Rendell on 2016: ‘Well, why not?’

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) says that if former secretary of State Hillary Clinton doesn’t run for president, he’d consider a 2016 White House bid.

Rendell, a prominent Clinton supporter, said the remaining Democratic field would make him rethink his political future, in an interview for Philadelphia magazine.

{mosads}”If Hillary announced tomorrow she wasn’t running, I look at the remaining Democratic field and I say, jeez, I never thought I was presidential timber. I just never did,” Rendell said. 

“It’s not that I’m modest, but I always thought the president has to be A-plus. But when I look at the people who’ve run for president who are my contemporaries, I say to myself, well, why not?”

Rendell cited the grueling campaign season as one reason he wouldn’t run.

“I don’t want to spend two of my remaining years in Iowa and New Hampshire, no offense to the Granite State or the Hawkeye State,” he said.

“Hillary has the same thought process. I think she’s gonna do it, but I’m not 100 percent certain,” Rendell added.

Rendell said that he thinks 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney would be the most competitive Republican presidential candidate in two years.

“I don’t think [former Florida GOP Gov. Jeb Bush] is going to run, and I don’t know that Jeb would do all that well in the Republican primaries,” Rendell said. “I actually think if Romney runs again and says, ‘I told you so.’ … Romney would still be a dangerous candidate in a general election.

“More dangerous than [Sens.] Rand Paul [R-Ky.] or Ted Cruz [R-Texas] or even Marco Rubio [R-Fla.].”

While Rendell is not likely to run for president, Pennsylvania political watchers wonder if he’d consider running for mayor of Philadelphia again, a post he held before the governorship.

“There’s only one thing that’s stopping me from running for mayor again: common sense,” Rendell said.

“A lot of people come up and ask me, and I’ve given it some thought,” he said. “I don’t think I could do it as well as I did it before.”