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In Washington, in Iowa, in New Hampshire, really in any place that’s already talking about the 2016 campaign for president, just about everyone expects Hillary Rodham Clinton to run for president. But is it possible that Clinton might not give a White House campaign another try? The former first lady, New York senator and U.S. secretary of state has paid speeches lined up into 2015, including one scheduled in the middle of March. She often speaks of her affinity for her work at the Clinton Foundation and joy over becoming a grandmother for the first time....

Hillary Clinton angrily condemned the bleakest results of Barack Obama’s economy in a recent speech, but didn’t dare say who was responsible for them. “What would Robert Kennedy say about the fact that still, today, more than 16 million children live in poverty in the richest nation on earth,” she said in an address to an elite, well-fed crowd in a Manhattan ballroom at an awards gala to honor the slain Democratic presidential candidate. “What would he say about the fact that such a large portion of economic gains have gone to such a small portion of our population,” she...

Ready for Warren? Run Liz Run? Run Warren Run? Draft Warren? Progressive activists haven’t agreed on what to call the movement urging Elizabeth Warren to run for president, but they largely concur on this: with every recent anti-establishment move the Massachusetts senator grows more attractive as a 2016 candidate, both in her own right and as a progressive foil for Hillary Clinton. Such sentiments were on vivid display this week at RootsCamp, a gathering of some 2,000 progressive activists held in Washington, D.C. The event was held as Warren and others on the left have been denouncing the “cromnibus” spending...

Sweeping House losses have not only pushed Democrats into a historic minority, they’ve depleted the bench of potential Senate recruits for the 2016 elections. After losing the majority in the midterms, Senate Democrats are seeking strong recruits for 2016 in hopes of netting the five seats necessary to ensure they win control again. Party officials argue the majority is within reach because many Senate Republicans elected in 2010 are seeking re-election in a presidential cycle in competitive states such as Florida, Illinois, Ohio, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. But brutal losses in 2010 and 2014 have decimated the ranks of...

It’s enough to make you feel sorry for Hillary Clinton. Well, almost. Her presidential campaign of celebrity and inevitability got off to a rocky start, mostly through her own mistakes, as when she claimed they were “dead broke” when she and Bubba left the White House. But her gaffes were mere speed bumps compared to the real threat forming now. Massachusetts firebrand Sen. Elizabeth Warren emerges from Washington’s budget clash as the undisputed champion of the rising left, and will almost certainly challenge Clinton for the 2016 nomination. The polls say it’s Hillary’s turn, but I’m starting to believe 2016...

Hillary Clinton is by far the most qualified person in the United States to serve as President. If she runs, I will support her. I have known Hillary for almost twenty-five years. We first met when I was the governor of Vermont and she was the First Lady, giving us the opportunity to work together in various capacities, particularly on expanding health care access. During those years, I have learned that she is one of the most conscientious and competent people I have ever met. She has an enormous capacity to analyze and solve problems. She has a work ethic...

Respondents got to choose among nine potential candidates in the survey: Clinton; Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.); Vice President Joe Biden; Governor Chris Christie (R-N.J.); Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas); Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.); former Governor Jeb Bush (R-Fla.); Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Governor Scott Walker (R-Wis.) Clinton gets the support of 38 percent of women millionaires and 27 percent of male millionaires. Among male millionaires of both parties, Hillary is the top choice, with 27 percent. Millionaires are sharply divided on their choice for the next President of the U.S., according to the second CNBC Millionaire Survey released today. Yet...

The 2016 New Hampshire presidential primary is well over a year away, but there's a new poll about the Democratic contenders that gives Hillary Clinton a huge lead. The 2016 New Hampshire presidential primary is well over a year away, but there's a new poll about the Democratic contenders that gives Hillary Clinton a huge lead. [Snip] 62 percent of voters said they would cast their ballot for Clinton if the Democratic primary were held today. Trailing behind, 13 percent said they would vote for Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, six percent said Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, and five percent said...

President Barack Obama says voters want a "new car smell" in the 2016 White House race and that Hillary Rodham Clinton would be "a great president." But would Clinton pass that particular smell test? In a nationally televised interview broadcast Sunday, Obama seemed to suggest that any Democrat other than him would provide the turn of the page that he says voters are interested in. He acknowledged the "dings" to his own political standing during nearly six years of sometimes bruising battles with Congress and said Americans will want something new. "They want to drive something off the lot that...

The top minds in the proto-Hillary Clinton 2016 campaign infrastructure are already gaming out Electoral College scenarios. What they think they have is a candidate who could compete in a handful of traditionally red states, putting Republicans on the defensive and increasing her chances of winning the White House. Mitch Stewart, Obama's 2012 battleground state director who is now an independent consultant advising the grassroots group Ready for Hillary, laid out the electoral math to TPM in a recent interview. Clinton will start with Obama's map, he said, and can build from there. There are two buckets of states potentially...

