She’s the woman who just cannot fade into the night. Hillary Rodham Clinton still says she wants to be president when asked about 2020. Of course, why should she think otherwise, as annoying as she is in the national political discourse? The fact that Democrats keep circling back to her is indicative of their weak bench. Yes, there are a lot of up-and-coming progressives, but no one knows who the hell they are—and their credentials are shoddy, to say the least. If there is any name recognition, it’s deeply curtailed by geography, like no one knows who the hell Sen. Cory Booker is outside of Jersey, Sen. Gillibrand outside of the Catskill Mountains. For all their hollering, the fact remains that Donald Trump is still on the path to re-election.
Clinton made these remarks in New York City, though she also decided to make what some are saying could be construed as a racial remark, namely by saying that all black males look alike (via NYT):
Hillary Clinton gave mixed signals on whether she’s considering another presidential run, telling a New York City audience on Friday that she would be well suited to the office.
During a far-ranging interview with Kara Swisher of the technology website Recode (Ms. Swisher is also a contributor to The Times’s Opinion section), Mrs. Clinton initially said “no” when asked whether she wanted to run for president again. She then paused and repeated “no.”
But after Ms. Swisher noted the slight hesitation, Mrs. Clinton seemed to reconsider her response, saying that a major task of the next Democratic president will be improving the international standing of the United States.
“Well, I’d like to be president,” she said, during the public taping at the 92nd Street Y of Ms. Swisher’s podcast. "The work would be work that I feel very well prepared for having been at the Senate for eight years, having been a diplomat in the State Department, and it’s just going to be a lot of heavy lifting.”
[…]
Mrs. Clinton has become a more visible presence in recent weeks, increasing the number of her public appearances and raising money for Democrats across the country. Last week, she spoke at a fund-raiser for Donna Shalala, a former Clinton administration official, who is running for a House seat in Florida.
“She will always be a winner and I’ll always be with her,” said Ms. Shalala, introducing Mrs. Clinton to a room full of 200 Democratic donors in Miami.
Well, first of all, she’s a loser. She's a two-time presidential loser, and let’s put an asterisk on her New York Senate win because a) it’s New York; it’s a deep blue state, and b) she ran against a rather milquetoast GOP candidate.
Ms. Swisher did mix up Eric Holder and Cory Booker, which led to Mrs. Clinton saying, “Well, they all look alike.” Swisher was asking about the recent incivility in our discourse (which is still politics at its base level, but whatever), noting Holder’s remarks about kicking Republicans; Swisher incorrectly said it was Booker. Clinton did say she adores Booker prior to this rather odd remark.
WOAH: “I know they all look alike” - Hillary Clinton talking about 2 African American men.pic.twitter.com/WLwcYVF18G
— Michael J. Morrison (@OfficeOfMike) October 29, 2018
Not all agree that this was a racial joke, but rather a bad impromptu comment made in light of Swisher’s error. I’m rather agnostic on the whole latter. What we can agree on is that this is cringe-worthy.
Mrs. Clinton and Barack Obama for that matter are two people who simply cannot go off-script without coming off as inauthentic or incredibly awkward. It’s painful to watch—all of this. The coy remarks about 2020, saying all blacks look alike, and just her incessant and addictive need to remain in the spotlight. Also, there are scores of Democrats who are simply sick of Hillary. She wasn’t left-wing enough. She’s old news. And we need new blood. All of which is true, but Democrats having a smaller talent pool for candidate recruitment, maybe you do need yesterday’s news to headline fundraiser and the like. It still doesn’t make it any less pathetic—and Obama and Clinton remaining on the scene; I can’t think of a better gruesome twosome that energizes Republicans to get out and vote.
My interpretation of this is not that Hillary made a “racist” joke, but that she made an uncharitable and snide joke at the expense of the moderator, who made a mistake. https://t.co/MLw9TrPEkF
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) October 29, 2018