Clinton Desperate to Out-Trump Trump in 2020?

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been making a concerted effort to be out and about and seen to an extent that no other losing presidential candidate has done. Normally, after a good, wet wound-licking, the also-rans will take the high road, gracefully retreating into the history pages while focusing on presidential libraries and humanitarian efforts. But this chick isn’t normal.

From the moment that realization hit on election night 2016, Clinton has been blaming everyone – especially the Russians – for losing the most famously “rigged” presidential election in recent history.  It’s not her best look: sniveling, accusatory, and what appears to be some sort of fugue-state denial. But she persists. Mrs. Clinton has recently hit the podcast circuit, emboldened by the State Department’s decision that “no persuasive evidence of systemic, deliberate mishandling of classified information” has been uncovered with regards to the use of a private server for top-security state business. Dropping hints of superiority, the former darling of the Swamp is confidently proclaiming she could beat Trump, that the Democrat candidate field in 2020 is too weak and too far-flung leftward. She appears to be effusing centrism in a pool of progressives as if she can become the female Donald Trump in order to beat Donald Trump. American politics has become the latest network reality show – scripted yet utterly unpredictable.

Russia – Yet Again

Hysteria over the recent scandal centered on Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), involving a shadowy whistleblower, a phone call to Ukraine, and the mention of former Vice President Joe Biden is fizzling out after the trickster-in-chief baited Democrats into uncovering and publicizing a sketchy business deal.  Unfortunately, the sketchy deal was attached to a serious case of influence peddling – between the Biden family and one of the largest energy companies in Ukraine, Burisma Holdings. That’s one Democrat frontrunner down, two to go and perhaps the door will open a bit wider for a Hillary re-run.

She is making her re-entry with, yes, a rehash of 2016. Hillary is breathing life back into the narrative that Russian bots bolstered Trump into the White House. And she’s now naming names of Americans who, rumor has it, are  Kremlin assets. Namely, former Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein and 2020 Dem contender Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI). Nailing both on a podcast, Hillary brought the Russian scare back with a tease, saying:

“She’s [Gabbard] the favorite of the Russians. They have a bunch of sites and bots and other ways of supporting her so far … Yes, she’s [Stein] a Russian asset, I mean, totally. They know they can’t win without a third-party candidate.”

Gabbard and Stein must believe the woman is nuts.

But Russia isn’t Hillary’s only issue to regurgitate in 2020; there’s that field of progressive Democrats embarrassing the party elite that apparently needs to go. Political insiders are wagering that Hillary’s rumblings are a sure indicator of divide-and-conquer tactics. Former Trump confidant and strategist Steve Bannon recently imparted this pearl of observation wisdom on Fox News:

“They think they have a weak field and they’re – it’s like in chess – they’re prepared to sacrifice a rook to take down a king. They will throw Biden away to get to Trump and hope Elizabeth [Warren] or I even think Hillary Clinton or Bloomberg or some centrist comes in here. She is running. She’s just trying to decide how to fit her way in.”

Same Old DNC, Different Day

While Mrs. Clinton hints that Americans are willing Russian assets and that she could beat Donald Trump given another chance, she acknowledges that she didn’t win the first go ‘round. As daughter Chelsea sat in casual designer duds and sneakers, gazing with pride upon the Clinton matriarch during an appearance in Portland, OR, Hillary discussed strategy for winning in 2020. Basically, she admitted candidates have to win the Electoral College.

“I want to see who can win the Electoral College. Because it doesn’t do us any good to win the popular vote … at the end of the day … that is not the game, you have to win electoral votes.”

Admission? Finally. She went on to say the Democrats should “wait and see who emerges” and that the party must do a better job of vetting candidates to see how well they would “withstand” the brutal presidential campaign process. Oh, boy, we all witnessed who did not fare well in 2016. Could Hillary take the stress, the physical and mental rigor of another battle against Trump? The Silent Majority that banished her in 2016 is primed for another epic battle – and with elephant-like memory, the American people will not soon forget the bleaching of servers, scrubbing of hard drives, and 33,000 vanishing emails. Sure, Hillary was cleared of intentional wrongdoing, but the State Department did identify dozens of individuals who mishandled classified information, as well as hundreds of security violations during her run as Secretary of State. The buck stops with Madam Clinton for a dangerous and poorly run department.

Clinton has reportedly said she would only enter the race if she were certain she could win. The fact that she was certain in 2016 should be a stark reminder that her time has already come and gone. But will Hillary’s delusions get the best of her?

~

Read more from Sarah Cowgill or comment on this article.