ultratruman
Banned
Consider. Since Clinton's shock-the-world, hysteria-inducing defeat last November, the Clinton Global Initiative has dramatically scaled back its operations. The CGI—the most scandal-plagued arm of the Clinton Foundation—was a ground zero of grief for the Clinton campaign. Labeled a slush fund for political operations, paid for by foreign governments, it was an endless and easy target of complaints about conflicts of interest and graft. Yet despite pleas to do so by various supporters throughout the 2016 campaign, the Clintons time and again refused to shut it down or shrink its mandate until Bill Clinton made the announcement just weeks before Election Day. Which raises the question: What advantage, other than a political one, is there to actually going through with it now?
Similarly, why did the Clintons allow rumors to circulate—rumors they still haven't officially quashed—that the former secretary of state was/is/might be considering a run for mayor of New York City? For the thrill of it? Out of spite toward the current mayor, who supported her candidacy for the White House? Or might there be another reason to keep alive the idea that Hillary Clinton's political fortunes aren't in the rear-view mirror?
This month, Clinton signed a book deal with Simon & Schuster. That alone isn't noteworthy. This, after all, would be her seventh book, if you count her campaign policy venture/insomnia cure, Stronger Together. But added to all the other activities afoot, it raises a few questions. Does she really have that much more to say? Or might there be another reason, besides money that she does not need, to go on a book tour, answer humiliating questions about losing to Donald Trump and stay in the headlines?
And just days ago, Clinton trolled Trump on Twitter over the courtroom defeat of his executive order banning citizens from seven majority-Muslim nations. She didn't have to do that, of course. Most defeated rivals disappear after their loss. Instead, Clinton sounded very much like she was still on the campaign trail. (Because, of course, she is.)
Finally, consider last November's concession speech to Trump. Absent in her remarks was any indication, as one might have expected, that she was going gentle into that good night, handing the baton to a new generation or even to a new leader. Instead, Clinton talked more about the future—explicitly including herself in that future—than she did about the past.
”I know we have still not shattered that highest and hardest glass ceiling, but someday, someone will," she said, adding, ”and hopefully sooner than we might think right now." She then quoted a line of Scripture: ”Let us not grow weary in doing good, for in due season, we shall reap if we do not lose heart." And she concluded, tellingly, with this: ”So my friends, let us have faith in each other, let us not grow weary, let us not lose heart, for there are more seasons to come. And there is more work to do."
This was not Richard Nixon's bitter ”You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore" when he lost a race for governor in 1962 and thought his political career was over. This was someone looking ahead. More seasons to come.
To make another run, people must remember she's still out there and still engaged. A president-in-waiting, but crucially, without looking like a president-in-waiting. That's why there will be another book tour, periodic op-eds on issues she care about, select speeches and media events, and the odd tweet in support of various anti-Trump activities, such as the women's march and the airport protests over Trump's executive order pertaining to refugees. Anything she does will attract attention, so she will have to plan her appearances very sparingly and wisely to avoid tipping her hand. Watch for her to do just that.
Hillary Clinton has 100 percent name ID, a personal fortune and a bastion of loyalists. She could enter the race at the last possible moment—at the behest of the people, of course—and catch her Democratic Party rivals by surprise. To soften her reputation as a programmed, overly cautious and polarizing figure, Clinton should eschew the front-runner label and run as an underdog, praising the other candidates and their proposals, opening up her campaign bus to the press corps and offering to have a freewheeling debate with any major rival, at any time, and anywhere.
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/02/hillary-clinton-is-running-for-president-again-214766