Comey as the naive idealist

Comey has always come across as a naive idealist to me-- a boy scout who wants to do right, but not fully equipped for political reality in the USA of the 2010's. From his comments on Hillary Clinton in July 2016 as "extremely careless" to his letter to Congress two weeks before the election (because he promised to keep Congress informed, but didn't understand the obvious political ramifications), to his inability to deal with an egotist like Trump who was clearly afraid of an honest man like Comey, the evidence is clear. Comey understood that he was dealing with key, sensitive situations, but lacked the political insight to prevent events from spinning out of control.

I think an argument can be made that Comey's actions (and the FBI investigations) so impacted Hillary Clinton, that she not only lost the election (popular vote notwithstanding), but her reputation with the American people still has not recovered (her favorability was mired in the 30's % even a year after the election in December 2017)-- which is incredible given that only 5 years ago she was the most popular political figure in the USA at over 60% approval. I doubt that Comey in any way intended this consequence. But the result was not only losing a chance for a historical Presidency, but instead we have the embarrassment of Trump.

The irony is that Trump's removal of Comey helped initiate the Mueller investigation, which at a minimum may help impede the damage Trump is doing to the American body politic for the time being.