Goodbye, Hillary Clinton. See You in 2016?

She was perhaps dreaming about what she promised herself she would do, at the start of the second presidential mandate, once she has left her current job: “… Sleep and exercise and travel for fun. And relax.”

She doubtless had a rude awakening. His speech barely finished, Barack Obama sent his secretary of state to the Middle East, where she was involved in the negotiations that led to the truce between Israel and Hamas.

This success, however fragile, could bring this rather important chapter of a public career — which probably isn’t over — to a positive end. But in fact, we now suggest three reasons why Hillary Clinton will set her sights on the presidency in 2016.

History

No one is contesting it. Hillary Clinton will finish her stint at the top of American diplomacy without real success. She entered into history in 2000 by becoming the first first lady to be elected to the American Senate. But this seems insignificant when compared to what she came so close to creating in 2008. In 2016, Hillary Clinton will be 69 years old, a few months younger than Ronald Reagan was on the eve of his first election. Will she be too old to become the first female president? We’re sure that the response she will give to this question will be no.

Popularity

It’s important to remember that in 2008, Hillary Clinton gained more popular votes than Barack Obama in the Democratic primaries (17.9 million against 17.6 million). Her supporters ended up rallying around the campaign of her adversary, but many among them would no doubt like to vote for her again. At least, that is what surveys conducted at the start of the month in three states — Iowa, New Hampshire and Florida — led [one] to believe, with the Secretary of State outstripping her closest rival, Joe Biden, by 40 percentage points.

The “Presidential Bug”

“When a man has been bitten by the presidential bug, he begins to suffer from a terrible disease that is only cured by embalming fluid.” What Harold Ickes, secretary of the interior to Franklin Roosevelt, used to say still holds true and is today as meaningful for men as for women setting out to conquer the White House. In Hillary Clinton’s case, the bug is all the more dangerous, since her husband Bill is still infected.