Hillary Clinton’s interview on former Obama adviser David Plouffe’s podcast last week seemed to open the door for a possibility that had liberals everywhere breathing into a paper bag for a spell: Hillary 2020.
The 2016 Democrat standard-bearer certainly sounded like a candidate. She also sounded every bit like the kind of candidate Hillary Clinton was in 2008 and 2016, picking an argument with Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, currently polling at about 1 percent.
One of her top advisers even said that she would be open to getting into the race — and that’s enough to turn former CIA officer Brian Dean Wright into an imbiber.
Wright, a Democrat, appeared on “Fox & Friends” Thursday to discuss former top Hillary adviser Phillipe Reines’ appearance on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on Wednesday when he speculated that Hillary hasn’t definitively decided to stay out of the 2020 presidential race.
“She ran for president because she thought she would be the best president. If she still thought that now, if she thought she had the best odds of beating Donald Trump, I think she would think about it long and hard,” Reines said, according to Fox News.
“She might as well run. She might be the best person to beat President Pence — I’m sorry, I meant President Trump.”
Oh, ho ho ho. I see what you did there. In his Thursday appearance, Wright made it clear his thoughts on Hillary 2020. He wasn’t a fan of a third run, suffice it to say.
“It makes me want to drink,” Wright said. “It’s very early, and I don’t drink.
“It is so frustrating to keep hearing this from her over and over again,” Wright continued.
“Look, the country made it very clear not once, but twice, that we’re not interested. We’re just not that into her. It doesn’t seem that she’s getting the message.”
What was behind it? While Wright thought the reason had to do with her desire to sell copies of her latest book, he felt part of it was that Hillary — now as always — still feels the need to remind us of the fact that she thinks she should be in residency at 1600 Pennsylvania.
“She got $8 million for her memoir. The Clinton family made over $23 million on their books. So, she throws some bombs, whether it be the Tulsi Gabbard stuff, teasing this 2020 run — I think that’s a part of it,” Wright said.
“But, again, I think the other piece of it really is, at the end of the day, it’s her ego. It’s her bruised sense of self. And that’s pretty pathetic.”
And that ego could very well spell disaster for Democrats. Again.
One of the impetuses for all of this discussion about a potential Hillary candidacy was a Tuesday New York Times piece titled “Anxious Democratic Establishment Asks, ‘Is There Anybody Else?’”
Most of the article wasn’t a revelation: Democrats in the establishment aren’t terribly thrilled at the current crop of candidates and are looking for somebody else to get in. At the top of the list of last-minute candidates were Clinton and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
This should have taken some rank-and-file Democrats by surprise, though: “Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Bloomberg have both told people privately in recent weeks that if they thought they could win, they would consider entering the primary — but that they were skeptical there would be an opening, according to Democrats who have spoken with them.”
Oh, please do.
There’s an opening for them to win in the primary, at least given the current field. Biden’s fundraising numbers have been pitiful and whatever polling lead he maintains nationally seems to be mainly a matter of illusion. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg have serious viability issues in the general election. Bernie is, at this point anyway, a nonstarter.
Hillary Clinton might look pretty good, given all of this. And then you remember that this is Hillary Clinton, the woman who lost the 2016 election after spending over $1 billion on the campaign. Nothing has changed, structurally or personally, about Clinton in the intervening years.
She’s certainly talking like a candidate, but Democrats had better hope it’s just that — talk. Otherwise, I get the feeling there’s going to be a lot of people diving into the craft IPAs early and often during the next year or so. Republicans, meanwhile, will be saving the potent potables for a November celebration.
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