Recent history shows presidential candidates who lost either returning to their jobs (John Kerry and John McCain in the Senate) or making business deals while testing the waters for a return to electoral politics (Mitt Romney). Only one losing presidential candidate has really dug in and identified himself with a single issue, so much so as to be considered synonymous with it. That’s Al Gore, who has spent the majority of his post-presidential defeat bandwidth battling climate change. (Gore doesn’t do this work just to make his heart happy; with his banking partners he has raised a ton of money and invested in multiple “green” companies.)
Hillary Clinton’s new book, What Happened, gives her a prominent platform to begin her post-almost-presidency by grabbing an issue like Gore has. Workers’ rights and human trafficking, for instance, are important issues in the progressive cosmology — and Clinton could become the face/voice of a progressive issue and put her significant weight behind it. But in What Happened, she doesn’t choose. Instead she stays general, as though still a candidate for national office with a giant, diverse constituency, instead of a powerful niche player like Gore. She writes: “I will speak out on the causes I care about, campaigning for other Democrats, and do whatever I can to build the infrastructure we need to succeed.”
