Hillary Clinton has had a rough year. After bumbling through the nationwide book tour for her new memoir Hard Choices, Clinton has seen her approval rating dip to new lows. But that hasn’t quieted the 2016 rumors. On radio this morning, Glenn shared details of a conversation he had with a Democratic friend about the 2016 presidential election that has him convinced Clinton can take the White House.
“I want to talk to you a little bit about the upcoming election. There was a friend who is a friend of Hillary’s people… They don't know that we're friends. And this friend was saying to me, you know, ‘Hillary is going to win.’ This is last week when I was on vacation,” Glenn said. “Then they explained what their friends of Hillary and the left told them… the strategy is. And when I heard the strategy, I did this, ‘Oh, my gosh. She's going to win the presidency.’”
According to Glenn’s friend, Clinton’s aids are privy to the tactics the right will use to diminish her reputation – primarily, the September 11, 2012 terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya. But, as Glenn explained, Clinton will utilize a much more conciliatory and optimistic approach that will draw on the work her husband did during his tenure in the White House.
“Here's what Hillary is going to do,” Glenn said. “Do you remember when America was good? Do you remember when we had jobs, and we were building towards a brighter future, and things were really happening? During the Clinton Administration, we had it under control. Things were good… We're going to do better. We're going to replant our flag in the traditional things that you understand… We can talk about Ronald Reagan all we want, but nobody remembers Ronald Reagan. It was too long ago. We remember Ronald Reagan, but the Clinton years are the golden years.”
Glenn admitted he and Pat have had conversations about how they would “gladly take Bill Clinton right now” simply because things have gotten so out-of-control. While the Clinton presidency was not nearly as triumphant as history has remembered it, even Glenn said he remembers those years fondly.
While Pat agreed the yesteryear strategy is “viable,” Stu wasn’t so convinced.
“That is a horrific strategy,” Stu said bluntly. “There is a great-on-paper argument. But the issue with Hillary Clinton is: She could have done this in 2008 and was unable to do it.”
As Pat explained, Clinton will try to tout the supposed budget surplus her husband left office with and the burgeoning economy, but he believes those arguments could easily be torn apart by her opponent.
“She'll remind us that the economy was supposedly great and ‘we left a surplus when we left office,’ which was all nonsense,” Pat said. “That's what they'll claim because they've claimed this for 15 years… [but] that surplus was gone. It was a surplus on paper. It was not a surplus in reality.”
“Do you just ignore the truth when they bring those arguments up,” Stu asked.
Ultimately, Glenn believes these are all technicalities that will do little to thwart the support this sort of approach will garner.
“That's a technicality nobody is going to listen to,” Glenn concluded. [This] will work… While we're talking about technicalities and the past, they're going to be talking about a past that was brightly remembered. And they will talk about the America we will become… They absolutely have a vision, and they have a vision that Americans generally remember and are comfortable with and like.”
Front page image courtesy of the AP