After suffering heavy losses in the House and the Senate in the recent midterm elections, some congressional Democrats may breathe a sigh of relief now that President Barack Obama is entering his final two years in office. But the approaching end of the Obama Administration doesn’t mean Obama won’t be a factor in 2016 and, figuratively, on the ballot, again. In 2006, Republicans lost 31 House seats and six Senate seats, as well as majorities in both chambers. GOP strategists understood voters were sending their party a message. But they also took some solace that unpopular President George W. Bush...

Now that two of the last three Democratic presidencies have been emphatically judged to have been failures, the world’s oldest political party — the primary architect of this nation’s administrative state — has some thinking to do. The accumulating evidence that the Democratic Party is an exhausted volcano includes its fixation with stale ideas, such as the supreme importance of a 23rd increase in the minimum wage. Can this party be so blinkered by the modest success of the third recent presidency, Bill Clinton’s, that it will sleepwalk into the next election behind Hillary Clinton? In 2016, she will have...

Sure, it’s Paul Begala, but he’s not wrong — at least, not here. Even more amazing, Van Jones isn’t wrong either in saying that Democrats may need to look harder for anyone else who might still be on the bench. This is what three cycles of decline have produced for Democrats in the Barack Obama era (via Daniel Halper): “If Hillary Clinton doesn’t run,” [CNN's Jake Tapper] asked, “who’s on the bench then?”“No one,” said Begala. “No one. My party–it’s not fair, there are impressive people, that I think could be good presidents, but don’t have I think the...

The annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative, an initiative of the Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation dedicated to addressing "global challenges," is taking place in New York this week. The Republican National Committee marked the occasion by dumping a huge opposition research file on Clinton to reporters. Titled "Clinton Confab Complications," the research briefing declared, "As Clinton World Gathers In New York, Problems Loom Over Hillary Clinton’s 2016 Campaign." It highlighted several issues Republicans think can hurt Clinton, including her ties to "heads of state, business leaders, and actors" and alleged "conflicts of interest," business dealings of some...

Martin O’Malley’s pollster had sobering news. Despite extensive time in the public eye and strong statements on controversial issues, the would-be candidate barely registered in a new survey. The year was 1999, and O’Malley (D), a brash white city councilman in majority-black Baltimore, was contemplating a long-shot bid for mayor. “To a lot of friends, even my closest friends, it seemed like a pretty outlandish idea initially,” he said. He won that election, and the next, and two terms as Maryland governor after that. Now he is contemplating an odyssey with even steeper odds. By late January, when his time...

It seems like a lifetime ago that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s favorability ratings were something that would inspire fits of jealousy in any politician. In fact, Clinton’s monumental popularity was not a feature of the distant past. As recently as January, a Gallup poll showed that the former secretary had a net favorability rating with the public of 19 points. Not even a year later, that public esteem for Clinton has disappeared. The latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that the public is essentially split on whether Clinton is “likeable enough.” 43 percent of respondents said...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)There are 65 prominent people who might run for president in 2016. The Democratic and Republican fields contrast sharply. Hillary Clinton is the clear front-runner, while there is no front-runner on the Republican side. Twenty-three Democrats have been mentioned as a candidate or are eyeing a bid, according to an analysis by The Hill. The GOP side has 42. Most of the people on this list won’t run, and some have adamantly claimed that they’re not interested. But many politicians have changed their minds on seeking the White House. Before mounting his 2008 bid, then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said he...

Obama’s Mini-Me will protect all of Obama’s, ahem, accomplishments.Ed Klein reports that Obama is using Valerie Jarrett to urge Elizabeth Warren to challenge Hillary in the primary to protect Obama’s transformation of the nation into something of which he and Michelle can be proud. Warren will protect Obama’s, ahem, achievements, Hillary can’t be trusted to do that. It’s entirely believable. Whether it’s true remains to be seen. Here is part of the report, This means Warren: Obama backs challenger to Hillary: "President Obama has quietly promised Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren complete support if she runs for president — a stinging...

DES MOINES — Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley was the only potential 2016 presidential contender to set foot in Iowa over the weekend, and yet the Democrat didn’t really have the stage to himself. Shortly after O’Malley (D) spoke at a dinner Friday night for retiring Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Hillary Rodham Clinton’s image appeared on two large screens overhead. In a video, she teased that she needed advice from Harkin on a “momentous plunge” that she is about to take. “Tom, what’s the secret to being such a terrific grandparent?” Clinton asked, drawing uproarious laughter from the crowd. The good...

She’s said many times that she has no intention of running, going so far as to co-sign a letter beseeching Her Majesty, Queen Hillary, to take her rightful place upon the throne in 2016. But would-be candidates say lots of things early in the cycle. Remember when Obama said, a few months after being elected to the Senate, that he wouldn’t run for president in 2008 because he was a big believer in knowing what you’re doing when you apply for a job? Two years later, he decided he knew what he was doing after all. And that’s how we...