Former President Bill Clinton rekindled speculation that his wife, Hillary, may be keeping her options open regarding a run for the White House in 2016. During a question and answer session on Saturday at the annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative University in St. Louis, Clinton was asked if he would prefer to stay his current course and complete 16 projects for his non-profit or hypothetically take on eight more years as president.
"I would rather keep doing what I'm doing," he replied, "because I think America will have some very good choices for president." That comment resulted in enthusiastic applause from the audience which presumably had made a connection to his wife.
"I think that, except in unusual circumstances, a two-term limit is a good thing," Clinton continued at the function, which also featured comedian Stephen Colbert. Clinton said he wouldn't be against future presidents running for a third term as long as that term did not immediately succeed their second. "But I would personally rather keep on doing what I'm doing for as long as I can possibly do it, because I think I have learned how to do it, and I'm not sure anybody else would be doing this-whereas I'm quite sure there are going to be lots of talented people who are dying to become president of the United States," he said.
Of course, the former president did not come right out and state that Hillary had Oval Office ambitions, but that did not stop the onlookers from happily chattering about such a possibility. As appealing as that idea is to some Democrats (given that Hillary Clinton has consistently scored high on public opinion polls), one prominent Republican warned against getting too enthralled with the notion.
"I think after eight years of Barack Obama, if things don't change, the next Democrat running for president will be in trouble," Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday. "She [Hillary] will be a formidable candidate. I think her time as Secretary of State is mixed. Benghazi is yet to be told completely," said Graham. "She can be beat; anybody can be beat in this country."
Hillary Clinton has not announced if she is considering a 2016 run, but some Democratic factions are already preparing themselves for a Hillary campaign.
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