As members of Congress return to work on Tuesday, a whole new spirit of bipartisanship has broken out in Washington.
First, President Trump came out and said he supported Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s desire to once again wield the gavel as Speaker of the House. And now, one of the president’s top aides is backing a rumored 2020 run by Hillary Clinton.
“Dear God, please, yes,” White House counselor Kellyanne Conway wrote on Twitter.
Conway’s encouragement came after a Wall Street Journal story, headlined “Hillary Will Run Again,” said the two-time loser might be gearing up for a third try. Written by Mark Penn, a pollster and senior adviser to Bill and Hillary Clinton from 1995-2008, and Andrew Stein, former Democratic Manhattan borough president and president of the New York City Council, the article said:
“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. 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.”
The writers also say after “two years of brooding — including at book length — Mrs. Clinton has come unbound.”
She will not allow this humiliating loss at the hands of an amateur to end the story of her career. You can expect her to run for president once again. Maybe not at first, when the legions of Senate Democrats make their announcements, but definitely by the time the primaries are in full swing.
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.
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.
Conway, the first woman to run a winning presidential campaign, enjoys needling Clinton. On Election Night in 2016, Conway told the Daily Mail: “She didn’t break the glass ceiling. I did.”
And in another bipartisan twist, Trump — king of the rolls — said last week that he backs Pelosi.
“In all fairness, Nancy Pelosi deserves to be chosen Speaker of the House by the Democrats. If they give her a hard time, perhaps we will add some Republican votes. She has earned this great honor!” Trump wrote on Twitter.