow and snapped a photo of his creation.

Rudimentary? Perhaps. Murphy only intended it as a joke for his friends' enjoyment.

"That's really all I had anticipated," he said.

What he didn't realize, however, was that he had tapped into the zeitgeist of the moment. Thanks to the wildfire nature of social media, his poke at Hillary, the putative Democratic presidential candidate for 2016, went semi-viral.

I obtained Murphy's photo through a friend late Wednesday afternoon. Within minutes of tweeting and posting it on Facebook, it was seen, shared and liked by thousands.

"Gosh, that was the best investment I've ever made in everything that I've tried to do politically," said Murphy, who is a Republican and president of a home cleaning business, Maid Brigade. "Who would think a Facebook picture would keep a conversation going?"

He was contacted by politics bloggers from New York to Washington, D.C.

Murphy stressed he harbored no personal animosity against his neighbors the Clintons, but disagreed with them politically. To prove his good will, he sent me a couple of personal Clinton-encounter photos — one showing him and a smiling Hillary at a 2014 swearing-in ceremony for three GOP New Castle council members and the other from a couple of years ago showing the former president, his dog and Murphy's daughter, Iphy.

Give points to old Bill. The latter photo is charming.

"Can't pass up your daughter meeting a former president and his dog," Murphy said.

By way of background, recall that the Clintons bought the Dutch Colonial residence on Old House Lane 16 years ago for $1.7 million, with a $350,000 down payment and a five-year adjustable rate mortgage. In an interview with Dianne Sawyer last year, Hillary claimed they left the White House "not only dead broke but in debt."

This astounding statement was roundly met with ridicule.

And I should mention that Murphy quickly took down the prank For Sale sign and removed the hard drive — which was prudent since a mysterious black box left unattended in close proximity to a former president's home would sooner or later attract the attention of Secret Service agents, who are not known for having a sense of humor.

Murphy made his statement and that was enough.

"My feeling is that people are entitled to their opinions," he said. "If I'm injecting myself into this conversation and people like it, great.

"If they don't, sorry. I can't do anything for you."

Email: preisman@lohud.com Twitter: @philreisman