Weary Hillary Clinton Still a Presidential Figure
Weary Hillary Clinton Still a Presidential Figure - Ken Walsh’s Washington (Usnews.com)
As she begins what could be her final diplomatic mission in the Middle East as secretary of state, Hillary Clinton is again inspiring supporters to contemplate her prospects as a presidential candidate in 2016.
Clinton says she has no plans to seek the White House again. But her admirers hope this is only a temporary stance prompted by weariness and the need to take a break after two decades at the highest levels of public life.
“A lot of people are hoping she’ll do it,” Democratic pollster Geoff Garin told me. “As we learned in 2007 and 2008, there is no such thing as inevitability in politics, but if she wants it she’s in a great position.”
Garin was one of Clinton’s chief strategists in her unsuccessful 2008 presidential campaign.
Many hope Clinton will spend the next year or two recharging her batteries and preparing for 2016. She says she will step down as secretary of state early in 2013, but her friends expect that after a respite from public life, her fiery ambition will return. They say that she has for many years felt a responsibility and a desire to achieve great things, and one of her objectives has been to become the first woman president. Having just turned 65, if she ran in 2016 she would actually be a bit younger than Ronald Reagan was when he won the presidency in 1980.