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Joe Battenfeld: Democrats face deplorable dilemma -- whether to turn to Hillary Clinton

Joe Battenfeld, Boston Herald on

Published in Op Eds

Democrats find themselves with a deplorable dilemma – whether to reach into their no-talent “bench” for a 2028 standard bearer or turn to the 78–year-old party matriarch for yet another comeback bid.

Saddled with an aging constituency of white, privileged, female boomers who fill up “No Kings” rallies, Democrats are in such disarray that some are looking to Hillary Clinton to come to the rescue.

The former secretary of state is coming to New Hampshire this month to headline a major fundraising dinner – fueling speculation about her White House intentions and generational complaints from progressives who view her as an out of touch retread.

Clinton insists she isn’t running but her appearance in the Granite State on April 25 — her first in the state in seven years – has triggered grumbling that she doesn’t meet the party’s liberal litmus test for candidates any more.

But Clinton sounded recently like an unconfident Little League coach looking at a bench full of weak 12-year-olds as she assessed the current Democratic presidential field.

“We have a kind of big messy contest. And so people are going to run,” she told a German TV show at a conference in Munich. “There’s probably going to be 10 to 15 people running. But we have a good bench, we have some good candidates.”

Really? The pompous, overrated Gavin Newsom? The unelectable Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez? The even worse Kamala Harris?

Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is now testing the waters. If he is the nominee, the Democrats are doomed.

That’s what they face as they look to topple President Donald Trump’s successor, which looks now like either Vice President JD Vance or Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Clinton is tested, ready for the fight and would clearly be a major player in the race – probably the top dog. Sure, she’s old and definitely not the future of the party but she’s a safe bet and would seem to be a better alternative than the current frontrunners in the field. If the field dwindles to just Newsom and Pete Buttigieg and AOC, there will be growing calls for her to get in.

 

Just leave the doddering house husband at home.

If Clinton is the nominee, she would not have to face Trump this time, just one of his cronies, who would be much less formidable than the current president.

Clinton has also stayed in the mix lately, which is another sign that she’s not ready to retire quietly. A few weeks ago, she claimed that Republican legislation would make it harder for married women to vote.

“Time to fight back,” Clinton posted on X.

GOP officials debunked her claims as nonsense, but the back and forth indicated her interest in the race.

Clinton is deeply flawed, of course, and her and her husband’s enmeshment in the Epstein case shows that she has more baggage than any other candidate. She will likely never live down her comment about Trump voters being a “Basket of Deplorables.”

Maybe worse for the Democrats than their deeply flawed candidates is their crumbling voter base.

Did you take a look on social media at some of the photos from the “No Kings” rallies? They look like an ad for Social Security. And there is a clear lack of people of color or young voters.

Democrats are losing Black and Latino voters to the Republican Party and it could get worse over the next few years, especially if Rubio, of Cuban descent, is the nominee.


©2026 MediaNews Group, Inc. Visit at bostonherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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