Based on my career, the only thing that surprises me is they put it in an email. My assumption is everything I write down could be read by someone who wants to use it against me or my company. It can be a fine line to write useful emails without too many CYAs, but it can be done. Calling people doofuses is reserved for talking.Let's be honest - who is actually surprised that someone in Hillary Clinton's camp called Bernie Sanders a doofus? More importantly, who is actually offended?
I agree with you, but my experience has been that certain industries are more rough'n'tumble than others with email etiquette and that the older you are, the less likely you are to understand the likelihood that what you say will become public. John Podesta is 67.