Rand Paul Impresses Iowa Voters, Still Loses to Hillary Clinton

May 242013

SAUL LOEB/AFP/GettyImages(DES MOINES, Iowa) — Hillary Clinton sits at the top of the pack in a new poll of Iowa voters, but her closest competition is firebrand Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, a new poll found.

Clinton would beat rising-star Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., handily, 48 to 37 percent, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll released today. But Paul trails her by only 4 points.

Paul, 50, traveled to Iowa earlier this month, stoking speculation that he is courting voters for a 2016 run. Incidentally, around the same time he pointedly jabbed Clinton saying that her involvement in the aftermath of the attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, last year made her unfit for “high office.”

Iowa voters have the distinction of being the first to weigh in on the presidential election every four years at the Iowa caucuses. And the swing state’s 6 electoral votes are often key to reaching the 270 votes needed to win the presidency.

Quinnipiac pollsters believe that Paul’s swing-state travels might be working with voters.

“In general, Senator Paul appears to be the better GOP candidate at this point in Iowa,” Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said. “Part of the reason may be the publicity from his recent high-profile visit to the state, but more likely is that he begins with a solid base of support, the folks who voted for his father [former Texas Rep. Ron Paul] in the 2008 and 2012 caucuses.”

In a state where President Obama’s approval rating is upside down, Iowa voters are also hesitant to back his vice president Joe Biden, who has intimated an openness to another presidential run.

If the election were held today, Biden would lose to Paul 44 to 39 percent. And he trails Rubio by a single point, within the poll’s 2.6 percent margin of error.

Obama won Iowa independents last year by 14 points, but Biden is losing at the moment to both Paul and Rubio among independent voters.

Rand Paul Impresses Iowa Voters, Still Loses to Hillary Clinton

(DES MOINES, Iowa) — Hillary Clinton sits at the top of the pack in a new poll of Iowa voters, but her closest competition is firebrand Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, a new poll found.

Clinton would beat rising-star Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., handily, 48 to 37 percent, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll released today. But Paul trails her by only 4 points.

Quinnipiac pollsters believe that Paul’s swing-state travels might be working with voters.

In a state where President Obama’s approval rating is upside down, Iowa voters are also hesitant to back his vice president Joe Biden, who has intimated an openness to another presidential run.

If the election were held today, Biden would lose to Paul 44 to 39 percent. And he trails Rubio by a single point, within the poll’s 2.6 percent margin of error.

Obama won Iowa independents last year by 14 points, but Biden is losing at the moment to both Paul and Rubio among independent voters.

Biden’s Poll Lead Evaporates If Clinton Runs in 2016

May 022013

JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — A world without Hillary Clinton looks pretty good for Joe Biden.

Indeed, if the former secretary of state decides against running for president in 2016, a new Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday shows the vice president not only looks like a leading contender, he leaves other potential Democratic hopefuls in the dust.

More than three years from Election Day 2016, Biden commands the support of 45 percent of Democratic voters, the poll found. He’s 30 points ahead of his closest competitor, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who draws 15 percent support, followed by Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick at 6 percent, Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley at 3 percent and Virginia Sen. Mark Warner rounding out the group of five possible candidates with 2 percent.

In such a match-up, 26 percent of registered and leaning Democrats said they do not know for whom they would vote if the election were held today, according to the poll, which was conducted between April 25 and 29 and has a margin of error of 3.8 percentage points.

Regardless of whether Clinton is in the equation, “none of the other younger potential candidates for the Democratic nomination currently has anything approaching widespread support from party voters,” Quinnipiac pollster Peter A. Brown said.

Biden, 70, has remained relatively quiet about another presidential bid, which would be his third run for the White House if he chooses to run. In April, son Beau Biden, Delaware’s attorney general, said in an interview with The New York Times, “It’s no secret that he’s thinking about this,” but added, “he hasn’t made up his mind.”

Joe Biden heads to Columbia, S.C., this weekend where he will deliver remarks at the South Carolina Democratic Party’s annual Jefferson Jackson Dinner and attend Jim Clyburn’s World Famous Fish Fry, two opportunities for the vice president to test the waters in the early primary state.

But if Biden has designs on moving from the vice president’s residence to the White House in 2016, today’s poll suggests that Clinton poses a grave threat.

Put the former first lady and New York senator, 65, back into the presidential mix and, at this point, she blows the rest of the field out of the water, amassing the support of 65 percent of Democrats. Biden drops from the top of the heap to the low double digits — 13 percent — creating a Grand Canyon-like 52 percentage point gap between the two potential candidates.

In such a scenario, the rest of the field — Cuomo, 55, Patrick, 56, O’Malley, 50, and Warner, 58– are all languishing in the low single digits. At the same time, the percentage of Democratic voters who say they don’t know who they would support eases to 14 percent.

An earlier Quinnipiac poll taken in March showed Clinton’s beating three possible Republican contenders in head-to-head match ups: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Wisconsin congressman and former GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan.

