Mark Halperin, perhaps the most famous Beltway pundit, knows that you’ve got to milk it when you have a piping hot take on the next presidential race to share.
And so Halperin wasn’t just going to blurt out the name of the figure who he said is clearly the “most likely” to derail Hillary Clinton’s White House ambitions. Instead, he played to the crowd — or rather, his more than 80,000 followers on Twitter — and offered driblets of clues on Wednesday.
Pretty clear the person most likely to stop @HillaryClinton from being the next POTUS is @HillaryClinton. Whether she runs or not.
— Mark Halperin (@MarkHalperin) July 2, 2014
So who is the 2nd most likely person to stop @HillaryClinton from being the next POTUS? It isn’t a Republican.
— Mark Halperin (@MarkHalperin) July 2, 2014
OK, that eliminates the likes of Chris Christie, Jeb Bush and Rand Paul. Go on.
It is someone who supports single payer, came out for same-sex marriage long before HRC did, & has deep ties to the enviro movement.
— Mark Halperin (@MarkHalperin) July 2, 2014
Ralph Nader? Just kidding.
He’s got as much nat’l campaign experience as anyone alive, a potent $ network, ties to Silicon Valley & Hollywood, & could self fund a bit.
— Mark Halperin (@MarkHalperin) July 2, 2014
He knows how to mess with the Clintons’ heads & he understands the media. Plus, he’s unbound, unplugged & won the national popular vote.
— Mark Halperin (@MarkHalperin) July 2, 2014
We’re getting warmer. Time for the big reveal.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you, the Honorable @algore
— Mark Halperin (@MarkHalperin) July 2, 2014
Al Gore 2016! Who’d have thought? Well, nobody really — except for Halperin, who also floated the possibility of a John Kerry presidential run late last year.
“Let me just say quickly, if Hillary Clinton doesn’t run for president I bet you John Kerry does,” Halperin said during a December appearance on MSNBC, leaving his fellow panelists stunned.
The on-air speculation gave life to a storyline that nobody should have taken seriously, and the secretary of state eventually had to put an end to the rumors.
“I’m out of politics. I have no plans whatsoever. This is my last stop,” Kerry told CNN in February.
And now, somebody gets to ask Gore about his White House ambitions.
That’s what we need - fresh faces.
Personally, I think an Elizabeth Warren candidacy would get me more motivated than anything else.
Guess Tipper shouldn’t have divorced him. She’d of been the next first lady.
Please make it stop. If I hear one more inane piece of puffery about about Hillary Clinton imploding, I’m going to start unfollowing people. Enough already. Lately, every time she gives a speech they fall all over themselves wondering what her fee is and engaging in various genres of wealth envy they didn’t even subject Mitt RMoney to. Why? Because they’ve got nothing much else left to grouse about. She won. She used the book tour to let it all hang out there and by the time she announces most of this crap is going to be such yesterday’s news that nobody but Fox is going to exhume any of it. Note to pundits: “Hillary Fatigue” is just what she wanted to outlast all of the faux scandales. You obliged, with an assist from Reince Priebus.
Cool. Of course if Al Gore were to actually get in the race, Halperin would immediately pivot to explaining why Howard Dean was likely to be elected President.
The thing about making predictions that are not supported by reality, is that you don’t need to understand reality in order to make predictions that other people are willing to take seriously. Nice gig, if you can get it.
Halperin should really get out of the business of predicting. He’s absolutely awful at it.
Who takes the shit he says seriously???