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Following a disastrous week for the Democrats, Hillary Clinton seems to be offering herself as the “default” candidate to take on President Trump in a rematch next November.
The Party’s week from hell included the overtaking of Biden’s nearly insurmountable lead in the polls by far-left Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders’ heart attack that reminded everyone of just how fragile life is for septuagenarians such as him and Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s faux announcement that the House was going to be conducting an “inquiry” into a Trump impeachment without the House’s official approval, the latest whistleblower’s creds being shredded, etc.
All of a sudden, Hillary is everywhere. She’s on The View. She’s on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. She’s on Good Morning America. On CBS Sunday Morning on September 29 she all but announced her willingness to ride to the rescue of a Democrat Party that has lost its way.
When sympathetically asked by hostess Jane Pauley “How are you doing now?” Clinton’s carefully crafted response spoke volumes: “Personally, I’m doing well and having my grandchildren … has been a gift beyond measure. I feel very blessed. I feel good.”
And then the announcement: “But I can’t deny that a big part of me cares deeply about what’s happening in the country and what I fear is the damage that’s being done to our future…. The objective is to field whoever is the strongest candidate to defeat Donald Trump.… He knows he’s an illegitimate president.”
She rolled out sound bites, almost as if to see how they might fare during a campaign debate with Donald Trump, calling him “a reckless, corrupt human tornado who cares only about himself.” She declared that Trump “is a clear and present danger” and that he “has turned American diplomacy into a cheap extortion racket.”
She tested them during Friday night’s performance at George Washington University: “Trump knows he’s an illegitimate president” and that “impeachment is the appropriate remedy. I am all in favor of what the House is doing.… This president has to be held to account.”
And she is just the woman to do it, apparently. She and her daughter Chelsea promoted Hillary’s latest book, The Book of Gutsy Women, which was released on October 1, just in time to save the Democrats from their self-imposed immolation. In case anyone missed it, the reviewers from Amazon made it clear that a gutsy woman is just what the world needs right now:
To us, they are all gutsy women — leaders with the courage to stand up to the status quo, ask hard questions, and get the job done. So in the moments when the long haul seems awfully long, we hope you will draw strength from these stories. We do. Because if history shows one thing, it’s that the world needs gutsy women.
None of this is any surprise to Mark Penn or Andrew Stein, both Democrat operatives who wrote in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal nearly a year ago:
Claims of a Russian conspiracy and the unfairness of the Electoral College shielded Mrs. Clinton from ever truly conceding she had lost. She was robbed, she told herself, yet again. But after two years of brooding — including at book length — Mrs. Clinton has come unbound. She will not allow this humiliating loss at the hands of an amateur to end the story of her career. You can expect her to run for president once again. Maybe not at first, when the legions of Senate Democrats make their announcements, but definitely by the time the primaries are in full swing.
She has a 75-percent approval rating among Democrats, and was able to raise more than $700 million dollars for her campaign in 2016. She not only has “unfinished business” to be the first female president of the United States, according to the Democrat duo, but she harbors “a personal grievance against Mr. Trump.”
So confident were they back then that they declared that Hillary will “trounce” the Democrat hopefuls: “Just as Mr. Trump cleared the field, Mrs. Clinton will take down rising Democrat stars like bowling pins.”
No doubt a seeming endorsement from former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown is welcome as well. An initial supporter of his former mistress Kamala Harris, Brown is now apparently all in for Hillary:
Call me crazy, but from what I’ve seen so far, Clinton is the only candidate … who has the brains, the battle-tested brawn and the national presence to take out Trump….
Elizabeth Warren has a following, but it’s not that much broader than Sanders’. If he drops out, she might pick up some of his votes. But there’s the big question of whether she appeals to anyone besides the furthest left element of the Democrat Party.
Donald Trump would no doubt welcome a rematch and put to rest, finally and forever, any question about the legitimacy of his 2016 election as president of the United States.
An Ivy League graduate and former investment advisor, Bob is a regular contributor to The New American, writing primarily on economics and politics. He can be reached at [email protected].