Quinnipiac released Thursday’s poll on the same day that the Democratic group, Emily’s List, started a campaign to put a woman in the White House. Emily’s List is being careful not to make the effort a cheering session for Clinton, but its president, Stephanie Schriock, acknowledged the obvious in a CNN Op-Ed.

“There’s one name on all our minds: Hillary Clinton,” she wrote. “Voters across the country are excited about her possible run.”

Founder of Hillary Clinton SuperPAC: ‘No Doubt She’s Gonna Run’ in 2016

Feb 042013

ABC/Martin H. Simon(WASHINGTON) — Hillary Clinton had not even stepped down from her post as Secretary of State, when a superPAC supporting her run for president in 2016 was filed with the Federal Election Commission. The superPAC’s website launched over the weekend.

Allida Black is the chair and founder of the group, and says she is, as the superPAC is named, “Ready for Hillary.”

“I’ve been waiting for Hillary all my life. But I am more than ready this time,” says Black, who campaigned for Clinton in 14 states in 2008.

Clinton has not said whether she will throw her hat in the ring, telling ABC News in her last television interview as secretary of state that she is “flattered and honored” at the intense interest in whether she might run for president in 2016.

“I have no doubt she’s gonna run,” says Black. “She knows there’s this huge groundswell. She sees the challenges. She’s not gonna say no. Not because of her, but because of us.”

But there are a lot of other big résumé Democrats out there as potential 2016 candidates, like New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Vice President Joe Biden. Black says it is not their time.

“Hillary is the leader that the country needs. I mean she’s been president of the world really for the past four years,” says the George Washington University professor and historian. “She spent her whole life getting ready.”

SuperPACs played a big role in the 2012 election; Mitt Romney’s superPAC poured more than $80 million into his campaign. Some were as well funded as entire presidential campaigns.

Black did not have a specific goal for how much money “Ready for Hillary” will be able to raise, but expects a lot from supporters.

“We’re gonna need that gazillion dollars. And we will get that gazillion dollars,” she says. “We have the contacts, we have the skills, we have the passion, and we have the people on the ground to pull it off.”

Hillary Clinton Delivers Final Words as Secretary of State

Feb 012013

AAMIR QURESHI/AFP/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered her last official remarks as America’s top envoy on Thursday, although the public undoubtedly has not heard the last from her.

Speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations, Clinton stayed on message in describing how the nation must move forward amid an ever-changing and increasingly dangerous international landscape.

According to Clinton, “We need a new architecture for this new world…We have to be smart about how we use our power…because as the world has changed, so too have the levers of power that can most effectively shape international affairs.”

During her tenure, Clinton said she tried to employ various methods of widening America’s engagement in world affairs that included staying on top of advancements in technology, supporting human rights and assisting the development of U.S. partners.

Meanwhile, the outgoing secretary of state, who will be replaced Friday by Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, said that the only way the world can truly progress is by recognizing that women from all nations must never be regarded as second-class citizens.

She told the Council, “If women and girls everywhere were treated as equal to men in rights, dignity, and opportunity, we would see political and economic progress everywhere.”

Clinton has said her first goal upon retirement is to get some much-needed rest and then work on various projects. Speculation is that if her health is good, Clinton will seek the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination.

Obama, Hillary Clinton Go from Bitter Rivals to Bosom Buddies

Jan 282013

SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — In something of a parting gift, President Obama is making abundantly clear his deep support and fondness for outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is leaving wide open a possible presidential run in 2016.

Sitting together for their first joint interview, you could almost forget that they once politically bludgeoned each other in the 2008 Democratic primary.

“I’m going to miss her,” Obama told CBS News’ Steve Croft on 60 Minutes. “Wish she was sticking around.”

“A few years ago it would have been seen as improbable,” Clinton admitted, before explaining that she ultimately agreed to take the position as secretary of state “because we both love our country.”

“I’ll tell you what I finally thought. You know, if the roles had been reversed, and I had ended up winning, I would have desperately wanted him to be in my cabinet,” Clinton said.

Sitting casually next to each other, laughing and smiling, the president and Clinton praised one another effusively.

“I consider her a strong friend,” Obama said, while Clinton described their relationship as “warm” and “close.”

Obama said he proposed the joint interview because he wanted to publicly say “thank you” to Clinton for all of her hard work. For those eagerly looking for hints of Clinton’s future ambitions, however, the interview certainly felt like a political endorsement.

Clinton notably offered no outright denial when asked about her plans for 2016.

“Obviously the president and I care deeply about what’s going to happen for our country in the future and I don’t think either he or I can make predictions about what’s going to happen tomorrow or the next year,” she said.

“I am still secretary of state and forbidden from even hearing these questions,” Clinton joked when asked about her future.

The president brushed off the question.

“You guys are incorrigible,” he told Croft of the press. “I was inaugurated four days ago and you’re talking about elections four years from now.”

Clinton declared herself in good health, following her concussion last December that led to a blood clot.

“I still have some lingering effects from falling on my head and having the blood clot,” she said, still wearing her glasses. “But the doctors tell me that will all recede. And so, thankfully, I’m looking forward to being at full speed.”

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