2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: The Why--Hillary in 2016 [View all]brooklynite
(94,679 posts)1) Hillary Clinton now has a track record of 17 million people who chose to vote for her for President. Absent a dramatic shift in attitudes, that's a strong starting point. Current polling suggests her support has only gotten stronger since 2008.
3) Hillary Clinton already has substantial following of supports ("Ready for Hillary" who are organizing and raising money for an eventual campaign. RFH is also attracting many of political operatives from Obama's successful campaigns. No other candidates will have anything close to the same resources on Day 1.
2) The likely competition (which does NOT include Elizabeth Warren) does not have anything approaching the name recognition or appeal of a Barack Obama (who had given the Convention keynote address four years earlier.
4) Most of the people who ARE considering running (O'Malley, Biden, Cuomo) are politically astute enough to know that running against her THIS YEAR would likely end their political futures, and won't contest the race if she decides to run, or will run a softball campaign to push their prospects for a VP nomination.