Hillary Clinton 2016? Bill Prepares By Clearing Campaign Debt From 2008
Political pundits and commentators are already speculating about whether Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will run for president in 2016, but first she is focusing on wiping out all the lingering campaign debt from her 2008 bid.
After bowing out of the Democratic primary contest in January 2008 and conceding to Barack Obama, Clinton had run up a whopping $25 million in campaign debt, according to a report from The Huffington Post. As of Sept. 30 of this year she had whittled that down to only $73,000, which she owes to market research firm Penn, Schoen & Berland for polling and consultation.
So before she can begin planning anything for 2016, Clinton needs to get rid of that last bit of debt, and she's getting some help from her husband.
In an e-mail message to Hillary Clinton's supporters, former President Bill Clinton made an offer: anyone who pledges money to Hillary's campaign fund before Dec. 6 will be entered to win a chance to spend a day with Bill in New York City.
"There is nothing I enjoy more than good conversation with good people, which is why I've enjoyed it so much whenever we've brought one of Hillary's strongest supporters to New York to spend the day with me," Bill Clinton wrote. "I'm happy to tell you that I've asked to do it again."
Just recently, during an interview for a New York Times op-ed piece by Gail Collins, Hillary was characteristically coy about her plans for the next four years, after she steps down at Secretary of State.
"Clinton gives many variations on the theme of don't-think-so. ('Oh, I've ruled it out, but you know me. Everybody keeps asking me. So I keep ruling it out and being asked')," Collins wrote. "Also a thousand different forms of beats-me. ('I have no idea what I'm going to do next.') What she does not do is offer the kind of Shermanesque if-nominated-I-will-not-run language that would end the conversation."
But Clinton's vague answers about her plans for 2016 don't stop her supporters from touting her impressive resume for the job.
"If Hillary Clinton ran for president again, she would probably be the best-prepared candidate in American history: one who's lived in the White House, served in the United States Senate, a woman who knows virtually every head of state in the world and also has a strong opinion about the merits of the Peruvian minister of development and social inclusion," Collins wrote.
