Clinton Will Run Again in 2020

(CNN)All information technology took was a bit of speculation from a guy who isn't especially close to the well-nigh famous people in Chappaqua, New York, for the arrow on the "love-Hillary Clinton-or-hate-her" meter to start swinging wildly once more.

Suddenly, the Boston Herald alleged the idea of Hillary Clinton running for president in 2024 "a nightmare scenario." Simply at The Hill, writer Joe Concha looked at the other Democrats who could run and asked, "If those are the options, why non Hillary?"

While the mere mention of the Clintons in the context of another presidential campaign offends some and inspires others, everyone in the political world has a reason to exist excited by the prospect. Among her supporters, at that place must be millions who have recovered from the heartbreak of 2016 and are ready to back her again. Among those who oppose her, the chance to resume battle confronting the woman they dearest to hate must surely send hearts racing.

To be clear, Hillary Clinton hasn't indicated she'southward running for anything -- and a political comeback by the former secretary of state seems unlikely. This recent speculation began with Doug Schoen, the polling and consulting business firm founder who worked for erstwhile President Bill Clinton. Schoen, forth with co-author Andrew Stein, wrote a Wall Street Journal opinion piece outlining the Democrats' current struggles -- an unpopular president and VP; political party infighting; and looming midterm challenges -- while making the case for Hillary as a "alter candidate" who, at 74, is still younger than President Joe Biden.

Except for the fact that she's not Biden, I would disagree where the thought of "change" is concerned; both Clinton and Biden are center-of-the-road Democrats of the aforementioned generation. Simply whether Schoen is right or wrong about Clinton's prospects, the most telling thing about a potential Hillary run in '24 can be found in the reaction that followed his commodity.

While the political pros may jostle for work -- some fantasizing well-nigh a hereafter Clinton campaign, some using the buzz to make a pitch for other would-be candidates -- bourgeois media is already cashing in.

From the New York Postal service to Pull a fast one on News to Sky News Australia, the Clinton talk revved engines beyond Rupert Murdoch'southward media empire. Big names at Fox are dragging Hillary on the air, and at the Post a columnist mused over her "inevitable loss." According to a Sky News headline, "loser" Hillary Clinton is "obsessed with the presidency."

But study these reactions closely and yous might observe the Murdoch stars and others salivating over the prospect of Hillary Clinton's return to public life. For decades, certain media outlets and personalities accept used Clinton as a bogeyman to excite viewers and readers -- and this time is no different.

In 1994, it was radio host Rush Limbaugh repeating false claims that White House lawyer Vince Foster, who died by suicide in a park, "was murdered in an apartment owned by Hillary Clinton." In 2016, it was author Dinesh D'Souza'south suggesting she "orchestrated" her husband's infidelities. (With Foster's death, there have been repeated investigations that ruled it as a suicide. And equally for any infidelities, friends take said that Clinton didn't condone them.)

As I discovered researching my 2020 book "The Hunting of Hillary," Clinton became a target for free media criticism and conspiracy theory attacks as soon every bit she entered public life in Arkansas. In Little Rock in the late 1970s, she wasn't simply the state's first lady; she was a symbol of the changing status of women in America and a repository for all the anxieties, anger and confusion felt by those who didn't welcome the change.

Young Hillary'southward desire to piece of work, use her own proper noun -- Rodham -- and delay childbearing irritated many. All these issues were raised in a 1979 TV interview: "Does it business you," asked the host, "that maybe other people feel that you don't fit the prototype that nosotros take created for the governor'south wife in Arkansas?"

In the years that followed, as Clinton resisted the gendered limits placed on her, the questions and critiques morphed into conspiracy theories.

Past 1994, televangelist Jerry Falwell was using his broadcasts to sell a video called "The Clinton Chronicles" in which Hillary and her husband were non only ambitious but dangerous. The flick even falsely implicated both Hillary and Beak in diverse murders.

At the 1992 GOP convention, presidential candidate Pat Buchanan used his nationally broadcast opening-night speech communication to declare a "culture war" and place Hillary in his crosshairs. After twisting her record as an attorney, he accused her of "radical feminism" and alleged her i of God'southward opponents "in the struggle for the soul of America."

Ambition has always been one of Hillary Clinton's supposed sins, which may be why Sky News Australia would run a headline today claiming Hillary is "obsessed with the presidency."

However if she is aggressive, this would make her similar other politicians -- Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, the first president Bush -- who lost either master or general elections and came back to win the White House. They won because voters deemed them nigh qualified. Given her experience equally Get-go Lady, a United states of america senator, and Secretary of State, Hillary is one of the about qualified potential presidents in the state.

Add to her qualifications the resilience she has shown under pressure: and so many books have taken aim at her that it'due south difficult to keep rails. A burst of titles emerged in 1999, with ane volume alleging that "in scandal after scandal all roads lead to Hillary." Another had the on-the-nose title, "The Case Against Hillary Clinton." Many more assault books followed. Four were published in 2016 alone.

Despite the onslaught, which connected when Republicans feared she might actually win the presidency, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote in 2016 by roughly ii.9 one thousand thousand. Yet Donald Trump reached the White House thanks to the curious institution known as the Electoral College.

In the aftermath of her loss, Clinton recovered at her home in Chappaqua and but recently began returning to public life. It is this resilience that energizes her critics and her supporters at the mere mention of a comeback.

Never the monster they tried to make her, Hillary Clinton is instead a leader who -- similar others before her, including President Biden -- only becomes more compelling and powerful with experiences that would accept defeated others.

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Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/18/opinions/hillary-clinton-2024-reaction-dantonio/index.html