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The “will she or won’t she” question surrounding a potential Hillary Clinton presidential campaign may be answered sooner rather than later.
In an interview with ABC’s Barbara Walters, who named the former Secretary of State the Most Fascinating Person of 2013, Clinton acknowledged that she would make a decision on her future plans in 2014.
Obviously, I will look carefully at what I think I can do and make that decision sometime next year.
Clinton proceeded to state it was too early to talk about future elections (don’t tell us!) as the country should be worried about more pressing issues such as the unemployment rate, people getting kicked off food stamps and small businesses not getting credit.
Of course; that sounds like a candidate right there. Hillary has had some issues with her health in the past, following her concussion, and deserves a break after essentially being in the spotlight nonstop since 1991. When you are the First Lady who later embarks on a Senate bid after a sex scandal rocks your husband, turns down a run for President, then is in the midst of the most widely covered primary dogfight in our lifetime before becoming the Secretary of State; well, take some time.
Still though, when it comes to 2016; Hillary is best to make a decision sometime next fall. If she makes up her mind before the congressional midterms then she (or other candidates) will have time to campaign for endangered or emerging candidates.
I would imagine when Hillary makes her choice, a lot of dominoes will soon fall into place when it comes to 2016. If she says “yes”, expect a lot of ire to be drawn her way from potential Republican rivals such as Chris Christie, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Paul Ryan. You can also expect some Democrats like Andrew Cuomo praise Clinton but not close the door on running and hear some noise from the left (Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley) on what Clinton needs to do for them to stay on the sidelines.
If no, expect a bunch of praise from both sides of the aisle. You’ll hear the words “courageous”, “distinguished”, “lifelong career” and other superlatives that would praise her while keeping the door open for themselves. You’ll start to see candidates who are polling in the low single digits such as Brian Schweitzer and O’Malley to quickly announce bids and capitalize on the media attention towards 2016. You’ll hear Joe Biden publicly mention his plans and the media may turn to Elizabeth Warren, John Kerry, Howard Dean or even Jerry Brown to spice the race up much like they did to Mitch Daniels, Chris Christie and Paul Ryan in 2012.
Regardless, there has been way too much attention on 2016 and that mainly has to do with Clinton. Does she want to? Or more importantly, does she feel like it? She deserves to take her time.