In his new role as the unofficial conduit for leaks and trial balloons from Hillaryland, Politico‘s Mike Allen allows as how HRC is “strongly considering” a delay in her formal announcement for the presidency from April til July. Why? Well, basically because she can.
A Democrat familiar with Clinton’s thinking said: “She doesn’t feel under any pressure, and they see no primary challenge on the horizon. If you have the luxury of time, you take it.”
Advisers said the biggest reason for the delay is simple: She feels no rush.
This would suggest that she isn’t all that impressed with Martin O’Malley’s dues-paying in Iowa or Bernie Sanders’ forays into his neighboring state of New Hampshire, or the distant rumble of a Jim Webb campaign if he can descend to the task of raising money. You can make a pretty good case that a late start really hurt her in Iowa in 2008 (though there’s no way she could have avoided starting behind John Edwards, who just kept his 2004 organization in place). I don’t think there’s much risk of people forgetting about her or thinking she’s not running. And short of a formal announcement, she can make all sorts of gestures to make her “availability,” to use that wonderful archaic term, very clear.
So the question is: does anybody really care when Hillary Clinton announces she will run? Mike Allen does, and he’ll continue to focus his snail’s-eye view on such dubious matters as the precise day and hour.
