Could Bill Clinton Run for President Again
(CNN)All it took was a bit of speculation from a guy who isn't especially close to the nearly famous people in Chappaqua, New York, for the pointer on the "dearest-Hillary Clinton-or-hate-her" meter to start swinging wildly once again.
Suddenly, the Boston Herald declared the idea of Hillary Clinton running for president in 2024 "a nightmare scenario." But at The Hill, writer Joe Concha looked at the other Democrats who could run and asked, "If those are the options, why not Hillary?"
While the mere mention of the Clintons in the context of some other presidential campaign offends some and inspires others, everyone in the political world has a reason to be excited by the prospect. Among her supporters, there must be millions who have recovered from the heartbreak of 2016 and are gear up to dorsum her again. Amid those who oppose her, the hazard to resume boxing against the adult female they love to hate must surely transport hearts racing.
To be articulate, Hillary Clinton hasn't indicated she's running for annihilation -- and a political comeback by the old secretary of state seems unlikely. This recent speculation began with Doug Schoen, the polling and consulting house founder who worked for former President Bill Clinton. Schoen, forth with co-writer Andrew Stein, wrote a Wall Street Journal stance slice outlining the Democrats' current struggles -- an unpopular president and VP; party infighting; and looming midterm challenges -- while making the case for Hillary as a "modify candidate" who, at 74, is still younger than President Joe Biden.
Except for the fact that she's non Biden, I would disagree where the idea of "change" is concerned; both Clinton and Biden are eye-of-the-road Democrats of the aforementioned generation. Just whether Schoen is right or wrong well-nigh Clinton's prospects, the most telling thing most a potential Hillary run in '24 can exist found in the reaction that followed his article.
While the political pros may jostle for work -- some fantasizing about a time to come Clinton campaign, some using the buzz to make a pitch for other would-exist candidates -- conservative media is already cashing in.
From the New York Post to Fox News to Sky News Australia, the Clinton talk revved engines across Rupert Murdoch'south media empire. Big names at Fox are dragging Hillary on the air, and at the Mail a columnist mused over her "inevitable loss." According to a Sky News headline, "loser" Hillary Clinton is "obsessed with the presidency."
Just written report these reactions closely and yous might detect the Murdoch stars and others salivating over the prospect of Hillary Clinton'due south return to public life. For decades, certain media outlets and personalities have used Clinton every bit a bogeyman to excite viewers and readers -- and this time is no unlike.
In 1994, it was radio host Rush Limbaugh repeating simulated claims that White House lawyer Vince Foster, who died by suicide in a park, "was murdered in an apartment owned past Hillary Clinton." In 2016, it was writer Dinesh D'Souza's suggesting she "orchestrated" her hubby's infidelities. (With Foster's death, there have been repeated investigations that ruled it as a suicide. And as for any infidelities, friends have said that Clinton didn't condone them.)
As I discovered researching my 2020 book "The Hunting of Hillary," Clinton became a target for gratuitous media criticism and conspiracy theory attacks as soon equally she entered public life in Arkansas. In Piddling Stone in the late 1970s, she wasn't just 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 defoliation felt by those who didn't welcome the modify.
Young Hillary'due south desire to work, use her own name -- Rodham -- and filibuster childbearing irritated many. All these issues were raised in a 1979 TV interview: "Does it business organisation you lot," asked the host, "that maybe other people feel that you don't fit the paradigm that we have created for the governor's 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.
By 1994, televangelist Jerry Falwell was using his broadcasts to sell a video chosen "The Clinton Chronicles" in which Hillary and her husband were non just ambitious but dangerous. The film even falsely implicated both Hillary and Bill in diverse murders.
At the 1992 GOP convention, presidential candidate Pat Buchanan used his nationally broadcast opening-nighttime speech 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 declared her one of God's opponents "in the struggle for the soul of America."
Appetite has always been one of Hillary Clinton's supposed sins, which may be why Sky News Commonwealth of australia would run a headline today challenge Hillary is "obsessed with the presidency."
Yet if she is aggressive, this would brand her like other politicians -- Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, the showtime president Bush -- who lost either main or general elections and came dorsum to win the White House. They won considering voters deemed them virtually qualified. Given her feel as Showtime Lady, a United States senator, and Secretary of State, Hillary is i of the most qualified potential presidents in the land.
Add to her qualifications the resilience she has shown under pressure: so many books accept taken aim at her that it's difficult to keep track. A burst of titles emerged in 1999, with i volume alleging that "in scandal afterwards scandal all roads pb to Hillary." Another had the on-the-nose championship, "The Example Against Hillary Clinton." Many more attack books followed. Iv were published in 2016 alone.
Despite the onslaught, which continued when Republicans feared she might actually win the presidency, Hillary Clinton won the pop vote in 2016 by roughly two.9 one thousand thousand. Nonetheless Donald Trump reached the White Business firm thanks to the curious establishment known every bit the Electoral Higher.
In the aftermath of her loss, Clinton recovered at her home in Chappaqua and only 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 -- like others before her, including President Biden -- simply becomes more compelling and powerful with experiences that would have defeated others.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/18/opinions/hillary-clinton-2024-reaction-dantonio/index.html
0 Response to "Could Bill Clinton Run for President Again"
Post a Comment