Parsing Hillary-speak

By Richard K. Barry

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently gave an interview to  New York magazine. It was her first longer interview since leaving the State Department at the end of last year. It was written by Joe Hagan, and contains these two nuggets below about Ms. Clinton's intentions in 2016. Yeah. She's running.

I’m both pragmatic and realistic. I think I have a pretty good idea of the political and governmental challenges that are facing our leaders, and I’ll do whatever I can from whatever position I find myself in to advocate for the values and the policies I think are right for the country. I will just continue to weigh what the factors are that would influence me making a decision one way or the other.

And:

I’m not in any hurry. I think it’s a serious decision, not to be made lightly, but it’s also not one that has to be made soon. This election is more than three years away, and I just don’t think it’s good for the country. It’s like when you meet somebody at a party and they look over your shoulder to see who else is there, and you want to talk to them about something that’s really important; in fact, maybe you came to the party to talk to that particular person, and they just want to know what’s next. I feel like that’s our political process right now. I just don’t think it is good.

People are making a lot out of the fact that this is the first time she has publicly declared she is thinking about running.  I suspect she's thinking a lot about running.