This is a personal plea from me to both rabid Democrats and staunch Republicans: Please stop talking about Hillary Clinton's potential 2016 run for president.
People keep hypothesizing and glancing into their crystal balls to see what will come, but the truth is that people just don't know what they're talking about.
News outlets all across the spectrum — MSNBC, Politico, The Week and Newsbusters, to name only a few — claim to have her answer. Renowned for its rabidity, the news media just doesn't have the ability to read Clinton's mind. If they could, we would all be in a pot full of trouble. In fact, this isn't even about reading her mind when she has said flat-out she doesn't want to run.
I would be supportive of her candidacy, of course, but when people ask me repeatedly, "Do you think she'll run?" I just shake my head and list a few other Democrats who might run. The party hasn't culled anyone over the last eight years and might have a hard time bringing up new talent.
However, it's important to remember that President Barack Obama was a state senator from Illinois only eight years before he was elected. The game was wide open in 2008 and will be again in 2016.
Speaking of Obama, wasn't he just re-elected? Didn't we just get off the roller coaster that is a national presidential campaign?
I, for one, am tired of keeping up with a constant campaign and would rather see our media reporting on what our Congress is (or isn't) doing. Let's see some real policy before we just yet again jump into promises of policy that comes with a campaign.
Also, Clinton needs time to rest from this constant attitude. She's been in public life for most of the last 20 years and should be given the respect she deserves in her personal life. Her daughter, Chelsea, feels the same way and "wants her to rest."
Honestly, we should respect her spoken wishes not to run, and she should take a harder line against the media with statements that she won't run.
The suspense, however, still kills me. As much as I like to roll my eyes when people ask me about her future career, I am intrigued by the possibility of her run.
She's an objectively amazing woman with so many great accomplishments to her name and under her belt(ed pantsuits).
Let's leave some mystery for summer of 2015 when we actually have to start worrying about this stuff. Once and for all, we should just sit back, read her new book on the State Department and let Hillary be Hillary.
Reach the columnist at peter.northfelt@asu.edu or follow him at @peternorthfelt
