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and both Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders (whose supporters would have been infuriated by another Clinton run) obviously didn’t fit that bill. “Did they want revenge? Of course they did,” says one former senior adviser. Either on the phone or at the POLITICS
Hillary would bat around the idea with close aides, including for-occasional conclave at the couple’s home in Chappaqua, New York, mer chief of staff Cheryl Wwas a subject Bill didn’t raise, although he was aware of it from his manager Manger a lot of Democratic leaders felt toward her. That resentment endless soundings of his national network of contacts in the party. after she lost to Trump, Hillary was somewhat insulated from the Some were less enthusiastic than others. In the first year or so aggie Williams and aide-de-camp Philippe Reines.illiams, 2008 presidential campaign
Public polling or approval ratings didn’t provide much encourage-ment. A Gallup Poll in the fall of 2018 had her at 36 percent.against Trump, defending Bill’s conduct with Lewinsky ended it. The woman who somehow lost in 2016 “to an orange puffer clown fish,” as If there was ever any hope that Hillary might go for round two New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd put it, was, like
softball questions from factotums like former political adviser Paul Begala or celebrities like comedian Jordan Klepper, who, inexpli-cably, was chosen to host the Washington, D.C., event on April 27.how they wanted to unite not divide; how they grew the economy for everyone, not just the rich. They riff about how they ended the war in Bosnia in the 1990s. “Bill, this is boring!” a heckler yelled at the New York event before being hustled out of the Beacon Theatre.Most of the program is legacy-burnishing: how smart they were;
7KH&XW5DWH&OLQWRQVAfter she left her job as secretary of state but before she declared her most of the crowds are still adoring, of course; the clintons2016 candidacy, Hillary used to make $200,000 per speech. In 2014, But the small-scale venues—crowds on the tour applaud virtually everything both of them say. cheaper prices speak to the very real cost of exile for the Clintons. Beyond the just-ended tour, their speaking fees have plummeted. don’t even have enough juice to draw protesters anymore. The many were still not sold out—and the
“It was an open secret in Clinton world another presidential run.”that Hillary was at least considering she spoke at eight different universities and pulled in $1.8 million.
there was relief. “It was probably the right decision,” says former themselves heard. Consider the recently concluded tour called “An Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, a longtime Clinton ally.ronto—tons continue to feel compelled to be in the public eye, to make her husband, done. Throughout most, if not all, of Hillary-land, Evening Wtheir time in Washington. It began last fall at a sports arena in To-Still, for reasons that bewilder some of their friends, the Clin-a vast venue more appropriate for a Beyoncé concert than ith the Clintons,” in which the two reminisced about
a political trip down memory lane. There were huge numbers of empty seats and large sections of the arena cordoned off by curtain. Ticket sales were slow, and the promoters had to cut prices in half. The entire evening was a debacle, and the tour was postponed.spring, lowered prices, and again the Clintons sallied forth: 13 stops across the country, ending on MBut not canceled. Organizers booked smaller venues for the ay 4 in Las Vegas, answering
Committee chair, helped coax Hillary out of her despair, urDISAPPEARING ACTging her to “pick her spots, speak up and speak out.Brazile, former Democratic National”
