Colin Powell's leaked emails are a treasure trove of great quotes — from his recognition that everything Hillary Clinton "touches she kind of screws up with hubris" to his accusation that former President Bill Clinton is still "dicking bimbos" in his Chappaqua, N.Y., home.

The view they offer of the uncensored opinions of a respected general not known for harsh partisanship is both amusing and piquant. Powell, thinking his emails would remain private, does not mince his words, and dishes it out hard on Donald Trump and several former Bush administration colleagues.

But Powell also reveals something about Clinton that many in the news media would rather not acknowledge, which is that even her friends don't like her.

Those who know her personally find her off-putting, just as the public does, and for the same reasons. There's every reason to believe that Powell's comments reflect the unvarnished views of the political elite, which mostly go unsaid.

In one email exchange, Powell calls Clinton a "friend" whom he respects, but adds that he "would rather not have to vote for her." He then explains why: "A 70-year person with a long track record, unbridled ambition, greedy, not transformational." Then the general adds the bit about Bill and the bimbos.

Powell is not Clinton's BFF, but he knows her a lot better than most people do. And his close acquaintance with her does nothing to overcome his concerns about her venality and hyper-ambition. He embodies the old maxim that familiarity breeds contempt.

And that's what appears to have happened with voters, too. Clinton has hung around for so long in public view that people know well what she is. They have not grown to like it and they never will.

Voters watched the nastiness between Clinton and then-Sen. Barack Obama in 2008, and, according to Powell's emails, the Clintons still hold a grudge, allegedly referring to the president as "that man."

Voters have watched Clinton shift her position on issues including trade and national security. This makes her seem like the kind person who would say or do almost anything to get elected, which is what Obama said of her in 2008.

She scatters blame like grapeshot to avoid accountability for her own misdeeds. For Powell, the last straw, which came long after the email quoted above was sent, came when Clinton tried to blame him recently for her email scandal. She insinuated that she was following his advice when she set up her private email server in the basement of her country house.

Voters have also noticed her self-serving lies, her cavalier disregard for the law and her transformation of public service into a multi-million dollar personal fortune.

Tellingly, Powell suggests that these flaws are not somehow balanced out by good qualities of a "real Hillary," a good Clinton who's in there somewhere but remains unobserved by the public. Nope, it doesn't exist.

In other words, the popular notion that Clinton is greedy and conniving is not the result of people not knowing the real Clinton. It's based on people observing what she's really like, based on her actions, her statements, her excuses and her irritation at those who try to hold her accountable.

Powell didn't write as though he were saying anything controversial or unusual when he dissed Clinton. Everyone, really everyone, recognizes what she is, even elite Democrats. Democratic megadonor Jeffrey Leeds wrote to Powell that "no one likes her" and that she would "pummel [Obama's] legacy" if she could, perhaps just to spite him for winning in 2008.

The more people see (and hear) Clinton, the less they like her. There are seven weeks to go before the election. Perhaps there is enough time, but only just.