Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton admitted Tuesday she's thinking about running for president in 2016 — and she is "going to continue to think about it for a while."
The former first lady said Tuesday, during an appearance at The Marketing Nation Summit in San Francisco, that she is enjoying her life right now doing "ordinary things,"
CNN reports.
"I am not going to make a decision for a while, because, you know, I am actually enjoying my life," Clinton said. "I am actually having fun doing ordinary things like seeing my friends and going on long walks and playing with our dogs … at the end of the day, it is what really gives joy and meaning to your life."
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Clinton tops most polls as the front-runner for the 2016 Democratic nomination, and a dozen
independent groups, from the serious to the mysterious, have sprung up to raise money in her name.
Sporting names such as Madam Hillary 2016, HillaryFTW, and other variations on Clinton's name, the new crop of political action committees (PACs) is a sign of the 66-year-old's enduring star power more than 20 years after she first became a national figure as the wife of President Bill Clinton.
But her comments Tuesday mark a rare time that she has acknowledged she's thinking about a presidential run. Just last month, Clinton told an audience in Arizona that she is "obviously thinking about all kinds of decisions," but did not bluntly mention presidential aspirations.
Clinton's San Francisco visit marked the first stop on a three-state West Coast swing, and she acknowledged she "danced around" the question about the presidency, posed by Marketo CEO Phil Fernandez.
Clinton's attendance in San Francisco was sponsored by Marketo, which makes software for corporate marketing departments. The event is attracting some 5,000 people, who are paying $1,195 and up to attend, CNN reports.
The former secretary of state also entertained many other questions during the event, speaking of domestic and international politics and complaining about the state of electoral politics and the time it takes to run for president.
"I wish that our country had the limited campaign period that other democracies have," Clinton said of countries that allow candidates to campaign just a few months before an election. "It is not a marathon, it is a sprint."
Clinton also continued to slam Russian President Vladimir Putin and his actions concerning Ukraine. Putin is a "tough guy with a thin skin," said Clinton, and warned that he will go "as far as he can go."
She dealt with Putin often while she was secretary of state, and said she does not feel he will be "satisfied with Crimea if he has any other excuse to go into Eastern and Southern Ukraine."
Clinton on Tuesday also praised efforts toward comprehensive immigration reform, saying that she is "sorry" a bipartisan effort that passed the Senate was not taken up in the House.
Clinton also backed increasing the number of H-1B visas issued, an important issue to California's tech industry. Many firms want to attract high-skilled workers from other countries but have been limited because of the number of visas issued by the United States.
But, Clinton joked after Fernandez thanked her for talking about visas and Putin, saying "Don't give him [Putin] an H-1B."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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