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By the standards of “political time,” where in one day a candidate can go from frontrunner to underdog, the 2016 presidential election is decades away. But from this vantage point, all signs point to Hillary Clinton coasting to the Democrat Party nomination and winning the White House. As a lifelong Republican, I am not pleased with my own prediction—nothing would thrill me more than if a conservative were to win back the presidency. But my political reality instincts lead me to believe the following.(And I’ve been right before: in January 2011, I cowrote “12 Reasons Obama Wins in 2012.”) Unless...

The early stages of the 2016 presidential campaign are already underway. Hillary Clinton has held a steady, arguably insurmountable lead for the Democratic nomination, while the Republican nomination is much more fluid. Senator Rand Paul is the frontrunner, thanks to a drop in support for Senator Marco Rubio in Iowa over immigration reform. At this point, Clinton can essentially walk in and take the Democratic nomination. In Iowa, wins an incredible 71% of the vote. Of course, pundits will argue that Clinton seemed inevitable in 2008, but that was only because it was assumed that then-Senator Obama would not run....

We’re still three years away from the 2016 general election and two and a half years from the Iowa caucus, but Hillary Clinton has already managed to grab top-rank political talent on the Left. Does she risk getting too far ahead of the pack and making herself into a punching bag for up-and-comers over the long haul? National Journal’s Jill Lawrence wonders if Hillary is peaking too soon for her own good: Crack organizers from President Obama’s campaigns are the latest political honchos to join the Clinton-for-President movement and, like others involved, they say they are just trying to make...

Former Sen. Elizabeth Dole, who briefly ran for president herself, on Thursday called Hillary Clinton a “front-runner.” “I have to say as far as Hillary is concerned, you know … we can recognize that we’re past the point of a woman being accepted as president because she almost made it last time, and also just to think she could be a front-runner — a few years ago, that wouldn’t have been something that would have been conceivable,” Dole, a former Republican senator from North Carolina, said on “CBS This Morning.” “But she is the front-runner. Of course, it’s a very...

President Obama made a secret deal to support Hillary Clinton when she runs for president in 2016, campaign sources say, payback for the support her husband gave him in 2012. Bill Clinton’s animosity toward Obama is legendary. A year before the last election, he was urging Hillary to challenge the sitting president for the nomination — a move she rejected. According to two people who attended that meeting in Chappaqua, Bill Clinton then went on a rant against Obama. “I’ve heard more from Bush, asking for my advice, than I’ve heard from Obama,” my sources quoted Clinton as saying. “I...

By Lucy Madison / CBS News/ April 29, 2013, 9:13 AM Report: Cuomo won't run against Clinton in 2016 Despite widespread speculation he's been eying the job, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo told associates he won't run for president if former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton does, according to the New York Post. Cuomo, New York's first-term Democratic governor and the son of former Gov. Mario Cuomo, would face a steep challenge in mounting a nomination bid against Clinton, who has a wide and readily accessible base of support, and who also has strong ties within New York political circles....

After two election cycles with Barack Obama on top, the Democratic Party is looking for a new standard bearer to lead them in the 2016 presidential election against the young and often inexperienced Republican contenders they will likely face, at least when compared to their leading candidates. And if New Hampshire Democrats are any indicator of their national comrades at all, well.. Then they have already made up their minds as to who they want to lead the charge in 2016. According to a survey of 200 Granite State Democrats, with a 7.1% margin of error, former Secretary of State...

No one is more preoccupied these days with Hillary Clinton's 2016 plans than the Beltway political class—not even the former presidential candidate herself. To hear some tell it, her decision will be dispositive for all other Democrats thinking of entering the race. And pundits and reporters aren't the only ones positing the "The Hillary Factor": No less than the House Democratic whip, Steny Hoyer, told BuzzFeed, “I don't know that anybody would run against Hillary…. If she runs, she clears the field.” It's an understandable conclusion, given Clinton's stature in the Democratic Party and her 70 percent national job approval...

Hillary Clinton is clearly running for president in 2016, Huffington Post editor-in-chief Arianna Huffington said, but she’s overworking herself and needs to rest. Appearing on ABC’s “This Week,” Huffington said the former secretary of state should have taken more time off before making two speeches this week. … Huffington fears that Clinton is sending women a bad message; that the only way they can succeed is by driving themselves into the ground. …

Would you like to see Hillary Clinton run for president again in 2016? Poll here down on right

Hillary Clinton left the State Department nearly two months ago, but she still needs a staff to keep up with the considerable business of being Hillary Clinton. A half-dozen people now work for the former secretary of state and Democratic presidential candidate in a tiny corporate space on Connecticut Avenue in Washington, in what is called her "transition office." Transition to what, Mrs. Clinton and her aides have not yet said. But the question hovers over her every move and has frozen in place the very early -but for some potential candidates, very important - presidential maneuvering on the Democratic...

