Dear Commons Community,

While it is still much too early to be thinking about the 2016 presidential election, the media are moving forward with the speculation that Hillary Clinton will likely be the Democratic nominee.    A Siena College poll of New Yorkers out today has Hillary Clinton favored over Andrew Cuomo.  A large majority of New York voters say they are prepared to re-elect him for Governor, according to a new poll released Wednesday by Siena College but are far less enthusiastic about the idea of Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, seeking national office.

“Only 39 percent said they would like to see him run for president in 2016, compared with 54 percent who said Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton should mount another White House bid, the poll found.

Among Democratic voters, the gap between Mr. Cuomo and Mrs. Clinton, who formerly represented New York in the United States Senate, was even wider. Sixty-nine percent said they wanted Mrs. Clinton to seek the presidency in four years, while 43 percent supported a bid by Mr. Cuomo.

“New York Democrats overwhelmingly want to see Hillary Clinton run,” said Steven A. Greenberg, a Siena pollster. “If Hillary were to announce that she was not running for president, my guess is that would impact the answer to the question of whether Cuomo should run or not.”

Maureen Dowd in her New York Times column also speculates that Hillary is already planning and measuring what she says and does in preparation for a White House run.

“Far from being depleted and ready for a spa, she’s energetically rounding up the usual suspects. She “took steps to solidify her relationships with some Democrats by sending hand-signed notes to candidates who got bested in close Congressional races,” offering them encouragement and succor, The New York Observer’s politics blog reports. That provided a marked contrast to Obama, who did not bother to rally Democrats in his acceptance speech.

Secretary Clinton also reached out for the first time to reunite her Irish-American fund-raisers and top supporters. IrishCentral.com reports that Kris Balderston, a Hillary aide at State, sent invitations to several prominent Irish Democrats who raised millions for her Senate and presidential runs to accompany the top diplomat to events in Dublin and Belfast this week. Though other possible 2016 contenders, like Joe Biden, Andrew Cuomo and Gov. Martin O’Malley of Maryland, have Irish connections, Hillary is the cushla, or darling.”

Cushla or not, I think Hillary will run and I don’t see a Democrat on the horizon who is going to best her for the nomination but there is still a lot of time left between now and 2016.

Tony