By William Lewis
Speculation in some quarters has Hillary Clinton considering a run for New York City mayor next year against Mayor Bill De Blasio. If this is true, it brings a new dimension to political elections.
She would be running against her former campaign manager, De Blasio, who managed her campaign when she ran for U.S. Senate.
There does not seem to have been a similar type race in recent New York political history.
In terms of a candidate being defeated for the presidency and then running for a lesser office in his home state, Richard Nixon comes to mind.
In 1960 Nixon, after losing the race for president, ran two years later for governor of California and was beaten.
He then thought that his political career was over. We can also look at the position of Abraham Lincoln when he lost the U.S. Senate race in 1858 and came back and won the presidency in 1860.
In the case of Nixon, he spent the time from 1962 to 1968 campaigning for other Republican candidates throughout the nation. In 1968 he was able to win the Republican endorsement and the general election of that year and become president.
It does not seem that Hillary Clinton will follow the same pattern of political campaigning. She has now lost two races in a row for the presidency.
That includes the Democratic primary race of 2008 and the general election of 2016.
We can also consider her age since she will be close to 74 when the next presidential race comes around.
We can look at the fact, however, that Ronald Reagan was 70 when he was first elected in 1980, went on to be re-elected at the age of 74 and finished his presidency at the age of 78.
It is hard to see that happening in the case of Hillary Clinton, but she may have a chance if she chooses to run for that office.
Bill De Blasio seems to be in a weakened position. There could be a significant number of potential candidates running against him, including Hillary Clinton.
It could be a race that would attract the interest of our entire nation. Clinton would make a strong candidate if she decides to run since she has her main political organization for the most part in place in New York City.
She has options available and we will have to wait to see how it finally turns out.
In terms of the presidential election, some people were very surprised to find that our system of electing president is not democratic in the fullest.
We are a republican-type government established by our founding fathers, and it is the Electoral College that has the final word on who is elected president. It is a very unusual system since most of the nations of the world use the popular vote to choose their leaders.
But this system has served us well during the history of our nation.
Hopefully, it will continue to serve us in the years ahead.
