NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- A former prominent politician in Manhattan is among those calling for Hillary Clinton to take another swing at the presidency.
Ex-Manhattan Borough President Andrew Stein and political consultant Doug Schoen wrote of their interest to see Clinton give a run for the nation’s top office a third try in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal.
The two called Clinton’s circumstances “a perfect storm” amid President Joe Biden’s fading approval rating, similar unpopularity for Vice President Kamala Harris and “the absence of another strong Democrat to lead the ticket in 2024.”
Stein was Manhattan BP from 1978 through 1985, and then was City Council president from 1986 through 1993. He also pleaded guilty to his involvement in a Ponzi scheme involving Ken Starr, and was sentenced to 500 hours of community service.
Despite his support for Clinton now, he wrote an op-ed for WSJ in 2016 saying he'd vote for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton, citing seeing Trump's work "on behalf of the average citizen" in decades knowing him and that he would bring "vitality" to the nation. He then called Clinton the "personification of the establishment and status quo."
Schoen is the founder of Schoen Cooperman Research, a firm who has worked with Bill Clinton and Michael Bloomberg in the past.
“If Democrats lose control of Congress in 2022, Mrs. Clinton can use the party’s loss as a basis to run for president again, enabling her to claim the title of ‘change candidate,’” the op-ed said.
Stein and Schoen cited Clinton’s experience as a national figure and her being five years younger than Biden as advantageous.
The piece notes Clinton has even taken steps to distance herself from the current administration by saying, “It means nothing if we don’t have a Congress that will get things done, and we don’t have a White House that we can count on to be sane and sober and stable and productive.”
“Mrs. Clinton can spend the time between now and midterms doing what the Clinton administration did after the Democrats’ blowout defeat in the 1994 midterms: crafting a moderate agenda on both domestic and foreign policy,” it goes on to say.
The piece garnered plenty of conversation — 2,500 comments as of Wednesday afternoon.
The top comment disagrees with the piece, saying, “Hillary is a total, complete and historic disaster. She represents everything that is wrong with America's political class. She needs to go away...forever.”
The No. 2 comment agrees, “Hahahahahahaha...am I reading The Onion!? Great laugh…” while another said, “Few things will galvanize and motivate the GOP more.”