Now, Hillary Clinton and Rick Perry join ranks of those not running for president. Really, they mean it

One of the perennially fun things about following American politics is tracking the people who say they are not running for president.

The fact is, somewhere around 310,767,362 Americans will not be running for president in 2012. Most of them will not bother making a formal announcement of what they are not going to do.

Those who do run for president will make a formal announcement -- perhaps several to maximize free media coverage -- long after everyone already has figured out they are running. And for the Republican wannabes, those announcements will likely come next springtime when the new year's political momentum can be gauged.

What's intriguing now is those people who announce they are not running, often without prodding. Howard Dean, the notorious Iowa imploder, did that here recently, as The Ticket reported.

Think of it this way: If one Saturday noon out of the blue your teenager announced....

....he was not going to the mall, where is the first place you'd look for him later if necessary? For some reason, recently Secretary of State Hillary Clinton chose Australia as the place to say she was not running again. Flashback to her statements that she was not dropping out of the 2008 Democratic presidential primary process repeated right up to her actually dropout.

No one believes Clinton and President Obama are more than sincere co-workers. So, if the current White House occupant's job approval continues to crater -- it's now down to 39%, according to our report here earlier today, and a trio of GOP possibles could beat him -- whom might Democratic bigwigs turn to as a 2012 savior?

So, Fox News Sunday's Chris Wallace pursued the following line of questioning:

WALLACE: You made some news recently in Australia when you ruled out running again for office in 2012 and 2016. Why?

CLINTON: Well, first of all, I love what I'm doing. I can't tell you what it's like, Chris, to every day get to represent the United States, and it's why I feel so strongly about every issue from, you know, START to Afghanistan.

WALLACE: But are you -- are you categorically saying that you are done with political office...

CLINTON: I -- I have said...

WALLACE: ... elected office?

CLINTON: I have said it over and over again, and I'm happy to say it on your show as well. I am committed to doing what I can to advance the security, the interests and the values of the United States of America.

I believe that what I'm doing right now is in furtherance of that, and I'm very proud and grateful to be doing it.

WALLACE: So you're done with elective office?

CLINTON: I am. I am very happy doing what I'm doing, and I am not in any way interested in or pursuing anything in elective office.

History suggests over time such statements can become malleable. Usually ,they say something like, "I have no plans to run for president." No one has any plans to run until they actually do. Clinton seemed to leave the door open until that last "I am."

Freudian slip aside, Texas Gov. Rick Perry seemed equally firm later on the same program:

WALLACE: All right. You brought up running for the presidency. You have repeatedly said that you are not going to run for president. Why not, sir?

PERRY: I think being the president -- or, excuse me, being the governor of a state like Texas or, for that matter, Oklahoma or New Mexico is a more pivotal job in the future. I do indeed hope there's someone that says, "I'm going to go to Washington, try to get back to our constitutional roots, devolve this centralization of government back to the states." So why would you want to be up there if the action is down here in the states?

WALLACE: And just one last question along those lines, and we're running out of time. When you took the job as head of the Republican Governors Assn., did you have to make a commitment that you would not run for president?

PERRY: Oh, I've made that commitment every time I've been asked, and that commitment still stands. I don't want to be the president of the United States. I do want to work with these governors across the country to make the states more pivotal, more powerful, as they should be.

So, Perry is out of the GOP running until someday when perhaps he isn't out of the running. One other key indicator of future political aspirations: publishing a book. Sarah Palin's second book is coming out. Mitt Romney's is out. So is Newt Gingrich's, albeit a novel.

And, oh look! Perry has a book out too, which could be a "tea party" chant: "Fed Up!" But he's not running, of course.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photos, from top: Clinton and Obama in 2008. Credit: CNN. Clinton and Obama at NATO meetings in Lisbon, Portugal, on Nov. 19, 2010. Credit: Dominique Faget / AFP/Getty Images.

Comments

[Richard]

You, sir, are lying.

Howard Dean's announcement that he will not run for president in 2012 was in response to numerous reports suggesting he might run. Yet you claim his announcement was "without prodding." You know this because the article you link to makes this thoroughly clear.

You, sir, are being disingenuous.

Your assertion that Secretary of State Clinton "for some reason" announced she will not run in 2012 is disingenuous. She was asked a question; she answered it. Since it was reported in the newspaper that employs you, is it unreasonable to expect you would know this?

When did BigGovernment.com become a model for the Los Angeles Times?

[Hey Richard]

Look up the word satire in the dictionary.After you have done that,meditate
about how most voters outside California feel that the biggest liar in the
country is someone living in the most valued piece of realestate in washington,
on Pensylvania avenue.Why were so many congressman given their walking
papers ?Who is disingenuous Richard ?Ralph Nader in 2012 ?Nader has more
staying power than Dr. dean.

[computer jobs]

Never say never... There are years before next election.

[GordonSantaMonica]

No is yes and yes is no. And the Merry-G0-Round just keeps on moving.
A political situation will arise where for some reason or another Joe Biden will want a change, and then Hillary Clinton will perform the Clinton dance of change for the Good of the Party. The BHO/HRC ticket will thus be formed and History will again be made.
***************gaptidbits@yahoo.com***********************