Hillary Clinton 2016 Speculation Continues To Build

If Hillary Clinton is running for president in 2016, this week may be seen in retrospect as a major turning point.

Talk has been slowly been building that Clinton is planning to parlay her experience as a New York Senator and President Obama’s Secretary of State to try a run for the Democratic nomination in 2016. But so far it has mostly been in whispers, with little in the way of actual movement toward a 2016 run.

That seems to have changed. Democratic strategist James Carville offered to lend the support of his super PAC to get Hillary Clinton to run for president in 2016. Carville has been a longtime Clinton supporter and was an adviser to her bid in 2008.

Carville plans to use the the Ready for Hillary PAC to build more momentum for a Hillary Clinton run.

In an email to supporters, Carville wrote:

“I’m not going to waste my time writing you about how great Hillary is or how formidable she’d be – you know it all already. But it isn’t worth squat to have the fastest car at the racetrack if there ain’t any gas in the tank — and that’s why the work that Ready for Hillary PAC is doing is absolutely critical. We need to convert the hunger that’s out there for Hillary’s candidacy into a real grassroots organization.”

Though Hillary Clinton still has far to go before anything becomes official — and the process is still nearly three years from the beginning of primaries — it is clear that Hillary is putting the pieces together for a run.

Huffington Post political writer Jason Linkins notes:

“And it looks like that time is nigh. Clinton is starting to deliver public orations again, as consultants start to eye the chessboard and grassroots activists start to gin up support and raise ducats for a campaign-in-waiting. There’s no doubt that we’re still several steps short of a critical mass — let alone an announcement from the former secretary of state and presidential aspirant herself. But whatever dam had been previously holding back the flood has started to show some signs of cracking, and the discussion has begun anew.”

If Hillary Clinton does run for president in 2016, she would likely enter the race as a frontrunner. A poll from Quinnipiac University released in March shows that she would have a wide lead in hypothetical matchups with top Republicans.