It turns out that failed Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s political career may not be over quite yet.
According to political consultant Douglas Mackinnon in a piece written for The Hill, there is a theory floating around among those in the know that Clinton is actually angling to be the Democratic nominee’s vice presidential pick for the November election.
Hillary feeling “the urge”
To help support this theory, Mackinnon pointed to Clinton’s recent re-emergence into the spotlight. This includes an interview she gave to Variety at the Sundance Film Festival in which she was asked about the “urge” to defeat President Donald Trump.
“Yeah. I certainly feel the urge because I feel the 2016 election was a really odd time and an odd outcome. And the more we learn, the more that seems to be the case,” Clinton said. “But I’m going to support the people who are running now and do everything I can to help elect the Democratic nominee.”
In terms of Clinton’s comments in that particular interview, the word that really stuck out to Mackinnon and his sources — the one he emphasized in his article — is “everything.”
Clinton on “every shortlist”
Included in the “everything” that Clinton could potentially do to help the Democratic nominee, according to Mackinnon, would be to serve as that individual’s running mate on the 2020 ticket.
Specifically, Mackinnon asserts that “Clinton and/or her team could be negotiating with former Vice President Joe Biden, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg or the last candidate standing to join the ticket as vice president. She would add the gravitas, delegates and, eventually, millions of votes needed to get them over the finish line on Nov. 5. I am assured that Clinton is on every shortlist for that position.”
In other words, Clinton is being seriously considered as someone who could help compensate for the deficiencies of the more mainstream Democratic candidates, including Biden and Bloomberg. It does seem however, that there would be virtually no chance of Clinton joining the campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), for example, given his more extremist platform and the contentious history between the two.
After all, let’s not forget what Clinton is reported to have said about Sanders in the soon-to-be-released documentary Hillary: “He was in Congress for years. He had one senator support him. Nobody likes him, nobody wants to work with him. He got nothing done.”
Time will tell
Mackinnon goes on in his article to explain that D.C. insiders are convinced that Clinton would indeed be willing to accept the vice presidential role because she is not ready to “ride off into the sunset,” as he put it.
He also makes it clear that Clinton remains determined to avenge her 2016 loss to Donald Trump and to achieve an historic political “first,” even if that takes the form of being the first female vice president instead of the first female commander in chief.
We’ll have to wait and see whether Mackinnon’s theory comes to fruition once convention time rolls around and whether Clinton will in fact attempt to ride to the Democrats’ rescue. This writer, for one, has his doubts.
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