The Political Insider

Could Hillary Clinton run for president again? According to former Clinton pollster Mark Penn,,ki that is a real possibility. Penn told Fox News recently if former Vice President Joe Biden doesn’t run and the current crop of Democratic candidates veer too far left, she could jump into the race.

Penn says Clinton is “one of the most experienced politicians around,” who has met with some of the declared candidates. “Those meetings are going to be somewhat awkward because she hasn’t declared that she’s not definitely running, and she, in fact, at the same time is looking over the field and I think will make a decision later in the year whether or not to run herself,” Penn said on Fox News.

“If the party looks too far to the left and there’s no front runner, she’ll get in,” he said. “I think if Joe Biden gets in, that probably means she won’t run if he gets in. If he doesn’t get in, I think the field will be open for her.”

This prediction is not anything new for Penn. In November, he said Clinton “could easily” become the Democratic nominee in 2020.

In January, Clinton would not rule out running.

Democrats are Right to Worry

A recent Reuters story reflected concerns by moderate Democrats that the party veering too far leftward could help re-elect Donald Trump in 2020.

“Party activists have been energized as Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris and other candidates endorsed plans to provide Medicare coverage to every American, some form of tuition-free college, a national $15 minimum wage and the so-called ‘Green New Deal’ advocated by U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,” Reuters reports. “But Trump and his allies in the Republican Party have seized on those stances to attack the Democratic 2020 field as outside the American political mainstream — a claim the president plans to make throughout his re-election campaign, according to sources with knowledge of his strategy.”

“Some Democrats fear the argument has potency,” Reuters continues. “They worry the primary may produce a nominee who will not appeal to centrist working and middle-class voters who voted for Trump in 2016 but whom Democrats believe they can win back.”

Hillary Clinton is No Solution

These are not unfounded concerns. Americans who voted for Trump in the last presidential election could feasibly be swayed by Biden or other centrist Democrats who might a certain appeal to middle class voters, but it’s hard to imagine those same voters pulling the lever for Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren or most other progressive Democrats of that stripe.

But if Hillary Clinton does decide jump in – what makes her think she will have any more appeal? Voters rejected her the last go ’round for a reason. Americans simply do not like her.

That Democrats will go far left as we head into 2020 is a given, and we’re already seeing it happen.

But the idea that Hillary Clinton is the answer to what ails her party is pure delusion.