Political Consultant Carville Pushes Hillary Clinton for President

Democratic strategist James Carville has thrown his weight behind a new super-PAC that is promoting a Hillary Rodham Clinton presidential run in 2016.

The Ready for Hillary PAC has no formal connection to the former first lady and secretary of state, who hasn’t ruled out another presidential try but has yet to announce a plan to do so. But Carville’s involvement takes the group’s fledgling efforts up at least a notch by adding what appears to be a semi-official imprimatur by a well-known Clinton ally.

“The enthusiasm and hunger for a Hillary Clinton presidency is unlike anything I’ve ever seen,” Carville, a political consultant instrumental in Bill Clinton’s rise to the White House, writes in an email distributed Thursday by the PAC.

The purpose behind his pitch, according to Carville, is to create the grassroots infrastructure for her potential campaign. In the email, he draws an explicit link between the pro-Hillary PAC’s efforts and the online organizing that became a hallmark of Barack Obama’s political success.

Carville argues in his missive that Democrats are more united behind a 2016 Clinton candidacy than they have been for any presidential contender in his lifetime. Recent polling, while early for a campaign that is years away, bears out his claim. It shows Clinton with a larger lead over other potential nomination contenders than any non-incumbent Democratic candidate in the modern era.

It “isn’t worth squat to have the fastest car at the racetrack if there ain’t any gas in the tank,” says Carville. “We need to convert the hunger that’s out there for Hillary’s candidacy into a real grassroots organization.”

This article appeared in print on page 3 of the April 5th, 2013 edition of Hamodia.