Hillary Clinton isn’t ready to reveal if she’ll be running for president in 2016. The former US secretary of state, who has remained a global fixture since she left her position earlier this year, sat down with television journalist Barbara Walters yesterday, who named her as the most fascinating person of 2013.
Responding to the speculation that has followed Clinton since she lost her bid to the White House against President Obama in 2008, she told Walters that she still hasn’t made up her mind about whether she will run in 2016. She did say to expect an announcement one way or another next year.
It’s such a difficult decision,” Clinton told Walters during the interview, “and it’s one that I’m not going to rush into.”
“Obviously, I will look carefully at what I think I can do and make that decision sometime next year.”
What Clinton is certain about though, is that it’s time for a female president, emphasising the importance of having female political leadership in the US.
“I do think it’s important. I don’t know the exact timing of it or who that might be, but my friend Michelle Bachelet was just reelected president in Chile, Dilma Rousseff, who I admire greatly, is president of Brazil, Angela Merkel is probably the most important leader in Europe if not beyond” Clinton said.
“It matters. It matters because we have half the population that has given so much to building this country, to making it work, raising children and, of course, I want to see women eventually in the White House.”
“If you look at my friends and former colleagues, who are now in the Senate, it was the women senators, on both sides of the aisle, who finally broke the fever over the government shutdown and the debt limit. … They have been working across party lines, and we need more of that.”
Walters unveils her 10 Most Fascinating People of the Year annually and this is the third time Clinton had been selected as the Most Fascinating Person of the Year. She earned the title in 1993 as then-first lady when Walters first began her annual ABC special, and later in 2003.
Runners up on Walter’s list this year include Edward Snowden, the Royal baby, Miley Cyrus, “Kimye” (Kim Kardashian and Kanye West) and Jennifer Lawrence.