A former aide to Hillary Clinton has said the former First Lady will be vying for President in the 2020 election.
Mark Penn, a pollster and longtime advisor for the Clintons, published an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal titled “Hillary Will Run Again” in which he predicts that Clinton will reinvent herself and join the race, despite two previous failed Presidential bids.
“Get ready for Hillary Clinton 4.0. More than 30 years in the making, this new version of Mrs. Clinton, when she runs for President in 2020, will come full circle — back to the universal-health-care-promoting progressive firebrand of 1994,” Penn wrote.
Hillary Clinton will mount a third bid for the White House, longtime Clinton adviser Mark Penn predicted in an op-ed https://t.co/4vEnih4muc
— POLITICO (@politico) November 12, 2018
“True to her name, Mrs. Clinton will fight this out until the last dog dies. She won’t let a little thing like two stunning defeats stand in the way of her claim to the White House,” he added.
Clinton has repeatedly shot down the idea that she would run for President again.
In an interview with BBC Radio 4 last month, Clinton said, “No, I’m not going to run again,” CNBC had reported.
“I think I’m in a position where my voice will actually be magnified because I am not running (for office), and there’s a very good basis, as we watch Trump’s support shrink, that people will say, ‘Well, what she said was right and now where do we go from here?'” she added.
Just a few weeks later, she was asked if she wanted to run for President, to which she replied “No,” but paused and added the caveat: “I’d like to be President.”
However, Penn said Clinton’s denials on entering the race shouldn’t be taken to heart.
“Don’t pay much attention to the ‘I won’t run’ declarations. Mrs. Clinton knows both Mr. Clinton and Mr. Obama declared they weren’t running, until they ran. She may even skip Iowa and enter the race later, but rest assured that, one way or another, Hillary 4.0 is on the way,” he said.
“Her whole life revolves around being that person in charge – she needs it” –@dbongino doesn’t discount the idea that Hillary Clinton may run in 2020 pic.twitter.com/12LfrJsaPl
— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) November 12, 2018
Penn’s op-ed detailed Clinton’s career, praising her stance on top issues, as well as redefining her image and place on the political spectrum before her comebacks.
Penn described Clinton’s 2008 defeat to Barack Obama in which she “held fast to centrist positions that would have assured her victory in the general election,” but then re-emerged in 2016 “as a progressive like Mr. Obama” because she didn’t believe her moderate position would secure the nomination.
“Then she moved further left as Sen. Bernie Sanders came closer to derailing her nomination. This time she was able to contain her opponent’s support, crucially by bringing African-American voters into her camp,” Penn said.
Despite her losses, Penn insisted that Clinton has the approval rating and the motivation to win.
“Mrs. Clinton has a 75% approval rating among Democrats, an unfinished mission to be the first female President, and a personal grievance against Mr. Trump, whose supporters pilloried her with chants of ‘Lock her up!’ This must be avenged,” he asserted.
“Expect Hillary 4.0 to come out swinging. She has decisively to win those Iowa caucus-goers who have never warmed up to her. They will see her now as strong, partisan, left-leaning and all-Democrat—the one with the guts, experience and steely-eyed determination to defeat Mr. Trump. She has had two years to go over what she did wrong and how to take him on again,” Penn added.
