I know someone who’d be excited at this prospect, but how realistic is another Hillary Clinton presidential run? At least according to the woman herself, a “lot” of people are “pushing hard” for Hillary to toss her hat in the ring against Donald Trump. In an interview with the BBC picked up by the Daily Mail and others, Hillary says that beating Trump should be the focus rather than fighting over who gets to do it:

She said: ‘I say the same thing every time people ask, I’ll do everything I can to retire the incumbent. That can be by supporting those running. I’m just grateful for the opportunities that I have had. I loved being in public life; the good, the bad, the ugly. ‘A lot are pushing hard [for me to run again] but I really believe we have to keep our focus on what it will take to get a new president and get our country back – all the attacks on our institutions, undermining the rule of law everything that’s going on. ‘I think we are in a global struggle for democracy and I don’t say that lightly. I think there’s a rise of autocrats who think it’s their way or no way and I’m worried there are people in my country – including the president – who are enamoured and who seem to have great admiration for dictators who wants to do away with all the messiness of coming together to make decisions. ‘It’s hard in a democracy you don’t have someone telling you what to do you gotta say okay I’m gonna vote, participate and support the best direction and there can be differences that’s all part of it. I’m really worried about my country right now and I want to make sure whoever is running knows what the stakes are.’

A lot of people are “pushing hard” to get the one person who could have possibly lost to Donald Trump to try it again, eh? Who would those people be, besides Philippe Reines, Huma Abedin, and ol’ Bill? The networks?

That might be too snarky a take, however cheesy this claim is coming during a book tour for Hillary’s book Gutsy Women. A week ago, it would have looked silly to argue that Democrats lacked potential realistic candidates for the 2020 contest, but then the New York Times did its survey of swing states showing Trump leading or competitive against their frontrunners. Not coincidentally, Michael Bloomberg suddenly developed interest again in a presidential run, and now Deval “Bain Capital” Patrick has sent out feelers as well.

So yes, it’s possible that Hillary’s hearing from a lot of people within the party that she should give it another go. It does appear that panic is emerging from the party establishment that they could snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. In this environment, returning to the woman that the party groomed for fifteen years to succeed her husband at some point might look like a good alternative. That’s a rather large investment to write off, after all.

The problem with this idea is that same NYT survey shows Democrats weakest in the states Hillary lost in 2016. Why would they trust her to do any better the second time? On top of that, voters in these states who already rejected Hillary might well wonder why the DNC is shoving her down their throats a second time. There’s no better way to prove a disconnect between the Democratic establishment and voters than to tell them they made a terrible mistake the last time, and now they’d better behave and vote correctly this time … or else.

Whether she’s getting recruited or not, though, Hillary’s making sure that they know she can be recruited. This is the point of having a book tour that emphasizes identity politics and allows her to offer unchallenged discourse, only perhaps “a lot” of people haven’t yet taken Hillary’s hint. Or perhaps she’s not taking theirs.