Former senior adviser to the Clintons Mark Penn and president of the New York City COuncil Andrew Stein have asserted that “Hillary will run again” and that “Reinventing herself as a liberal firebrand, Mrs. Clinton will easily capture the 2020 nomination.”
In a piece published in the Wall Street Journal, the writers declared: “Get ready for Hillary Clinton 4.0. More than 30 years in the making, this new version of Mrs. Clinton, when she runs for president in 2020, will come full circle—back to the universal-health-care-promoting progressive firebrand of 1994.
“True to her name, Mrs. Clinton will fight this out until the last dog dies. She won’t let a little thing like two stunning defeats stand in the way of her claim to the White House.”
Curiously using computer software tags to describe Clinton’s approach and messaging over the years, the writers go on to suggest that this “Hillary 4.0” will be different from her earlier versions.
The writers suggest that Clinton clinched the support for the right-wingers during the 2008 election, when she lost to ex-President Barack Obama, and that she received support from those who voted for Obama when she ran against current US President Donald Trump in 2016, only for Trump to gobble up the groups she had left behind:
“Hillary Clinton 2.0 was a moderate, building on the success of her communitarian ‘It Takes a Village’ appeals and pledging to bring home the bacon for New York. She emphasized her religious background, voiced strong support for Israel, voted for the Iraq war, and took a hard line against Iran.
“As Hillary 3.0 catered to the coastal elites who had eluded her in 2008, Mr. Trump stole many of the white working-class voters who might have been amenable to the previous version. Finally she had the full support of the New York Times and the other groups that had shunned her for Mr. Obama—but only at the cost of an unforeseen collapse in support in the Midwest.”
After “two years of brooding — including at book length — Mrs. Clinton has come unbound,” according to the writers. Calling her defeat to Trump a “humiliating loss at the hands of an amateur,” the writers assert that “Hillary 4.0” will return to “avenge” herself:
“She will not allow this humiliating loss at the hands of an amateur to end the story of her career. You can expect her to run for president once again. Maybe not at first, when the legions of Senate Democrats make their announcements, but definitely by the time the primaries are in full swing.
“Mrs. Clinton has a 75% approval rating among Democrats, an unfinished mission to be the first female president, and a personal grievance against Mr. Trump, whose supporters pilloried her with chants of “Lock her up!” This must be avenged.
“Expect Hillary 4.0 to come out swinging. She has decisively to win those Iowa caucus-goers who have never warmed up to her. They will see her now as strong, partisan, left-leaning and all-Democrat—the one with the guts, experience and steely-eyed determination to defeat Mr. Trump. She has had two years to go over what she did wrong and how to take him on again.”
On competition to Hillary’s Democrat nomination, the writers assert that she will “trounce” the “bungling amateurs” in her way: “Just as Mr. Trump cleared the field, Mrs. Clinton will take down rising Democratic stars like bowling pins. Mike Bloomberg will support her rather than run, and Joe Biden will never be able to take her on.”
The writers further advise readers to avoid paying “much attention to the ‘I won’t run’ declarations” and assert that “Hillary 4.0” will return to the spotlight in time.
At an event last month, Clinton admitted that she’d “like to be president,” when she was asked whether she has intentions to run again.