Hillary Clinton isn’t completely closing the door on the possibility of running for President again:
Hillary for president, again?
She says it’s unlikely, but in a Thai television interview Wednesday, Hillary Clinton didn’t completely close that door.
Asked whether she still aspired to be the first female American president, she said, “That’s not anything I’m at all thinking about,” adding that she is “100 percent focused” on her role as President Barack Obama’s secretary of state.
So has she given up hope of getting to the White House?
“I don’t know, but I doubt very much that anything like that will ever be part of my life,” replied the former first lady and former U.S. senator.
Pressed further, Clinton said, “Well, I’m saying no because I have a very committed attitude to the job I have. And so that’s not at all on my radar screen.”
Of course, that won’t be the case at the end of the Obama Administration, or when Hillary decides to step down as Secretary of State (since World War II only one Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, has served in that post for the entirety of an eight-year Presidential term), so you can’t really call this a denial, can you ?
Don’t count Hillary out just yet.
July 22nd, 2009 at 5:45 pm
Not happening. She’ll be 68 – far too old for a woman to be elected president. We don’t allow women to grow old in the public eye.
July 22nd, 2009 at 5:46 pm
That’s what they said about Reagan
You’re probably right, though.
July 23rd, 2009 at 12:17 pm
Barring a health concern or feeling fried, I think one basic thing that will determine if Hillary runs in 2016: polls. The presidential election is quickly becoming a 4-year event with no off-season. The first 2012 Republican poll I saw was in November 20008 I believe. Hillary is likely to lead early polls if only because she’s one of a handful of potential candidates anyone will know. Plus, she has high favorables. (Though even Biden could do well in such polls. And I think even he’d run if he polled ahead of everyone.) Polls 5 years from now, in mid-2014, could easily persuade Hillary one way or the other. But from where we are, seems quite likely she’d be encouraged to run.
Hillary on Election Day 2016 would be 69, the same age Reagan was when he won. Hillary’s campaign surrogates weren’t shy about crying sexism in 2008 and Reagan’s precedent would position them to suggest ageism against Hillary thus equals sexism. Not sure how likely to attract voters such a strategy is, but it’s likely to pop up.
As in 2008, being the frontrunner doesn’t guarantee winning. Nonetheless, I think being frontrunner is the only circumstance that would convince her to go for it.