Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has given the broadest hint yet that she is a likely 2016 candidate for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination.
Clinton spoke Sunday afternoon at Senator Tom Harkin’s 37th and final “Steak Fry” fundraiser. She hadn’t set foot in the state since the night in 2008 when she finished third in Iowa’s Caucuses. News of her visit sparked a firestorm of speculation about her intentions for 2016, and Clinton sent them soaring soon after she started speaking Sunday.
Although she never defined what “it” meant, her comment was interpreted by the crowd as a declaration and they roared in response. Harkin, in his introduction of Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, reworked the “comeback kid” title Bill Clinton earned during his 1992 campaign, calling Bill AND Hillary the “comeback couple.”
Harkin delivered a speech that was a sort of retrospective of his political career, his voice sometimes cracking with emotion as he started with his first unsuccessful campaign for congress back in 1974 and his decision in 2013 not to seek reelection.
But, Harkin — who is 74 years old — said there “comes a time to gracefully bow out” and let new leaders step forward and that’s why he decided not to seek reelection this year.
