You're correct that he doesn't make an explicit judgement, but there are two things to note: (1) he used the rhetorical question to prove a point (he meant some

You're correct that he doesn't make an explicit judgement, but there are two things to note: (1) he used the rhetorical question to prove a point (he meant something by it), and (2) the obvious answer to the rhetorical question is "No." Therefore, it's fair to ponder what the equivalent statement would be if it weren't written in the form of a question. The way I interpreted it was "No one could rationally ignore this information. Clearly one should factor it when making a decision about which cover letter to read first, which candidate to interview first, etc." I don't think that's an unfair way to read this, and it clearly implies something about the qualities of former candidate with respect to the latter.