Hillary Clinton left the State Department nearly two months ago, but she still needs a staff to keep up with the considerable business of being Hillary Clinton. A half-dozen people now work for the former secretary of state and Democratic presidential candidate in a tiny corporate space on Connecticut Avenue in Washington, in what is called her “transition office.” Hillary Clinton Looks Ahead Transition to what, Mrs. Clinton and her aides have not yet said. But the question hovers over her every move and has frozen in place the very early — but for some potential candidates, very important —...

No kidding. How the tables have turned: Team GOP has a whole roster of savvy, fresh-faced up-and-comers, while the Democrats’ bench is looking decidedly less dynamic and their best bets lying in generation old school. That’s not to say another super-candidate couldn’t come out of the woodwork somewhere between now and the next campaign cycle, but it looks like the top tier currently consists of Clinton and Joe Biden — and if I were a Democrat, I would be leaning heavily on Hillary. The last election made me wary of dismissing or underestimating anyone, but when I try to imagine...

"My mother believed and my father believed that if I wanted to be president of the United States, I could be, I could be vice president!" - Joseph R. Biden, campaigning in Youngstown, Ohio, May 16, 2012 Yes, that much is true: The plagiarist with the slow-grow hair plugs and the chipmunk fake teeth and the made-up stories about heroics on the football field who quietly won five student draft deferments during the Vietnam War really did become vice president. And this much is clear: He took the gig, after something like 87 years in the Senate, because he...

Hillary Clinton hasn't stepped into the 2016 Democratic presidential primaries yet and there's already buzz growing for the ultimate grrl power ticket: Clinton and first lady Michelle Obama. "All due respect for President Obama and Vice President Biden, but that would truly be a dream team for America," said former Clinton spokeswoman Karen Finney. "Both women are proven effective leaders who've raise children, so dealing with Congress would be a snap!" added Finney, also a former Democratic Party spokeswoman.

If Good Morning America's giddiness over the prospect that Hillary Clinton might run for president is any indication of how the MSM will treat the story, it's gonna be a long-g-g-g four years. The excited GMA crew was looking for any harbinger—from falling meteorites to the number of baskets scored by an ABC reporter in a charity game—that Hillary might throw her pantsuit into the ring. A correspondent even joked—at least we hope she was joking—that GMA might have to run a segment every week with the latest is-Hillary-running news. View the video here.

Bill Clinton confirmed Hillary Clinton is running for president in 2016, according to Angelo Tsakopoulos, a "real-estate honcho" who's a major donor to Clinton campaigns, the New York Post reports. No kidding? It is time to stop pretending to be surprised at reports that Clinton is running for president. "Hillary will be our next president and she will be a great one," Tsakopoulos said last weekend at a private California banquet, the Greek Reporter says. "I talked to her husband, and he confirmed it. She will run.” He even had campaign staffing specifics, saying his daughter, Eleni Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis, will be...

"The President has put in place an organization with the kind of database that no one has ever seen before in life," Representative Maxine Waters told Roland Martin on Monday. "That's going to be very, very powerful," Waters said. "That database will have information about everything on every individual on ways that it's never been done before and whoever runs for President on the Democratic ticket has to deal with that. They're going to go down with that database and the concerns of those people because they can't get around it. And he's [President Obama] been very smart. It's very...

If Hillary Clinton isn't in the 2016 U.S. presidential mix, a Washington Post commentary says Homeland Security head Janet Napolitano may be the woman to watch. Before moving to Washington Napolitano was a well-regarded and popular governor in Arizona. Since arriving in the nation's capital she has made it known she's mulling making a run for higher office, the Post said Monday. As governor, Napolitano was criticized for not being aggressive enough in addressing the influx of illegal immigrants. But as homeland security secretary, she has an opportunity in which to change that image, including a high-profile tour of the...

So, what happens if Hillary Clinton doesn’t run in 2016? It is hard to imagine the presidential field without a woman contender, and here’s one to keep your eye on: Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. Napolitano is quietly making it known that she is considering the race, and there is reason to take her seriously.