Nancy Pelosi is still big on a Hillary Clinton Presidency

By Richard K. Barry 

Nancy Pelosi is still very excited about the prospect of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton running for the White House in 2016. Asked in a recent interview about the prospect of a woman president in her lifetime, she immediately brought up Clinton.

She summed up her opinion by asking, "Why wouldn't she run?" She added, "she's our shot" that year. Well, as simple as it sounds, I have been saying for some time that Clinton would run if the pieces were in place, or could be put in place. But four years is a long time in politics. Very attractive candidates like New York Governor Andrew Cuomo might be interested. The support might not be there for Clinton. The money might not be there. Who knows? That's why she wouldn't run.

Where I will agree with Pelosi is that there is no reason for Clinton not to run if she thinks she has a good chance of winning. The pull of being the first woman president, but also of being president at all after the great disappointment of 2008 would be powerful reasons to go for it.

Hillary is saying precisely what everyone says and does in her position about future political plans. Let's see what her "retirement" looks like starting in 2013. We should be able to tell a lot by how far she actually strays from politics. I'm guessing she keeps her hand in enough to be able to gauge what her support might look like. No reason not to if you're the kind of political animal Hillary Rodham Clinton is. Seems obvious.

(Cross-posted at Lippmann's Ghost.)