Fenster writes:
Is anyone thinking as I am that there is something a little–odd? revealing?–about how Brazile is handling this affair? She didn’t have to start it up and surely knew she was punching people with power.
Her old buddy George Stephanopoulos seems in an interview to want to give her room to walk back from the ledge and her response is that critics can go to hell. There are the peculiar Seth Rich statements. She’s going on Tucker Carlson tomorrow.
I have thought that this could all be part of a gang-up by the disparate Dem forces who want to push Hillary from the stage, forcibly if necessary. While that may be the case there is still something reckless about Brazile’s way of doing it, and even if people are happy at the damage she is doing she might still “never work in this town again.”
So if she has made herself so toxic that no one will hire her, what is going on? Maybe she sees one of those buy-low sell-high opportunities that Trump grasped a couple of years back?
The Republican field was crowded at that point, with many bigfeet consuming all the oxygen and seemingly making it harder for outsiders to find sunlight. Trump saw this as an opportunity. In the case of the Republicans there were plenty of bigfeet but none were capable or willing to take on the issues that needed attention. The issues themselves were being starved for oxygen, which Trump supplied, and the more opponents in the race the better. Trump turned conventional wisdom on its head, and he did it by seeing an opportunity when others did not–a classic buy-low sell-high businessman’s instinct.
Does Brazile see something similar among the Dems? Hillary won’t leave the stage. Biden is well past his sell-by date but hovers, hovers. Sanders excited a chunk of the base but he is old. And can he win if he continues to move from his old-fashioned leftism (which might attract middle America) to newfangled progressivism? Warren has some of the same problem. And Obama? Obama is doing something no other recent president has done–attempt to run the party as an ex-president. Roger Stone–a possibly crazy man but not someone I would ever bet against on political matters–is quite sure the plan is to run Michelle.
That is a lot of oxygen consumption. The question is whether the situation is analogous to that of the Republican’s last time around, with the gaggle of opportunists unable to do the necessary things, being captives of the past. And whether the stage is set for a dramatic play by someone who can cut through the fog.
It’s possible that Tulsi Gabbard could play that role. Getting the party to walk back from its dangerous identity politics plank may require someone immune from charges of racism, sexism and so forth. And Gabbard may be able to pull that off.
But why not Brazile? Is the surplus drama that she has brought to her return to the national stage a way of saying she is ready for a starring role? It does not matter that no one will hire her if she herself can establish herself as her own political force. She’s got the name and brand recognition already. She’s tough as nails. She can speak truth to power, even the off-the-rails power brokers in her own party if necessary. Does she see the buy-low sell-high moment for the Dems, and is she rushing to establish herself as the Trump-style disruptor before others take the plunge? Brazile 2020?
Blowhard, Esq.
Callowman
Sherbrooke
Eddie Pensier
Enzo Nakamura
Epaminondas
Fabrizio del Wrongo
Fenster
Brundle Guy
Glynn Marshes
Paleo Retiree
Atypical Neurotic
Question Lady
Sax von Stroheim
Sir Barken Hyena
The Mistaken
Uncouth Reflections 
It’s a very plausible theory, more plausible than that she’s in simple CYA mode. I don’t think the second convincing because I think she’d ride out whatever happens by just playing good trooper.
If she is throwing her hat into the ring, that means she has instincts and guts, which are exactly what worked for Trump. The rest, of both parties have neither.
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I highly doubt it.
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I’ve always kind of liked Donna Brazile. She seems like a pro who thinks the other side has a right to give it their best shot too, kind of like how some pros on the left find Pat Buchanan to be a sporting professional rival. I don’t sense that Brazile takes it personally that, say, I’m a white man and have different political interests than her.
If you assume that identity politics rules, and that the Democrats need to nominate in 2020 a black and a woman … well, then, if Oprah doesn’t want to run, who else is there? Donna Brazile has a rolodex of professionals, so she could probably assemble a plausible administration. She’ll be 59 or 60 in 2020, which is a reasonable age for political candidates.
I presume she’s a lesbian, but lesbians who aren’t resentful toward the rest of humanity have done pretty well in recent elections. People are pretty aware that stocky girls who are good at giving orders have trouble finding a man dominant enough for them.
In contrast, the main black male Democrat, Cory Booker, has the problem that nobody seems sure why a good catch like him is still single: is he gay or does he have a white girlfriend? For whatever reason, Booker doesn’t seem committed enough to pursuing his potential political destiny to marry a Michelle, so it’s reasonable for voters to assume he doesn’t want the White House all that much.
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I still think it is plausible that she could make a run at it, and for many of the reasons you cite. Then there are the other “big” theories about the brazen quality of what she has done–that she knows more about Seth Rich than she has let on, that she is positioning herself for something, even if not the presidency, knowing that the Dems are facing collapse. Still, having watched her a little more in the past few days I lean now toward the more conventional explanation: a high risk way to stay in the game, somehow, and make some bucks in the process. She started right in hawking her book on Tucker Carlson.
But yeah she could be an attractive candidate. I have noticed a similar reaction as yours among other right-leaners: respect for her professionalism and craft. And someone ought to have the cojones to develop the connection between old-style Democratic thinking and Bannonism, and she has the cojones at least.
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We know the Mueller investigation has started to nibble on Hillary’s people, with the Podestas apparently turtling in defense. Seth Rich is still dead, Weiner’s laptop is still around, Hillary still had a server in her house. Who knows what will turn up?
We also know there were plenty of strange events towards the end of the Obama administration, like Loretta Lynch’s little meeting with Bill and subsequent steering of the FBI, and Susan Rice’s unmasking of the Super-Watergate level of surveillance of political candidates (Trump, at the very least) we know have happened. While it seems odd that Mueller would go there too, all of this certainly merits investigation by someone special. That might after a while retire Obama’s ambitions.
If special prosecutors take out not just the Hillary faction but also the Obama faction, then guess who is (probably) left standing?
So Brazile, the insider, might at least think there is enough dirt that it’s worth the gamble. A reinforcing factor would be if she’s herself being shown the door by some party.
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The SNL skit was revealing in a way too, perhaps sending a signal to the codgers that their time is up.
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And now Sessions is considering appointing a special counsel to look into Uranium One and the biggest bribery machine the world ever saw.
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