Will She, Should She? Media Speculation over Hillary in 2016 Begins -- (Poll: NY Voters Prefer Clinton Over Cuomo)

It's going to be a long four years until the next election.

December 5, 2012 |

According to The New Yorker’s David Remnick, Hillary is absolutely going to run for president in 2016. He couldn’t have stated it more clearly two days ago in a New Yorker blog post--“Hillary Clinton is running for President.”

OK Remnick says so, but is Hillary really gunning for the White House? So far, she’s discredited the speculation, but that hasn’t abated the media frenzy.

According to Errol Louis, a NYI political anchor speaking on MSNBC, “unless you see something written in stone, you have to assume she’s going to run for president.” On the same segment, Beth Fouhy, senior editor of Yahoo! News, said that the Democrat’s field is “frozen” until Hillary makes her announcement.

Adding fuel to the fire, a just released poll from Siena College says 54% of New Yorkers think Hillary should run for the White House in 2016, over 39% for sitting Governor Andrew Cuomo. She sports a 75% approval rating, her highest ever, according to p revious Siena polls.

“What I think is going to happen is that Hillary has all the cards to her, she is going to take a year off ... and she can still decide to run, and this is going to kill all the other democrats that are hoping to run, because the field is frozen,” said Fouhy.

Meanwhile, some are already coming out to express their reservations about the early “announcement” of a Hillary run, which is--it’s worth remembering--a proclamation that is only real in the world of media frenzy, not in the actual realm of electoral politics.

As Salon’s Joan Walsh argues, Clinton will have serious challenges as the Democratic frontrunner, which are only exacerbated by the early speculation and discussion of her upcoming campaign. Plus she’ll have a host of things to answer for, from the success of Obama’s presidency to the White House’s controversial Middle East policies under her time as Secretary of State.

Walsh writes:

I supported Hillary Clinton in 2008. Smarter people than I believe she will run in 2016, despite her protests, and I mostly hope she does. Chances are I would support her again. There is no other strong certain candidate in the field. Vice President Biden and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo are likely to stay out of the race if she runs. Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley probably would, or should, too. He doesn’t have the stature to successfully challenge her. And there’s no obvious liberal or progressive star to date. Talk about a run by, say, Massachusetts Sen.-elect Elizabeth Warren seems premature to me, as much as I admire her: Let’s give her a little time in the Senate to make a difference before pushing her onto the national stage. Of course, it’s still quite early, and an inspiring figure may well emerge who could give Clinton an energetic run from the left. Almost nobody was betting on Sen. Barack Obama on Dec. 4, 2005. So we’ll see.

I understand why some Democrats are giddy over the chance of a Clinton candidacy; I’ve gotten caught up in it occasionally, too. She’s the most popular political figure in the country, on either side of the aisle. And if Obama could pass her the baton in 2016, we’d get a chance at a 21stcentury New Deal, a 12- to 16-year Democratic era (maybe even more) that could eventually rival Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s in accomplishments. It would be powered by an electorate that polls say is more liberal than at any time in modern history, with an appetite for activist domestic government.