If Hillary Clinton has come close to making a decision about running for president in 2016, she is keeping it so close to the vest–or the pantsuit–that even her inner circle doesn’t know.
In yet another will she/won’t she run piece, the The Washington Post reports that rumors from Hillary Clinton’s inner circle are nonexistent at this point.
The Post‘s Chris Cillizza reports that “no one in her real inner circle is talking–meaning that she almost certainly hasn’t made the final go/no-go decision.”
This is unusual because it is rare that rumors from those well-worn “unnamed sources” haven’t by now ladled out at least some news, dubious or no, from a candidate’s inner circle.
For Mrs. “Inevitability,” this is all pretty telling, analysts think.
Cillizza also points out that no other candidate has yet emerged who might overshadow Clinton, as Barack Obama already had by this point in the campaign. Everyone assumes that the nomination is hers for the taking. Cillizza says, “The only person who could keep Clinton from being the party’s nominee would be Clinton herself.”
The columnist then identified other candidates who could run, especially if Clinton decides not to. Such possibilities as Vice President Joe Biden, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren all figure prominently as “second tier” candidates under Clinton.
One thing is sure: it takes some time to build a nationwide ground game for a presidential election, and the longer Clinton tarries, the harder it will be for someone else to gear up for a run. But Clinton does seem to have a campaign-machine-in-waiting if those running “Ready For Hillary” PAC can transition from PAC to campaign staff.
Ready For Hillary PAC has claimed that some Hillary supporters are “teaming up with top Obama campaign veterans to build a national grassroots army” to flog her candidacy. So the group isn’t remaining idle.
But important questions about Clinton’s health still haven’t been fully answered. Recently, Bill Clinton issued a startling report stating that it took six months for his wife to recover from a blood clot to the brain in 2012.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.
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