During one presidential debate last October, Trump and Hillary were asked to name “one positive thing” that they respected about their opponent. Trump said this about Hillary: even if he disagreed with much of what she was fighting for, she was a fighter, and never quits. And Trump was absolutely right. Although Hillary has been laying low since her defeat in November, Politico has recently speculated that she could be gearing up for yet another run. While the author of the article had no “inside information” to argue this point, he did point out some facts that make such a potential run seem that much more likely.
Since her defeat in November, the Clinton Global Initiative has been laying low. Plagued by scandal, it’s been labeled a slush fund for political operations, paid for by foreign governments and made it pretty easy to call Hillary “crooked”. Despite pleas throughout the 2016 campaign, the Clintons refused to shut it down, so what advantage, apart from a political one, does it serve to do that now? In a similar vein, why have the Clintons allowed rumors to circulate that Hillary could be considering a run for mayor of New York?
Earlier this month, Hillary signed a deal with Simon & Schuster for what would become her seventh book. Does somebody who is out of politics for good really have that much more to say? Maybe it would be a tell-all about the rigors of her campaigning, but who knows? Then, after Trump’s Muslim ban was overturned in court, Clinton got onto Twitter to express her approval of the decision, using a voice that sounded like she was still on the campaign trail. And during her November concession speech, Hillary made no indication that she was going to fade into the background, instead talking about the future and her role in that future and pointing out that “there is more work to do”.
Regardless of whether you agree with her politics or not, Hillary has certainly had a long political career, and is way too competitive to ever let that to end on a low note. I’m still not 100% convinced that Hillary will run again, but I doubt that she’d quietly fade into the background; even after such a humiliating defeat, it would be completely uncharacteristic of her. If she doesn’t run, then I wouldn’t be surprised if she reemerged as a potential “kingmaker” sort of role, throwing her support behind a younger Democratic politician like Cory Booker.