Are the people crying out for Hillary Clinton 2024? Of course not, but when you have a bench as bare as the Democrats have, even bad ideas suddenly start to sound good.

Several weeks ago, I speculated that Hillary might bide her time and eventually jump into the action. With her obvious lust for public attention and the fact that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are clearly terrible options, why wouldn’t she? She’d actually be younger than Biden in 2024 and younger than Bernie Sanders when he nearly won the nomination.

Past that, doesn’t it sort of sound like Hillary is setting up a justification to run again? Clearly, Joe Biden, no matter what he says, is not going to be able to sustain a campaign in 2024. And who really wants Kamala Harris to be the nominee? They’ll never admit it, but many liberals are terrified of the prospect.

Perhaps Hillary sees herself as a savior, ready to ride in and provide stability for a party that is clearly flailing and rudderless? Someone must save “democracy” from the bad orange man, and if not her, who else? Remember, I never said it had to make sense to everyone else. It only has to make sense to Hillary for it to happen, and at 77, she’ll be younger than Biden was when he ran in 2020.

Now, mainstream outlets are mentioning the same possibility, as the idea seems to be picking up steam among Democrat insiders. A former Bill Clinton adviser penned a piece for The Wall Street Journal, and rest assured, it does not get printed without Hillary’s approval. She’s clearly testing the waters.

"A perfect storm in the Democratic Party is making a once-unfathomable scenario plausible: a political comeback for Hillary Clinton in 2024."https://t.co/qn1IVzZKar

— Chris Cillizza (@ChrisCillizza) January 12, 2022

Based on her latest public statements, it’s clear that Mrs. Clinton not only recognizes her position as a potential front-runner but also is setting up a process to help her decide whether or not to run for president again. She recently warned of the electoral consequences in the 2022 midterms if the Democratic Party continues to align itself with its progressive wing and urged Democrats to reject far-left positions that isolate key segments of the electorate.

…

Even Bill Clinton recently set the stage for his wife’s potential 2024 candidacy, referring to her in an interview with People magazine as “the most qualified person to run for office in my lifetime, including me,” adding that not electing her in 2016 was “one of the most profound mistakes we ever made.”

…

Hillary Clinton remains ambitious, outspoken and convinced that if not for Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey’s intervention and Russian interference that she would have won the 2016 election—and she may be right.

If Democrats want a fighting chance at winning the presidency in 2024, Mrs. Clinton is likely their best option.

As to my thoughts on this, I think the left will have no problem convincing themselves Hillary could make a comeback, but I also think they are largely chasing a mirage.

Unfortunately for the former Secretary of State, Biden has already used the “electable moderate” card, and it’s now been revoked for good. After the current president’s far-left sprint following his inauguration, very few voters are going to buy into the idea that Hillary represents a more middle-of-the-road, traditional choice for the presidency. Further, she’s blown off a lot of that veneer herself the last several years, making wildly woke statements and pushing the idea that our democracy is going to collapse if Republicans win the mid-terms.

Hillary’s entire allure, to the extent it ever existed, was that she was over-qualified (a laughable falsehood) and level-headed. Who is going to believe that line after 2020 though? Besides, the Democrat base would never allow her to run as anything other than a leftwing fire-brand.

In short, I think a Hillary 2024 run would end up painting Democrats in a corner again, tying themselves to a deeply unlikeable candidate that would do just enough to lose. That’s especially true if she’s pitted against a young, highly-skilled politician like Ron DeSantis. The contrast would be stark.

Regardless, the fact that Democrats are even having these discussions shows how much trouble they think they are in. We are three years out from 2024 and they are already entertaining flawed retreads because they just don’t have anyone else. Joe Biden is old and would never be able to run a normal campaign without the excuse of COVID-19. Kamala Harris is the worst politician in a generation. Who’s left? Pete Buttigieg? Amy Klobuchar?

All I know is that I’d rather be in the Republicans’ shoes right now.