Here we are in December, just two months away from the 2020 Iowa Democratic caucuses. Seeing no hope of their presidential campaigns catching fire, several candidates from the crowded field have dropped out, most recently Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA).
Other Democrats like former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg decided to jump into the race late. Another one is still playing the “will she or won’t she run” game, deliberately not ruling out the possibility of an even later entry into the 2020 Democratic presidential primary race.
Failed 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton appeared on BBC TV talk show host Graham Norton’s show last week. He asked the same question she often gets asked when she sits down for Q and A’s:
The question of her potential candidacy came up when Clinton was asked about one of the subjects in her book, USA soccer star Abby Wambach, who retired with the tagline ‘Forget Me’, in order to leave the public stage and have someone else take her place.Norton asked: ‘Are you saying ”Forget me” now?’, to which Clinton answered, ‘not yet’, to applause and cheers from the studio audience.[…]Norton asked: ‘The rumour mill is flying that you could step back into the ring.’Clinton replied: ‘I hear that. I have been deluged the last few weeks with thinking about doing that, but right now I’m not at all planning that.’I would have to make up my mind really quickly, because it’s moving very fast. But I do want to continue to influence the debate.’
Watch this segment from the interview below:
It was the third time in the last two months that Clinton has refused to close the door on throwing her hat into the ring yet again.
She told BBC Radio 5 Live in November that she “never, never, never” says “never.” In an early October interview on PBS, she claimed, “Maybe there does need to be a rematch. I mean, obviously I can beat [Trump] again.”
The reports from the New York Times and Washington Post that swirled in October about whether or not she would run got to be so prevalent that some Democratic Senators went on the record to practically beg Clinton not to do it.
As I’ve noted before, she would love nothing more than to get a second chance at Donald Trump, and there are two main reasons for that:
1) She’s obsessed with identity politics and wants to become the first woman ever elected POTUS and
2) She sincerely believes he’s an “illegitimate” president who only won thanks to the mythical Trump/Russia collusion and thinks she wouldn’t lose the second time around.
It’s wishful, delusional thinking on her part. But on the flip side of things, if she declared her candidacy so close to the start of the primaries, it would seriously increase the entertainment value of the Democratic presidential race.
Think about how Joe Biden, Mayor Pete, and Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders would seethe at her audacity, considering how long they’ve been running and all the time and effort they’ve put in so far. They wouldn’t be able to keep all that anger under wraps for long.
And if she managed to win the nomination, setting up a rematch with Trump? The candidates’ Twitter fights alone would make the 2016 general election seem like child’s play, not to mention the backflips the mainstream media would perform on Clinton’s behalf.
To be sure, I’m getting a little ahead of myself here. Nevertheless, the prospect is still out there. As Clinton herself has said, “never say never.”
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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