Given the unpopularity of the Biden-Harris administration and the dearth of good presidential candidates behind them, it seems entirely possible that a veteran politician waiting in the wings could drop in and capture the 2024 Democratic nomination. This assumes, of course, that President Biden does not run for reelection, and that Vice President Kamala Harris is unable to “lock-up” the race as Biden’s successor. In that case, the 2024 Democratic primary becomes wide open, leaving an option for one particularly well-known former Secretary of State with an obviously never-ending desire to one day be president.
As Democrats stumble into 2022, with no clear leader in 2024, is the time ripe for Hillary Clinton to take a third shot at the presidency? Joe Concha, writing at The Hill, sees the open door and wonders if Hillary will soon be stepping through it:
The Democratic bench is about as deep as the New York Jets’ these days. Vice President Kamala Harris? She’s at 28 percent approval, per USA Today. Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo? No longer governor and thoroughly disgraced. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.)? He had to spend major time and resources just to avoid being ousted in deep-blue California during a recall election earlier this year. Transportation Sec. Pete Buttigieg? Not even 40 percent, and he has a supply chain crisis on his resume. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)? Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)? Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.)?
If those are the options, why not Hillary? She’s 74 years old, which is like being bathed in the fountain of youth compared to Biden. And she’s still stunned – five years later – that she actually lost to Donald Trump.
Hillary has not let go of her 2016 loss. Even after the election, Hillary complained of voting being rigged by the Russians somehow, among other things.
Perhaps the most telling move, however, was her decision to release her 2016 victory speech she never got a chance to deliver:
One more possible sign that Hillary is dipping her toe in the 2024 pool comes in the form of her bizarre decision to read her 2016 victory speech for something called “Masterclass.” It was one of the most cringeworthy things you’ll ever see.
Here we have a former first lady, senator, secretary of state and Democratic presidential nominee reading a speech for an election she lost. Of course, if the New York Times gave me an 85 percent chance of winning an election and I somehow lost to a guy who had never run for public office before, I’d have trouble absorbing it too.
Would Hillary really be that bad for Democrats in 2024? She’s a known quantity, and she’s popular among Democratic circles along with being a prolific fundraiser. She barely lost in 2016, and perhaps if she had put in a little more effort in the Midwest, she might’ve been president. At the moment, she’s teaching a Masterclass series on. . . resilience. Sure sounds to me like she’s about to give everyone a hands-on lesson.
Then again, Hillary also has her baggage of a long career, but that seems to matter less and less since everyone in their seventies will have baggage behind them. Many will find her complaining about the 2016 election off-putting to the point where she looks like a sore loser. She has placed blame on everything except herself for running a bad campaign, an image that is wearing very thin.
It’s hard to tell if her constant desire to rehash 2016 is a signal that she’s not done in politics, or that she thinks if she keeps talking about it, her legacy can be restored having been the victim of a “stolen” election. She lost 2016 because she’s a generally bad candidate, but not so bad she couldn’t win nationally in the right environment.
If Biden bows out, and Kamala Harris remains as unpopular as she is now, Hillary would have as good a chance as anyone to swoop in and become the Democratic nominee in 2024. Perhaps a Clinton-Buttigieg ticket is what Democrats need?
