With President Joe Biden at the helm, the Democratic Party is going down in flames. The White House thinks it just has a messaging problem, though they clearly have a leadership problem. You can’t fix the message on incompetent policy or failed promises, that takes a humble spirit and a true about-face.
With Democrats floundering into 2022, where does that leave the party when the currently elected president, the highest elected Democrat in the land, is rudderless and incapable of leading the nation?
Enter the Clintons once again to wrestle control of the ship and put the party back on a more mainstream course rather than crashing into the losing left-wing ditch.
Hillary Clinton hasn’t done many fundraisers since her work for Joe Biden in 2020, she’s actually laid rather low other than popping up to read her acceptance speech she never got to deliver.
When she recently hosted an event with Rep. Tim Ryan, a Democrat from Ohio’s 17th district, it caused some pundits to put their morning coffee down and pay attention:
Former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton will headline a big dollar fundraiser Monday night for Ohio Senate candidate Rep. Tim Ryan, in what will be her first fundraising event since the 2020 election cycle.
The fundraising event, which will be held on Zoom, was first announced by the Ryan campaign Jan. 18. The minimum donation for admission is $2,900, and donors can become event co-chairs for $20,800. Ryan is the presumptive Democratic nominee in the race to succeed retiring Republican Sen. Rob Portman, although he does face a left-wing primary opponent in former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau employee Morgan Harper.
Hillary Clinton’s continued interest in party politics is “about being relevant and people seeing [her and Bill] as a net positive, not a net negative,” a former campaign bundler for the Clintons reportedly told Politico.
There’s no doubt that Hillary still wants to be president, it’s never left her blood. She feels she was wronged in 2016, and with her party in shambles, has a chance to run again in 2024. The only person standing in her way might be Kamala Harris, but she’s currently piloting her own sinking ship.
There has been a lot of talk lately about former first lady Michelle Obama as the “break glass in case of emergency” candidate for Dems, though she has shown little interest. According to numbers, however, Michelle Obama is more admired than Hillary and Kamala:
Joe Concha’s Hill headline – “Hillary 2024? Given the competition, she may be the Dems’ best hope” – crystalized the party’s leadership problem. However, as the Democrats’ “best hope,” Hillary pales in comparison to another former first lady, Michelle Obama.
Before considering all the reasons, here is a pertinent trivia question: Who topped 2021’s list of the world’s most admired women? According to a global survey conducted by YouGov, Michelle Obama was the leader. Kamala Harris ranked 11th, with Hillary Clinton 12th.
Hillary doesn’t have to be admired to be successful in politics, she very nearly became president in 2016. She only has to be seen as someone who could lead more competently than Joe Biden, a trivial feat. She also has to seem more electable than Kamala Harris, which also shouldn’t be a problem.
The fact that both Clintons have crawled back out of the woodwork to gently ingratiate themselves back into mainstream Democratic politics shouldn’t be ignored.
Perhaps Donald Trump runs in 2024 and ends up beating her again if she becomes the Democratic nominee? That would be quite something in the annals of modern American politics.
