Okay – now that the parties have officially nominated their presidential candidates, Obama and Romney are fishwrap.
On to the next round!
From Thursday’s Politico (Burns & Haberman blog):
Gillibrand, at Iowa breakfast, says she’s all for Hillary 2016
At the Iowa delegation breakfast this morning — which, as Jonathan Martin and I write on the homepage today, has been the epicenter of 2016 activity this week — New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said she is firmly in Hillary Clinton’s corner if the secretary of state decides to run.
“I am going to be the chairperson of Hillary Clinton 2016,” she told reporters after speaking to delegates when asked about her own presidential ambitions. “I’m hoping that Secretary Clinton runs. I really want to support her candidacy; I think she’d make a great president.”
Iowa! 2016! Hillary!
Yikes!
Also from Thursday’s Politico (also Burns & Haberman blog):
Schumer promotes Hillary 2016 in Charlotte
Via the HuffPo, Sen. Chuck Schumer, who earlier in the day repeatedly declined to speculate about 2016 in the context of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who made his sole public appearance in Charlotte this morning, was full-throated about the race four years from now in the context of Hillary Clinton:
“If she decided she wants it she can win it by acclimation,” Sen Charles Schumer of New York told The Huffington Post. “Of course I’m a Hillary fan. I was the last one to abandon ship in 2008.
“I want her to do it, and she’d win it if she did.”
North Carolina! 2016! Hillary!
Yikes!
So the New York Senatorial Cabal has weighed in (which is the political equivalent of calling five rails! in pool – read the full Burns & Haberman posts for details).
How about the New York Times?
From yesterday’s edition:
Looking Past November for a Preview of 2016
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Whether President Obama wins or loses in November, one thing is certain for Democrats on the morning after Election Day: the 2016 auditions begin.
Democrats gathering here for their national convention were given an early glimpse of some of the party’s ambitious prospects who have already started planting seeds for a potential presidential bid. It is far too early for a shortlist of prospective candidates, but nearly a dozen mayors, governors and members of Congress did little to hide their aspirations.
The Times piece then calls the roll, from Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles to Gov. Martin O’Malley of Maryland to Vice President Joe Biden and beyond (although what’s beyond Biden is beyond the hardwondering staff).
As Russell Baker might (not) have said, the Great Mentioner is in the house.
Campaign Outsider 
Clinton fatique, albeit popularity, is sure to be a factor in 2016, much like the drama queen who won’t leave the stage. Clinton was at the height of her game in 2008 when she was so rudely pushed out of the primaries by Obama delegates. Americans may have missed their best chance to have a female President in that regard. But regrets never make a President win because it ignores the many others who would also make a fine President, and nostalgia is not a political attribute in the final ballot. Unlike the preponderance of non-white voters, women are unable to dictate the next President by votes despite being one half of the population. What they bring is enthusiasm may be written off by political analysts as emotional arbitrage insufficient to produce a winner.
While many women may be sending regrets only for Clinton, there are enough of them which kept her off of the ballot in 2008, not because of competency, but because of inspired diversity. President Obama never had in 2008 the competence of Clinton, and that is why she was appointed to his cabinet as Secretary of State. However well she has done her job, the brief Senate run, and the Cabinet job is not sufficient to place her over the top in comparison to a Senator like Shumer (if Senators can still run and win), or a Governor with executive experience. That does not discount Clinton in popularity or competence, but recognizes the propensity of Presidential elections to be unduly influenced by outside forces, insider deals, and campaign cash. These cannot be ignored as they are present and well accounted for in every election except by the FEC. Citizens United has simply made them more persuasive and coercive.
Chuck Shumer, as a Democratic Senator may be the candidate most able to represent Democratic interests in the 2016 election that can bridge the gap with California and Florida simply because of his Jewish heritage, and his willingness not to impress it upon the nation as his most political attribute. Instead, he has forged his own path while not forgetting that heritage and though he may be out of seniority sequence (as Hillary is, and was), his profile and record may well be the most underrated of Democratic strengths, at first overshadowed by his newness in 1998, and secondly, by Senator Kennedy, and thirdly, by his innate modesty though he is bold enough to be a publicity hound. Publicity hounds come in all forms; those with substance are rare, and those with moral authority rarer indeed.
Certainly, if the nation can entertain a Utah Mormon, it can entertain a New York Jew as President, and that may be where it needs to go in lieu of the failed female campaign of 2008 with Hillary..