I've got an unsubstantiated and impossible to prove theory. Traditionally the bulk of independents were centrist. But that changed in 2016 somewhat. That election had many Trump supporters not associated with the republican party, giving trump the "independent" edge. Those people have started to identify as Republican in this years polls. On the other side a big part of the democrat party has swung left and are less likely to identify themselves as democrats. The polls weight as if the republican / independent/ democrat association are going to have similar turnouts and mean the same thing as it did in 2016.
Maybe she was concerned she was in too deep and wanted that to protect herself if it went south. But I think it was more to use Obama's reputation to shield comey and the operation. I bet if Trump had started throwing more accusations at comey instead of abruptly removing him they would have found a way to leak this in a useful manor.
No no no no, we don't have a treatment until we have a clinical trial which is exactly the same as the information we already have, except this time we leave 2/3rds of the participants to chance and and record on a notebook as they die at the same rate as everyone else without treatment.... not to mention all the people dying waiting on the results of the clinical trial.
You're right, they're not acting like a state. If we have to bail them out because of their inability to govern themselves like a sovereign state, then they should also abolish their statehood and become the territory they're acting like.