Hillary Rodham Clinton made me look like a moron in 2000.
I predicted in writing 13 years ago that she wouldn’t run for the U.S. Senate. Why would she want to work with individuals, many of whom voted to remove her husband from office two years earlier in an impeachment trial? How could she forgive them for saying what they said about President Clinton, who had been impeached by the House of Representatives because he lied to a grand jury about a scandal involving a White House intern?
Well, she proved me wrong. She ran for the Senate from New York and won in a landslide. She then proceeded to become an effective representative for the Empire State. She won friends on both sides of the political aisle. More than that, she won their respect for her work ethic. Then she became arguably one of the top two or three secretaries of state in U.S. history when President Obama selected her for that job.
Now some of us are wondering: Is she going to run for president – again! – in 2016.
I am not going to bet against it.
Her 2008 run for the Democratic presidential nomination would have taken it out of most mortal human beings. Not Hillary Clinton. She answered the new president’s call and worked tirelessly to promote U.S. interests abroad. Was her tenure error-free? No. The attack in Benghazi, Libya that killed four Americans, including our ambassador to Libya, will remain an indelible stain on her record.
But is it a deal-breaker? Will it dissuade her from running once more for president? That, by itself, won’t do it. What would do it? Maybe her health could fail her. She’ll be 69 years old when the 2016 election rolls around. Then again, that’s the same age Ronald Reagan was when he was elected in 1980 … and he managed to serve two terms.
My sense is that the former first lady, senator and secretary of state is preparing an announcement sometime next year that she’s going to make one more run for the big prize. I’d go the other way, predicting she won’t do it, except that I won’t ever underestimate any national politician’s ambition.