Clinton Isnt Going to Run Again

(CNN)All it took was a bit of speculation from a guy who isn't specially close to the most famous people in Chappaqua, New York, for the arrow on the "love-Hillary Clinton-or-hate-her" meter to outset swinging wildly once again.

Suddenly, the Boston Herald declared the idea of Hillary Clinton running for president in 2024 "a nightmare scenario." Just 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 another 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 accept recovered from the heartbreak of 2016 and are gear up to back her again. Among those who oppose her, the chance to resume battle against the woman they honey to hate must surely ship hearts racing.

To be clear, Hillary Clinton hasn't indicated she'southward running for annihilation -- and a political comeback by the former secretary of land seems unlikely. This recent speculation began with Doug Schoen, the polling and consulting business firm founder who worked for former President Bill Clinton. Schoen, forth with co-author Andrew Stein, wrote a Wall Street Periodical stance piece outlining the Democrats' current struggles -- an unpopular president and VP; party infighting; and looming midterm challenges -- while making the instance for Hillary every bit a "change candidate" who, at 74, is still 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 middle-of-the-road Democrats of the same generation. But whether Schoen is correct 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 article.

While the political pros may jostle for work -- some fantasizing about a future 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 Heaven 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 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 find the Murdoch stars and others salivating over the prospect of Hillary Clinton's return to public life. For decades, certain media outlets and personalities have used Clinton as a apparition to excite viewers and readers -- and this fourth dimension is no dissimilar.

In 1994, it was radio host Rush Limbaugh repeating imitation 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'due south suggesting she "orchestrated" her married man's infidelities. (With Foster'southward death, there have been repeated investigations that ruled it equally a suicide. And as for whatsoever infidelities, friends have said that Clinton didn't disregard 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 Little Rock in the late 1970s, she wasn't but the state's first lady; she was a symbol of the irresolute 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's desire to piece of work, use her own name -- Rodham -- and delay childbearing irritated many. All these issues were raised in a 1979 TV interview: "Does information technology concern yous," asked the host, "that maybe other people experience that you don't fit the paradigm that nosotros have created for the governor'due south wife in Arkansas?"

In the years that followed, equally 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 hubby were not just ambitious just unsafe. The motion-picture show even falsely implicated both Hillary and Neb in diverse murders.

At the 1992 GOP convention, presidential candidate Pat Buchanan used his nationally broadcast opening-dark oral communication to declare a "culture war" and place Hillary in his crosshairs. After twisting her record every bit an attorney, he defendant her of "radical feminism" and alleged her one of God's opponents "in the struggle for the soul of America."

Ambition has ever been i of Hillary Clinton'due south supposed sins, which may be why Sky News Commonwealth of australia would run a headline today claiming Hillary is "obsessed with the presidency."

Nevertheless if she is ambitious, this would make her similar other politicians -- Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, the starting time president Bush-league -- who lost either primary or general elections and came dorsum to win the White Business firm. They won considering voters deemed them near qualified. Given her experience as Start Lady, a United States senator, and Secretary of State, Hillary is i of the most qualified potential presidents in the land.

Add together to her qualifications the resilience she has shown nether pressure level: so many books have taken aim at her that it's hard to go on track. A burst of titles emerged in 1999, with 1 volume alleging that "in scandal afterward 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 connected when Republicans feared she might actually win the presidency, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote in 2016 by roughly ii.9 meg. Still 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 habitation in Chappaqua and merely 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 -- only becomes more 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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