Is Hillary Clinton Running for President Again

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

Of a sudden, the Boston Herald alleged the thought 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 non Hillary?"

While the mere mention of the Clintons in the context of some other presidential entrada offends some and inspires others, everyone in the political world has a reason to be excited by the prospect. Among her supporters, there must exist millions who have recovered from the heartbreak of 2016 and are ready to back her again. Amongst those who oppose her, the chance to resume boxing against the woman they love to hate must surely send hearts racing.

To be articulate, Hillary Clinton hasn't indicated she's running for anything -- and a political improvement by the former secretarial assistant of country seems unlikely. This recent speculation began with Doug Schoen, the polling and consulting firm founder who worked for former President Bill Clinton. Schoen, along with co-writer Andrew Stein, wrote a Wall Street Journal opinion piece outlining the Democrats' current struggles -- an unpopular president and VP; party infighting; and looming midterm challenges -- while making the case for Hillary as a "change candidate" who, at 74, is yet younger than President Joe Biden.

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

While the political pros may jostle for work -- some fantasizing nigh a future Clinton campaign, some using the fizz to make a pitch for other would-exist candidates -- conservative media is already cashing in.

From the New York Mail service to Pull a fast one on News to Sky News Australia, the Clinton talk revved engines beyond Rupert Murdoch's media empire. Large names at Pull a fast one on 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 written report these reactions closely and you might find the Murdoch stars and others salivating over the prospect of Hillary Clinton'southward render to public life. For decades, sure media outlets and personalities take used Clinton as a bogeyman to excite viewers and readers -- and this time is no unlike.

In 1994, it was radio host Rush Limbaugh repeating fake 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 author Dinesh D'Souza's suggesting she "orchestrated" her husband'due south infidelities. (With Foster'south death, at that place have been repeated investigations that ruled it every bit a suicide. And as for any infidelities, friends take said that Clinton didn't condone them.)

As I discovered researching my 2020 volume "The Hunting of Hillary," Clinton became a target for costless media criticism and conspiracy theory attacks as soon as she entered public life in Arkansas. In Little Rock in the late 1970s, she wasn't just the land'southward start lady; she was a symbol of the irresolute status of women in America and a repository for all the anxieties, anger and defoliation felt by those who didn't welcome the change.

Immature Hillary'due south desire to work, use her own name -- Rodham -- and delay childbearing irritated many. All these issues were raised in a 1979 TV interview: "Does it business organisation yous," asked the host, "that possibly other people feel that you don't fit the image that we have created for the governor'southward wife in Arkansas?"

In the years that followed, every bit 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 called "The Clinton Chronicles" in which Hillary and her husband were not simply ambitious but dangerous. The film even falsely implicated both Hillary and Bill in various murders.

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

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

Yet if she is ambitious, this would make her like other politicians -- Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, the beginning president Bush -- who lost either main or general elections and came back to win the White House. They won because voters deemed them about qualified. Given her feel equally Showtime Lady, a U.s.a. senator, and Secretary of State, Hillary is i of the nigh qualified potential presidents in the country.

Add together to her qualifications the resilience she has shown under pressure: so many books have taken aim at her that it'due south hard to continue track. A flare-up of titles emerged in 1999, with one volume alleging that "in scandal later on scandal all roads lead to Hillary." Another had the on-the-olfactory organ title, "The Instance Against Hillary Clinton." Many more attack books followed. Four were published in 2016 alone.

Despite the onslaught, which continued when Republicans feared she might actually win the presidency, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote in 2016 by roughly 2.nine million. Yet Donald Trump reached the White House cheers to the curious institution known equally the Electoral College.

In the aftermath of her loss, Clinton recovered at her dwelling in Chappaqua and just 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 than compelling and powerful with experiences that would take defeated others.

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

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